Herne Hill Harriers round-up: Track legend Coe watches Sriskandarajah win at major international youth games meeting
Keeran Sriskandarajah, a young athlete coached by James McDonald, produced a big win on Saturday at a major international youth games meeting in Jamaica attended by World Athletics president Lord Sebastian Coe, writes Geoff Jerwood.
Racing at the Carifta Games in the red-and-black colours of his mother’s birthplace Trinidad & Tobago, the Westminster schoolboy claimed the gold medal in the U17 boys 1,500m final. Sriskandarajah ran a very tactically astute race, biding his time early on and then hitting the front just before the bell and running away to a clear win in a PB time of 4:10.58.
Sriskandarajah added a silver medal in the U17B 800m in 1:58.45 on Monday.
It was a close race to the finish between Sriskandarajah and two Jamaican athletes, a dip for the line gave him second place by five hundredths of a second
Two Herne Hill men were in action on Good Friday at Battersea Park athletics track in the Comeback 5000, a series of graded 5,000m races for both club runners and international elites.
David Moyse and Mohammed Ismail opened their track seasons clocking times of 16:59.19 and 17:34.82 respectively. Both maybe ran their first kilometre too quickly for their current fitness level, but sometimes you only find that out for sure during the race.
Arlo Ludewick raced three times against some quality runners over Easter at the Isle of Man Festival of Running.
Ludewick was sixth in Friday’s 10km road race with 31:02. Then on Saturday he followed up with seventh in the Peel Hill Race with 21:13, before rounding off an excellent series with fifth in the 5km road race in 14:59. Ludewick was fourth male individual overall.
Harriers had first finishers in a number of parkruns on Saturday.
Jeff Cunningham was first in Barrow in 17:29 with Ismail, another M40, first in Brockwell Park in 17:35, the day after racing on the track in Battersea. Charlotte Davies was first female on Clapham Common in 18:58. Bryn Reynolds was first in Crewe in 18:13 and Katie Balme was first female at Exeter Riverside in 19:44.
Joe Elliott was fastest at Watermead Country Park in 16:26. Esme Fillingham completed the list of winners at Wanstead Flats with 21:57.
Suzanne Swaine also ran sub-20 minutes as fourth female at Dulwich in 19:54.
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