Herne Hill Harriers round-up: Women’s A team place third as they host Surrey League fixture
Herne Hill Harriers played host to the second Surrey League cross country fixture on Mitcham Common on Saturday with their women’s A team placing third.
They were led by Grace Leyland (13th) and followed in by Jenny Nandi (19th), Sophie Tooley (21st), W40 Leonie Biemolt (23rd) on her league debut and W40 Kaitlin Hewitt (33rd), the latter scoring in the A team for the first time.
The B team placed seventh overall and second among the B teams courtesy of Annie Dalton (35th), Sarah Grover (39th), Shannon Sinclair (45th), Lily Newton (46th) and W40 Karen Ellison (52nd).
The men performed well in the strongest league in the country, with the A team finishing a close fifth and then having the fourth B team.
The A team comprised Brandon Dewar (15th), Andrew Clarke (27th), Daniel Shaw (31st), Lewis Laylee (33rd), Ben Warren (37th), Jack Brotchie (44th), Thomas Patterson (53rd) on his league debut, David Moyse(55th), Tom O’Mahoney (76th), with M50 Simon Coombes closing the 10-man team in 82nd. O’Mahoney was second U20 on the day.
The B team was Joe Fenwick (88th), John Franklin (89th), Jeff Cunningham (96th), Alex Lee (102nd), Joe Elliott (103rd), Ronan Tanguy (108th), James Nutt (116th), Ben Millar (138th), another debutant Matt Raymond (140th) and Scott Morrison (146th).
Herne Hill’s young athletes representation was depleted by a clash with English Schools cup fixtures on the same day. The U17 women placed fifth – twins Eva O’Hanlon and Grace O’Hanlon were 13th and 20th respectively, then Vivi Marshall (24th) and Martha Brennan (28th).
The U13 boys and the combined U15 boys and U17 men’s teams both placed eighth. Luca Boulton led the U13s in fourth place. The other team scorers were Alfie Beasley Suffolk (35th), Dominic Brennan (56th) and Caeden Mulimba (60th).
The U15 and U17 men’s team was completed by Tommy Clerkin (11th overall and third U15), Leau Roch (22nd), Noah Turner (59th) and Herbert Clark (68th).
Marnie Millar (18th) and U11 Olivia Fisher (23rd) were the sole representatives from the home club in the U13 girls race.
Nikki Sturzaker and Ben Paviour both represented England in their age categories and both raced well despite recent illnesses at the British and Irish Masters home international cross country meet in Glasgow
Sturzaker was still recovering from Covid but claimed W50 individual bronze and team gold medals, albeit she had beaten the individual gold medalist in the England trials race.
Paviour had also had a cold/flu virus earlier in the month, but was able to replicate his best position of fourth place in the M50 event and was one of the team silver medallists.
Phoebe Anderson ran superbly to finish third in the women’s 6km race at the NCAA Division Northeast Region Cross Country Championships. This is a big result for Harriers’ club women’s 5,000m record holder and takes her on to the national final later this month.
Annabel Hobday placed 82nd in her championship race in the South Central Region in Fayetteville.