Herne Hill Harriers round-up: Nkoso crowned South of England U17 women’s indoor pentathlon champion

After celebrating a Herne Hill Harriers European U23 women’s cross-country champion the previous weekend in Phoebe Anderson, it was this week the turn more locally of a younger star in the making at Lee Valley Athletics Centre, writes Geoff Jerwood.

Jasmine Nkoso, 15, is one of the youngest in her age group this season but is already used to winning area and national titles.

On Saturday she was crowned South of England U17 women’s indoor pentathlon champion at their Combined Events meet with a PB 3,503 points.

Her strong series of performances kicked off in the best way with a win in the 60m hurdles with a PB of 9.23. She then cleared 1.51m for the fifth best high jump and threw the shot further than her competitors (13.24m).

Another win in the long jump with a PB 5.54m saw her leading with the 800m remaining, for which she clocked 2:41.70 as the fifth fastest. This was more than enough to see her claim the gold medal with a clear overall winning margin of 147 points. A fitting way for the England Schools international to end a very successful year.

The Malaga Marathon was the scene of Rowen Hughes’ first sub 2:50 time as she ran more than five minutes faster than her PB. Her 2:47.04 is one of the fastest times clocked by a Herne Hill female athlete and was achieved with a strong finish following a difficult 39th kilometre during which she overcame physical sickness.

The Telford 10km is renowned as the fastest road race in depth of performance in England and this year’s edition took this reputation to a new level.

Nine Harriers athletes raced, and most came home with PBs.

Herne Hill club women’s marathon record holder Jessica Craig made a superb return to racing after being blighted with injury issues for 18 months as she finished 11th female in a top-class field. Her time of 33:58 was only six seconds shy of her lifetime best set in October 2022 and bodes well for the Northern Ireland international.

The men were not to be outdone, as Morgan Roberts continued his exciting progress with a rapid 30:29, a PB by half a minute. Daniel Shaw kept his excellent winter season going with a 72 seconds PB upgrade of 30:48, followed on by Roberts’s twin brother Harry, also with a 48 seconds PB improvement of 32:39. James Brown’s 35:03 was also almost a minute inside his previous best time, with Simon Wade completing the male contingent with 35:41.

St George’s University student Grace Leyland added to the success story with her excellent 35:45, a PB by 67 seconds, another Harriers female to achieve a breakthrough. Jenny Nandi ran well with 37:27, a few seconds ahead of Cardiff University medical student Liv Stillman who ran 37:40 in her debut at the 10km race distance.