Herne Hill Harriers round-up: Relay club record set at Diamond League meeting

Herne Hill Harriers’ U20 women’s 4x100m A team set a new club record in the Club Connect Relays for younger athletes at the start of the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Birmingham, writes Geoff Jerwood.

They placed a close second behind a strong Croydon Harriers team. Saskia King, Maleeka Taylor, Jaydine Robinson and Niyah Costley combined superbly to clock 47.88 on the big stage.

Katie Snowden raced later in the afternoon in one of the strongest events of the day and produced another world level performance, albeit not quite matching her recent season opener in the USA.

On this occasion she finished eighth in the Diamond League women’s 1,500m in 4:08.33. In a race in which she was ranked 10th of the 11 competitors in terms of their lifetime best times, this was nevertheless a very good run regardless of any personal disappointment.

Although two Scottish athletes finished ahead of her on Saturday, Snowden is the fastest English woman of this year to date in this event. Her next race is likely to be another Diamond League 1,500m in Rome in early June.

Sprinter Kristal Awuah was another Harriers international racing at this meet, competing in the women’s B 100m race among a quality field comprising six British, two Americans and a Canadian.

It was her first major race of this season. Awuah finished sixth, third among the British, in 11.60.

The other Harriers young athletes who raced in the Club Connect Relays were the U20 men Mine Ebriku, Andris Thorpe, Nathan Latigo and Maxwell Bediako were sixth in 44.38.

The U20 women’s B team of Makarios Mensah, Tia Meghie, Lizlove Fenning and Shanice Daley came fourth in 52.37.

The U17 men – Ayo Bello, Jude Austin–Unuajefe, Khalil Sesay and Dante Clarke – were fifth in 46.20.

The U17 women – Temi Oluwadi, Alecia Davidson, Khelye Ekewe and Ye Sung Park – finished seventh in 56.75.

Herne Hill men and women placed third in the opening Southern Athletics League fixture on Sunday at Sutton.

Isaac Ogunlade, who had secured a qualifying time for next month’s British Athletics Championship with his 53.50 for 400m hurdles the previous weekend at the Middlesex Championship, raced the flat 400m this time. His win, by a huge margin in 49.4, saw him named as the male athlete of the match using a points scoring system.

His final leg at the end of the meeting in a winning 4x400m combo which also included Jacob Alley, Keeran Sriskandarajah and Harvey Kande was at least as impressive and his split was timed at 48.7.
U17 Sriskandarajah also scored a good tactical win in the 800m in 1:58.9 and Alley won the B string 400m in 53.7 and ran a PB in third in the 200m B string with 24.3.

Jeff Cunningham and Sam Knight were winners in the men’s A and B string 2,000m steeplechase in 7:00.7 and 7:45.3 respectively. U17 Dante Clarke was second in both the high jump and long jump with his 1.85m clearance in the former being a PB.

Ellie Jamieson was a very emphatic winner in the women’s javelin (40.14m).

Team captain Joyce Kalombo scored a double win with PB’s in the A long jump (4.68m) and the B 200m (27.1).

Other Herne Hill winners in the women’s events were Justine Chambers in the B 800m (2:41.2), Vivi Marshall (A 1,500m 5:27.8) and Izzy Perry in the 2,000m steeplechase.

In road race action at the Sri Chinmoy 10k in Battersea Park on Saturday, Eric Dol placed 28th in 35:28, one place ahead of M40 Paul Calver (35.35).

Jonathan Ratcliffe finished 37th (36:38). Now a M55, Ratcliffe was placed third in the M50 category.

James Brown was 51st in 38:26, ahead of a very good PB run for Jenny Nandi, whose 39:27 saw her finish as seventh female in the race.