Herne Hill Harriers round-up: Grgec leads way at Podium Home Nations 5km
Herne Hill Harriers’ New Zealand cross country international Georgie Grgec enjoyed an emphatic victory margin of 13 seconds when racing for an Adidas team at the Podium Home Nations 5km road race in Bute Park, Cardiff in a road PB of 15:34.
Her friend and club-mate Katie Snowden’s Surrey County 5km road record of 15:23 remains intact but this was a statement win for the Kiwi star in the biggest domestic road race in the month of August on Saturday evening.
After biding her time in the first 2km in windy weather, the 30-year-old simply ran away from a top-quality field and was clearly delighted to run through the tape. Australian Harrier Brandon Dewar also joined the PB party with a clocking of 14:33 racing among the men.
At the World Masters Track and Field Championship in Gothenburg last Tuesday, Allan Long claimed a second global M80 silver medal in the space of a week in the 200m final, clocking 32.73. This follows the previous week’s second place in the 100m and marks yet another successful big meet for one of Harriers’ elder statesmen. Earlier in the day Long had won his heat in 32.70.
On Thursday M50 Simon Coombes qualified for his 1,500m final placing third in his heat with 4:20.55. He then went on to finish eighth on Saturday in 4:18.48, a little over a second outside his season’s best.
In Birmingham on Sunday at the National Relay Championships the Herne Hill U15 girls team brought home silver medals in the 4x100m.
They won their heat as fastest qualifiers in 49.59 and then went on to finish second in the final with 49.69. The U20 men were second in their heat and then came sixth in their final in 43.38.
On a wet Saturday morning in the undulating Lee Valley Velopark Rowen Hughes was another 5km female race winner at the RunThrough road races. Hughes finished third overall in 18:22, just two seconds outside the women’s course record after weaving around tail enders of the 10km and half marathon races that were sent off ahead of her 5km race.
During the week the Watford BMC Gold Standard meet last Wednesday attracted a number of international athletes and stronger fields than those seen at these meets all season. In the women’s A 800m Snowden was edged into third in a very tight finish between the first three in 2:01.10. She was pipped on the line for second place by USA steeplechaser Gabby Jennings with the race won by the Australian record holder Catriona Bisset, who had raced at the recent Paris Olympic Games.
The four U15 relay girls are Pyale Wifa, Nahla Berry, Princess Okuma and Olivia Stockwell-Green.
Half an hour later Snowden was back on the track as pacemaker for the first couple of laps of the women’s 1,500m, helping race winner Taryn Rawlings from the USA to a sub 4:10 season’s best clocking.
There were two Herne Hill women in this high-quality race with Sophie Tooley placing 16th in 4:33.63 and Lucy Jones 17th in 4:34.56, both gaining valuable experience of this level of competition.
MAIN PICTURE: GRAHAM SMITH