Herne Hill Harriers round-up: Nkoso crowned England Athletics’ U15 pentathlon champion

BY GEOFF JERWOOD

Jasmine Nkoso became the England Athletics U15 girls pentathlon champion in Sheffield on Sunday, writes Geoff Jerwood.

At the national indoor combined events championships Nkoso set a new Herne Hill Harriers’ age group record of 3,342 points from her five events.

Her performances were 60m hurdles (9.27), high jump (1.56m), shot (12.49m), long jump (4.86m) and 800m (2:39.08).

It was a busy but very good day’s work for a multi-talented young athlete and her coach Tony Mayhew.

Edward Cunniffe won an individual silver medal at the National Inter Counties Cross Country Championships in Wollaton Park in Nottingham on Saturday.

Cunniffe raced superbly on the day in the U13 boys race and also made a big contribution to his Surrey county team winning a set of gold medals.

Caspian Holmes, Leau Roch and James Clement-Nash finished 70th, 75th and 82nd respectively in the U15 boys race and Sofia Mendes was 87th U13 girl – all of them competing for Surrey at the same event.

Hebe Hunter was 100th in the U20 women’s race .

Phoebe Anderson’s stellar season racing on the USA collegiate circuit came to a good conclusion.

She placed an excellent 10th in the NCAA Championships women’s 5,000m final in Boston.

Her time of 15:37.21 was her second fastest to date, so far only bettered among Herne Hill female athletes by her own club women’s record of 15:33.96 set earlier this season.

The Surrey indoor track and field championship were held at Sutton Arena over the weekend with a number of successes among Harriers members.

The pick of the county gold medalists was Sasha Nolan, winner of the U13G long jump (4.60m) and then the 60m (8.05) – both are championship records.

Solomon Thompson-Moodley won the U17M high jump with 1.80m. Piyale Wifa also won gold in the U15G long jump with 4.94m and then silver in the 60m in a PB 7.90.

Ella Rennie was second in the U17W 60m with a PB of 7.84.

Joseph Johnson-Cole won bronze in the U17M 60m (7.14) and Rikaion Smith was third in the U20M 60m final (7.02).

Ava Abel took bronze behind Nolan in the U13G long jump in a PB of 4.22m.

With the indoor track and field season rounding off, Saturday also saw one of the first outdoor meetings of the year, held at Birmingham  University.

Lucy Jones is poised to become Harriers’ fastest female steeplechaser following a strong season’s opener.

The winner of the women’s 2,000m event over barriers in 6:53.08, Jones is an exciting addition to an already strong senior female middle and longer distance squad at the club.

PICTURE: TONY MAYHEW