Herne Hill Harriers round-up: Poppy Craig-McFeely secures GB cross-country spot for European Championships
Like most of the country, Liverpool’s Sefton Park saw very inclement weather due to Storm Bert over the weekend, writes Geoff Jerwood.
Craig-McFeely, left, battled to a fabulous fourth place in the U23 women’s race at the British Athletics Cross Challenge European Trials on Saturday.
This performance earned her an automatic qualifying spot on the GB team in this age group.
For the 20-year-old student, the current cross country team captain at Cambridge University, her selection is the culmination of a long, tortuous return to training and competition since suffering a stress fracture 18 months ago and just reward for her resilience and persistence.
She can look forward to her GB debut with pride and anticipation.
The senior women’s race was held together with the U23 race, but with the latter running two laps for 5.6km and the seniors a third lap to complete 8km around what was a very wet mudfest.
Lucy Jones finished an impressive 13th among a senior field which featured many of the best women in the country.
Showing no fear, Jones measured her run very well, overtaking several athletes mid-race to round off an amazing last two months of racing which have featured some wins and medals.
In the USA, a high-quality NCAA Nationals final in Madison, Wisconsin saw another top U23, Phoebe Anderson, placed 26th. She was thereby named an NCAA Cross Country All-American for the second successive year.
Her race caps another great season of US collegiate competition which she hopes will see her added to the Great Britain team for Turkey alongside Craig-McFeely.
Harriers also had some younger representation in the UK Cross Challenge races in Liverpool.
Elizabeth Parocki placed 31st in the U11 girls’ race, Caspian Holmes and Zachary Morris were 38th and 47th respectively in the U15 boys and Harry Bell was 91st in the U20 men.
More locally a few were racing at the South of the Thames 5 miles Cross-Country Championship at West Horsley, near Guildford, including Muhamud Haile, who was the first M55 to finish.
A wet, windy Sunday saw some good results at the Epsom Downs League.
There were team wins for Herne Hill in the U11 boys, U11 girls and U13 boys age groups and the club were in contention in the other age groups with results still to be finalised at the time of writing.
In the U11 boys Josh Lotter was second, Tommy Taylor was fourth and nine-year-old Rafe Horne was seventh. In the U11 girls Olivia Fisher produced her second win to lead her winning team.
Henry Kucerov won the U13 boys’ race and in the U13 girls Skyla O’Brien won her second race in the series following on from her bronze medal in the recent London Youth Games and a win at the Knole Run in Sevenoaks.
Edward Cunniffe was the winner of the U15 boys race to wrap up a successful weekend for Harriers.
PICTURES: DANIEL MOSES