Herne Hill Harriers round-up: Phoebe Anderson sets new club senior women’s 5,000m record

Phoebe Anderson, one of Herne Hill Harriers’ talented young female distance runners, shrugged off missing her USA collegiate indoor track season through injury with a stunning comeback, opening her outdoor campaign with a new club senior women’s 5,000m record.

Racing at the Raleigh Relays track meet in North Carolina last Friday, Anderson clocked a fast 15:44.97 to place sixth in a high-quality race, writes Geoff Jerwood.

Having set the previous club standard at a BMC Grand Prix at Watford last June, Anderson lowered her PB by more than five seconds to bring the record below 15:50.

This is a very exciting early start to the outdoor season as there are two or three Harriers women capable of revising this and other middle-distance track records in the coming months.

That includes Anderson, who will be looking to perform well in NCAA and other events across the pond before returning to London in mid-summer.

The indoor season came to a close for two of Herne Hill’s high-ranking veteran athletes at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre on Sunday.

Simon Coombes claimed three M50 gold medals in the Eastern Masters AC Indoor Championships.

Coombes won his age group titles at 3,000m (9:11.12), 1,500m (4:20.79) and 800m (2:12.18) in a busy day of high-quality racing.

Both the 3,000m and 1,500m times are new Harriers’ M50 club records, with the 3,000m being reclaimed from Ben Paviour who had recently leapfrogged Coombes on the club all-time list for this age. It looks very likely that these records could be traded between the two super vets this summer.

Nikki Sturzaker was equally busy and equally successful in terms of her gold medal haul in the Veterans AC Indoor Championships, also at Lee Valley in conjunction with the EMAC events.

Sturzaker was the winner of the W45 3,000m in 11:03.73, 1,500m in 5:09.09 and 800m with 2:32.89 as she continued her exceptional form in this age group.

In the 2,000m walk VAC silver medals were won by club president Glen Keegan in 13:48.80 for second M55 and Penelope Cummings, timed at 12:04.12 in the W45 category.

Sam Bramwell was seventh in the Fleet Half Marathon in 68:38, a PB by almost two minutes, on Sunday.

Gaby Reynolds continued her impressive marathon build up at the Thames Riverside 20 miles race, finishing first female and first W40 in a time of 2:14.30.

In a more unusual event, The Speed Project, a 340-mile relay race that stretches from the Santa Monica Pier on the California coast through the Mojave Desert to the the Las Vegas Strip, Jennifer Clancy was a member of Team No ID Crew who clocked 35 hours 25 minutes.

This is a European record for a team who placed seventh overall in one of the world’s most gruelling running events.