Herne Hill Harriers round-up: Jones celebrates England selection with huge win at West Horsley Place

For the second successive Saturday the cross-country events featured an eclectic mix of frozen ground, mud, and puddles as this weekend it was the turn of the Surrey Cross-Country League at West Horsley Place near Guildford.

Herne Hill Harriers’ senior women returned to winning ways to claim an on the day A team victory in their Division 1 race around a testing 8km course. They were led home in emphatic style by the club’s newest international athlete as Lucy Jones celebrated her recent call up to race for England with a huge winning margin of 70 seconds.

Her closest pursuer was her Harriers training partner Sophie Tooley whose exciting sprint finish sealed a 1-2 for the team following her own selection for the Surrey team for the National Inter Counties Championship in March after placing fourth in Lloyd Park a week earlier. Jones and Tooley lead the women’s overall standings in the league after three of the four races.

Jones is now scheduled to compete as part of an England cross-country team who travel to Hannut in Belgium to race on Sunday 26th January, her first senior representation at this level.

There was excellent backup for the team win as a further four Herne Hill women finished in the top 20. These were Grace Leyland 15th, W40 Gaby Reynolds 17th, Darcie Hey 19th and Charlotte Davies 20th. 

With five to score per team, Davies led the second placed B team, followed by Jenny Nandi 31st, Helena Keenan 39th, W40 Sue Swaine 57th and Megan Gildea 59th. After three league races both A and B teams lie second behind Belgrave Harriers with one fixture remaining.

The South of England indoor age group championships for under 13s, under 15s and under 17s were held at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre over the weekend. Harriers enjoyed strong representation, with three girls winning area medals.

Multi-talented combined events star Jasmine Nkoso, having only turned 15 in December, is one of the youngest in her age group, but is also one of the top U17 female shot putters in the country. Nkoso claimed gold on Sunday in the shot with a PB throw of 14.08m, her first time in excess of 14m. 

Sprinter Ella Rennie, although also still only 15 was able to produce two medal performances. Rennie ran a PB of 7.75 in the 60m on Saturday evening for third place and was then back the following day to win silver in the 200m with an indoor PB of 25.22.

Lia Guerra Baciu in her first major championship won a silver medal in the U13G long jump and was fifth in the final of the 800m in 2.38.41, a big PB.

Five Herne Hill athletes travelled to Valencia to race in an event billed as the fastest 10km road race in the world. New Zealand World Cross-Country Championship team member Georgie Grgec ran her second fastest time at the distance – and the second fastest Harriers female time behind her own club record as she ran 31:52 ahead of several British international women. 

Among the men, Morgan Roberts clocked 30:38, a few seconds outside his PB, while Brandon Dewar and Matt Cartwright ran PBs of 30:40 and 32:37. Northern Ireland international Jessica Craig also ran very well with 34:04.

Back at the Surrey League, Herne Hill young athletes were in action again following their strong county championship results the week beforehand.

The U13 boys were second team, with Josiah Aldham fourth,  Henry Kucerov fifth, Ben Thomas 13th, Anton Thomas 19th and Ted Jones 29th.

In the U13 girls race the team were third, with Skyla O’Brien second Izzy McLennan 11th, Eva Burke 22nd and Genevieve Meek 26th. The combined U15/U17 boys were also third, with Tommy Clerkin 10th (second U15 boy), Leau Roch 13th (third U15 boy), Luca Boulton 19th, and Arnold Duan 20th.

The U15 girls had an incomplete team finishing eighth according to the scoring system, with Sofia Mendes seventh, Clemmie Cole 22nd and Ava Duggan 42nd. Similarly, the U17 women had only two participants, but featured good runs from Maeve Minielly third and Lily Kitto 15th.

The senior men’s team finished fifth on the day to consolidate their sixth position overall of the 10 teams in Division 1, with one race to run. Sam Bramwell was welcomed back in his first race since last summer’s outdoor track season following injury, leading the team in a superb second place in another very strong field. 

The remaining A team scorers were Daniel Shaw 42nd, Harry Bell 49th (second U20), Fabien Whitelock 61st (fourth U20), Joe Elliott 62nd, Tom O’Mahoney 65th (fifth U20), Harry Roberts 66th, Sam Brashaw 85th, M40 Jeff Cunningham 88th and Charlie Wood 92nd (sixth U20). This was a young team with four of scoring 10 being under 20 and leading contenders in this category over the season.

There were more good results at Lee Valley. In the U17W sprints Princess Okama was fourth in the 60m with 7.78, close behind Rennie’s bronze medal, having clocked a PB 7.74 in her semifinal. Nahla Berry was sixth in the U15G 200m final with 26.97 following a PB of 26.88 in her semifinal. In the 800m Orla Wright was a very close fourth in the U17W final with 2 mins 18 sec.

The best of the field event performances other than Nkoso came from Pyale Wifa was fourth in the U17G long jump with 5.31m, Solomon Thompson Moodley fifth U17M high jump with 1.85m and Jessica placed fourth in the U15G long jump with 4.69m.

PICTURES: Danny Easton