Herne Hill Harriers round-up: Georgie Grgec wins Leeds Abbey Dash 10km

For the second successive weekend Herne Hill Harriers World Cross Country Championships athlete Georgie Grgec produced a road racing performance of the highest quality as her reputation as one of the best competitors on the domestic scene continues to grow, writes Geoff Jerwood.

Grgec took the win in the elite women’s race at the Leeds Abbey Dash 10km with a PB of 31:36, an improvement of 39 seconds, as she finished 16 seconds ahead of a Commonwealth Games athlete who broke the Northern Ireland women’s record second place, while in third place was an Olympic 800m finalist who was seventh in the Tokyo Games.

The 30-year-old Kiwi – based in South London since 2017 – was aiming to run under 32 minutes. She did much more than this as her winning time fell only a few seconds shy of a long-standing New Zealand women’s road 10km record.

There was also a good number of top males as well as all females in her wake. The latter included her club mate Andrew Warburton, who wasn’t quite able to replicate his good recent form as he clocked 32:15.

Harriers athletes were prominent across all the age groups in the opening Surrey League Division 1 cross country fixture of the season at Wimbledon Common.

There was a win for the U13 boys, well backed up with second placings for the senior women and the combined U15/U17 boys team, third for the U17 women, fifth for the U13 girls, seventh for the senior men and ninth for the U15 girls.

The winning U13 boys team saw good runs from Henry Kucerov in fourth, Josiah Aldham fifth, Anton Thomas 12th and Benjamin Thomas 16th.

The U15-U17 boys placed second with a scoring team comprised entirely of U15s and would have won this age group if it was scored as a separate team race. They were led by Caspian Holmes and Tommy Clerkin fifth and sixth in the race but the first two U15s to finish. Leau Roch was 14th overall, but ensured a U15 top three, and the team was closed by another U15 Zachary Morris in 19th.

The women’s A and B teams were second in their categories behind a very strong turnout from host club Belgrave Harriers.

Lucy Jones followed up her winning anchor leg at the National Road Relays a week earlier by placing fourth at Wimbledon. Sophie Tooley returned to form in 13th, with another from the national-winning relay team Darcie Hey 16th, then Grace Leyland 19th and Jenny Nandi 20th.

The B team was Sarah Grover 36th, Helena Keenan 42nd, Charlotte Davies 66th, Madelaine Parmar 84th and Shannon Sinclair 93rd of the 253 women who finished.

The U17 women’s third place came courtesy of Maeve Minielly fourth, Orla Carroll 12th and Martha Brennan 20th. The U13 girls of Marnie Millar eighth, Cataleya Holmes 20th, Aneke Walker 33rd and Eva Burke 38th combined to finish fifth team, while the U15 girls were ninth with Sofia Mendes 17th, Clementine Cole 23rd, Jojo Soley 37th and Ava Duggan 49th.

The senior menwere up against it in one of the strongest leagues in the country, with a number of the faster squad members unavailable due to either racing elsewhere or other commitments. An overall turnout of 32 men and also 21 women was testament to the depth now evident in the squads on such a day.

The men’s A team finished seventh of the 10 in Division One, with the B team fourth among the B teams. The A team saw team captain Daniel Shaw as first man in 35th, the rest being U20 Fabien Whitelock 58th, Andrew Clarke 60th, Tom O’Mahoney 77th, Ashley Goncalves 78th, John Franklin 84th, Jeff Cunningham 85th, Joe Elliott 86th, Sam Brashaw 97th and U20 Mori Alimi 101st in a field of 317 finishers.

At the Manchester Half Marathon Ollie Mills (PB of 68:50) and Gaby Reynolds (77:55) were 17th and eighth overall. Reynolds secured first place in the W40 category.

In the Oxford Half Marathon Oli Walker was 16th in a PB 71:23 and John Cousins was 64th with 77:56. In the Royal Parks Half Marathon Hannah Edwards met her target of running sub 90 minutes with 89:46, which saw her 43rd of over 8,000 females.

Four Harriers went to the Chicago Marathon. Alex Gutteridge clocked 2:50.10, Ronan Tanguy 2:50.11, Fintan Kearney 2:50:14 and Stephen McLeod 2:50.56.

Some others racing abroad went to Bucharest. Eric Dol clocked 2:44 and M55 Jonathan Ratcliffe 3:10. James Ward ran the half marathon at the same event in 96:50.

PICTURE: GRAHAM SMITH