Herne Hill Harriers’ round-up: Caspian Holmes breaks two club U15 records in one race
The Hercules Wimbledon-hosted Dave Clarke Mile Extravaganza on Wednesday evening produced two new Herne Hill Harriers club U15 boys’ records from the same athlete in the same race.
Race 12 of the 14 excellent races on the programme saw an exceptional run in ninth place by James McDonald-coached Caspian Holmes (both pictured). His one-mile time was a PB of 4:28.68, while en route official electronic split times were recorded at 1,500m, at which point he clocked 4:08.57. These times are club U15B records.
Another club U15 record fell at the London Diamond League meeting in the Olympic Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Before the main senior international events began there were the Club Connect sprint relays for young athletes, providing them with the experience of racing on the fast track in the huge stadium.
This time it was an U15 girls’ club 4x100m relay record as the quartet recorded time of 48.47 in placing fourth in their race. In a later race the U17 men finished third in 43.18.
At the England Athletics Championships in Birmingham over the weekend top sprinter Kristal Ama-Awuah brought home two national silver medals. On Saturday she placed second in the women’s 100m in 11.82 after winning her heat in 12.14.
Then the next day she was again on the podium to collect another silver in the 200m where she ran 23.97 after having also finished second in her heat in 23.84.
The young athletes in the National Youth Development League Lower team for U13s and U15s won their final match of the season at Dartford on Sunday by 50 points. This completes a clean sweep of wins and ensures they comfortably claimed their divisional title. They will now go into a paper match involving all the divisional winners to decide which two clubs get promoted.
Back to the Wimbledon Mile races, M60 Graeme Moyse ran a mile in 5:23.09, with a 1,500m split en route of 5:01.53. Henry Stanley was the winner of race seven with a PB mile in 4:42.70 and 1,500m in 4:24.69. Eric Dol’s mile was 4:53.09 and 1,500m 4:34.72.
Ross Brown clocked a PB mile of 4:44.39, his 1,500m en route being 4:26.91. John Brierly won race nine with a PB mile of 4:32.26, his 1,500m was 4:13.99. David Moyse then won the next race with a mile PB of 4:31.58 and a 1,500m in 4:13.61.
The U20 men from the club were impressive in among the seniors. From this age group Charlie Wood ran a PB mile in 4:41.27 and 1,500m in 4:22.95, Fabien Whitelock a PB mile 4:25.19 and 1,500m in 4:08.54 and Harry Bell a PB mile 4:16.83 and 1,500m in 4:00.70.
Lewis Laylee split the U20 party just behind Bell with a mile in 4:16.94, 1,500m 4:00.92, then came another U20 Sam Moloney with a PB mile of 4:21.11 and 1,500m in 4:02.91. Just behind him was Tom Patterson whose mile time was 4:29.23 and 1,500m 4:10.68.
On the same Wednesday evening another group from the club raced at the BMC Regional meeting in Eltham. In the 800m Sophie Tooley ran a season’s best of 2:12.02, while in the 1,500m Poppy Craig McFeely clocked 4:37.09 and Ella Newton 4:53.63, both also season’s best times.
The last race of the evening, the open 5,000m saw a clear win and a season’s best for Andrew Warburton in 15:25.01, with M40 Jeff Cunningham finishing strongly in third place, also with a season’s best 15:43.19.