Herne Hill Harriers round-up: Kristal Awuah picked to run for GB at European Indoor Championships
Herne Hill Harriers junior star sprinter Kristal Awuah is now a senior star at the tender age of 19, having been named in the Great Britain team for next month’s European Indoor Championships in Glasgow over the weekend.
Awuah went into the Muller Grand Prix indoor meet in Birmingham on Saturday knowing she was in pole position for the third place in the team for the women’s 60m along with the two guaranteed automatic places as she had run also run the qualifying time twice in Berlin earlier this month.
She did her case for team selection no harm at all with two very fine performances in Birmingham, where she equalled the qualifying standard when placing second in her heat in 7.25 seconds and then ran one hundredth of a second faster in the final, finishing sixth in a world class field.
Awuah was duly named on Sunday in a 48-strong GB team for Glasgow on March 1-3, her first senior international representation.
Also taking place indoors over the weekend were the British Students BUCS Championship in Sheffield, the South of England Masters and the Veterans AC Championships at Lee Valley and the Surrey Championship at Carshalton.
Ella Newton finished a very good eighth in the women’s 1500m final in an indoor PB time of 4.36.40 on Sunday i Sheffield after qualifying from Saturday’s heats as the fastest non automatic qualifier in 4:37.43.
Multi-event athlete Dan Ryan ran a PB in the men’s 60m hurdles of 8.32 seconds in his heat and followed up by finishing ninth in the men’s long jump final with 6.82m after jumping a PB of 6.91m in the qualifying round.
The Herne Hill highlights at Lee Valley was a runaway M45 3,000m for Simon Coombes in 9:10.96, a winning margin of 17 seconds and an amazing haul of 10 medals in the two concurrent masters championships for W45 athlete Nikki Sturzaker.
Sturzaker contested five events on Sunday and won two medals per event, per championship, eight gold and two silver in the 400m, 800m, 1500m, 3000m and long jump for a very busy day’s work.
Harriers athletes brought home a good collection of Surrey county medals across the age groups at Carshalton. Among the event winners were Saskia King (U15W 60m 8.04), Chira Hussey (U20W 60m 7.92), Eleanor Smith-Hahn (SW 60m 7.86), Mallory Cluley (U20W 60m hurdles 8.82), Igantius Abebrese (U17M long jump 6.07m), Dylan O’Callaghan (U13M long jump 4.33m) and Alie Sesay (U15M shot put 12.03m).
Nick Bester ran 71:52 at the Hampton Court half marathon to place equal third, while Jordan Foster picked up another first women’s prize with her time at the St. Valentines 30km race in Stamford, Lincolnshire in a PB time of 2:03:35 seconds on a very hilly course. Both runners will be happy with these performances with 10 weeks to go until the London Marathon.
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