Herne Hill Harriers round-up: Two winners for club at Surrey County Cross Country Championships
BY GEOFF JERWOOD
The new year was kicked off with a good turnout of Herne Hill Harriers athletes through all of the age groups who braved the very windy and wet weather and the plentiful mud under foot at the Surrey County Cross Country Championships in Lloyd Park on Saturday.
The stars of the day were individual champions Poppy Craig-McFeely, who raced out to a clear victory in the U20 women’s race, and Caspian Holmes, who was equally dominant ahead of his nearest challenger in the U13 boys race.
Cambridge University fresher Craig-McFeely was followed in by a superb bronze medal run for Kaitlin Hewitt and these athletes were well backed up by U17 women’s fifth placer Vivi Marshall, enabling them to win gold in the combined U17/U20W team awards.
Harriers also won individual and team gold in the U13B, where Holmes led a quartet which also comprised James Clement-Nash (fourth), Thomas Clerkin (fifth) and Lucas Heath (seventh).
There was an individual silver medal for Orla Carroll, who led her team to gold in the U15 girls race with Sophie Jack (fifth), Orla Wright (11th) and Maeve Minielly (12th).
The U17 men’s team won bronze courtesy of Alex Jack (ninth), Harry Bell (12th), Fabien Whitelock (14th) and Sam Maloney (23rd).
The Herne Hill senior women completed the medals haul for the day as they continued their strong form with excellent team packing from Gaby Reynolds (13th), Jenny Nandi (17th), Grace Leyland (20th) and Julia Wedmore (20th) for a set of hard fought team bronze medals.
Karen Ellison was only a few seconds behind Wedmore in 22nd, with further fine support from Charlotte Kenyon (39th), Megan Glidea (45th), Hannah Edwards (60th), Patty Gnaoto (84th), Jess Winfield (91st), Alison Beck (95th) and Sarah Allen (111th).
The senior men mustered 11 runners for their first team race of the new year and were led by a very good run for John Franklin in 15th place in a strong field. James Brown (66th), John Foxall (68th), Scott Morrison (76th), Tom Irish (78th) and M55 Jonathan Ratcliffe (85th) completed the scoring team of six runners in ninth place.
The remaining mud larks were Jon Key (92nd), Trevor Chilton (106th), Pedro Henrique Pinto (107th), Muhamud Haile (121st) and M65 Waldy Pauzers (175th).
In other county championship results Simon Coombes was seventh and first M50 in Bedfordshire, Joe Fenwick was 24th in Hampshire and Greg Mills 28th in Nottinghamshire.
Gaby Reynolds was the the female winner (and first W40) at the Tadworth 10 miles race in 65:36 on Sunday.
At the BMC Sheffield Indoor Grand Prix on Sunday, where world 1,500m champion Jake Wightman was competing, Annabel Hobday and Mike Cummings both had good runs to open their indoor accounts for the year. Hobday clocked 4:39.61 for 1,500m and M35 Cummings ran 8:49.89 for 3,000m.
Tomorrow sees the third of four Surrey League cross country fixtures of the season in Beckenham Place Park, where Harriers will aim to maintain their strong positions in Division One in a number of age groups, with the senior women and U15 girls both topping their league tables.
Main Pic: Herne Hill senior women bronze medalists Jenny Nandi, Grace Leyland, Gaby Reynolds and Julia Wedmore