Herne Hill Harriers round-up: Charlotte Alexander lands top U17 women’s spot at British Athletic Cross Challenge
Charlotte Alexander was the first U17 woman home in the British Athletics Cross Challenge – incorporating the European Trials – at Sefton Park, Liverpool on Saturday.
It was the biggest national cross country event of the season so far.
Alexander went into the race as the leading U17 woman and placed eighth overall in a race which combined the best U20s and U17s in the UK.
Training partner and club-mate Yasmin Marghini was 10th U17 woman and 31st overall in the combined race.
The Herne Hill presence in the race was strengthened by U20s Alex Brown and Ella Newton who were both in the top 50 in their age category. Brown placed 48th and Newton was one spot behind.
Also on Saturday was the South of Thames F Mile Cross-Country Championship race at Morden Park, Surrey.
The Herne Hill men’s team were led home by top-10 finisher Mike Cummings, whose time of 27:11 gave him ninth position.
Cummings was followed by a tightly bunched group of team mates consisting of Andrew Clarke 27:32 (16th), Lewis Laylee 27:39 (17th) and Andrew Warburton 28:07 (19th) .
These four closed the ‘A’ team, which narrowly missed out on bronze medals as they placed fourth.
The B team was led home by Angus Butler 29:50 in 41st, followed in by Jack Dickenson 30:28 (51st), Gaven Newsum (M40) 31:07 (68th) and John Appleton 31:17 (73rd).
The C team comprised Jonathan Ratcliffe (M50) 32:26 (87th), Eriç Dol 32:38 (91st)t, Duncan Rimmer (M40) 36:55 (145th) and Valdis Pauzers (M60) 37:30 (150th). An incomplete D team was Ian Strong (M55) 46:59 (178th) and John Garber (M75) 48:30 (181st).
The Herne Hill women’s team of Nikki Sturzaker (W45) 34:20 (11th), Zoe Buckland 39:03 (46th), Jessica Winfield (W35) 39:25 (51st) and Sarah Allen (W55) 45:02 (71st) finished ninth of 12 teams.