Herne Hill Harriers round-up: Female athletes claim county medals at Surrey Masters Cross Country Championship
The female athletes from Herne Hill Harriers continued their strong start to the road and cross country season as they claimed a decent number of county medals on Saturday at the Surrey Masters Cross Championship in Nonsuch Park, writes Geoff Jerwood.
In unseasonably warm weather, a gold medal was won by Gaby Reynolds as first W40 and indeed the first female to finish.
Karen Ellison was second W35 and Suzanne Swaine was third W40 for individual silver and bronze respectively. These three ladies combined to win the team gold medals in the W35-44 category.
Nikki Sturzaker added to the individual tally as second W45 and she led a Harriers trio to bronze in the W45-54 team age group. The other team scorers were Patrizia Gnoato (sixth W50) and Mary Setyabule (eighth W50).
On the men’s side Ben Paviour claimed the M45 gold medal only 10 days before his 50th birthday when he moves into an older age group. Ben Millar was fifth M45 but their M40-49 team was incomplete.
Herne Hill did have full teams in the older men’s age categories and won bronze in the M60-69s. Mike Boyle was fourth M60, Tom Conlon the sixth M60 and Victor Maughn, ninth M60, were the three medalists.
The M50-59 squad of Mohamed Haile (fifth M50), Jonathan Ratcliffe (fifth M55) and Trevor Chilton (12th M50) placed fifth team.
Other female finishers from Herne Hill were Alexandra Fedina (ninth W50), Samantha Whiting (17th W40), Jess Winfield (fifth W35), Alexandra Marginean (sixth W35), Penelope Cummings (17th W45), Sarah Allen (11th W55) and Flora Di Carlo (13th W55).
Harrier’s remaining male finishers were Rob Nagorski (12th M55), Richard Stansfield (20th M55), Tony Harran (17th M60), Ian Strong (29th M60) and Nigel Goodwin (15th M65).
In road racing action there was a fine women’s race win on Saturday for Sophie Pikett on Saturday evening.
Racing at the prestigious Podium 5km in Barrowford, Lancashire, Pikett clocked 16:30 for the win, only a few seconds outside her PB.
Her move to Newcastle following her recent wedding is seeing a return to her best racing form with two race wins and a PBs so far.
Everyone at the South London Press thanks you for your continued support.
Former Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has encouraged everyone in the country who can afford to do so to buy a newspaper, and told the Downing Street press briefing:
“A FREE COUNTRY NEEDS A FREE PRESS, AND THE NEWSPAPERS OF OUR COUNTRY ARE UNDER SIGNIFICANT FINANCIAL PRESSURE”
If you can afford to do so, we would be so grateful if you can make a donation which will allow us to continue to bring stories to you, both in print and online. Or please make cheques payable to “MSI Media Limited” and send by post to South London Press, Unit 112, 160 Bromley Road, Catford, London SE6 2NZ
