Herne Hill Harriers round-up: U13 boys win Surrey Cross Country League title

Herne Hill Harriers’ U13 boys team sealed title success at the final fixture of the Surrey Cross Country League season at Epsom Downs racecourse on Saturday, writes Geoff Jerwood.

They went into the match lying second after three of four races with a deficit of 31 points behind the strong Hercules Wimbledon squad.

A seemingly unassailable gap was closed thanks to Harriers’ boys filling all three podium positions on the day with the snatch-and-grab completed by the fourth team member placing 10th.

After result’s were finalised the team in red-and-black became league champions by just five points.

The team was made up of winner Josiah Aldham, runner-up John Reynolds, third-placed Henry Kucerov and Ben Thomas in 10th. They were backed up by Ted Jones (13th), Anton Thomas (15th) and Conor Harrow (31st). In the overall league scores, Kucerov finished second and Aldham third.

Herne Hill’s women also produced a narrow win on the day, finishing a point ahead of Belgrave Harriers. Despite Harrriers winning the last two league races, the Belles successfully defended their title.

Individually it was a different story as of the club’s women finished first and second in the overall standings. England international Lucy Jones again emphasised her quality and improvement over the last six months as she romped to a 54-second win around the testing 8km course. This was Jones’s third league race win in a row, and again she was chased by her training mate Sophie Tooley who finished third on the day to give her a silver medal score for the season and a famous one-two for the club.

The other A team scorers at Epsom were Grace Leyland 11th, Gaby Reynolds 13th (first W40) and Charlotte Davies 24th.

The B team were second on the day and in the league, their scorers being Leonie Biemolt 27th (third W40), Sarah Grover 29th, Helena Keenan 39th, Chloe Wright 60th and another W40 Karen Ellison 70th. Reynolds finished third W40 for the league season.

The senior men produced their best result of the season – third on the day – which saw them move up to fifth in the final table.

The A team comprised Sam Bramwell in second place for two successive league races, Morgan Roberts with a breakthrough run in ninth, Joe Morwood 21st, Andrew Clarke 28th, Daniel Shaw 36th, Harry Roberts 41st, Fabien Whitelock 52nd (second U20 both on the day and overall), Sam Brashaw 58th, Tom O’Mahoney 61st (third U20 on the day and overall) and Joe Elliott 68th.

The U 13 girls were third, both on the day and in the league. They were superbly led by race winner Skyla O’Brien, who also jointly claimed the overall league title with another athlete having the same points score.

Charlotte Bishton was 13th in her first-ever club race, Paras Ubhi 17th, Genevieve Meek 24th, Eva Burke 28th and Emma Johnson 34th.

The combined U15/U17 boys were third and also third in the league, with Luca Boulton 16th, Leau Roch 22nd, Alfie Bryan 29th, Noah Turner 32nd and Herbie Clark 54th. Tommy Clerkin, although not racing at Epsom finished second and Leau Roch third in the final standings.

The U15 girls finished fourth on the day, with Sofia Mendes fourth, Annabel Wainwright seventh and Florence Mills eighth. The girls finished sixth in the league. The U17 girls were fifth on the day and third overall, with Maeve Minielly eighth at Epsom and Lily Kitto 13th.

Katie Snowden returned from a three-month injury lay-off to compete at a World Athletics indoor track meet in Metz, France on Saturday.

Snowden placed fourth in an international 1,500m field, with her clocking of 4:06.44 seeing her top of the very early season UK women’s rankings, albeit with the biggest and no doubt fastest races on the horizon in the coming weeks.

The England Athletics Indoor Age Group Championships were held at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.

Jasmine Nkoso placed fourth in the U17 women’s shot with 12.60m on Saturday to continue her fine season. Fred Hake was sixth in the U20 men’s 400m (50.54) on Sunday after the previous day having clocked 49.75 to win his heat and then 49.72 to qualify from his semi-final.

Princess Okama finished eighth in the U17 women’s 60m final on Saturday (7.79). This was her third race of the day, having earlier won her heat in 7.75 and qualified from her semi with a PB (7.66). Ella Rennie found sixth in her semi with 7.87 insufficient to advance to the final, having run 7.89 in her heat.

Rennie reached the 200m semi-final on Sunday, clocking 25.44 after running 25.28 in her heat.