Herne Hill Harriers round-up: Women’s team win silver at Aldershot event
On a weekend when freezing weather saw sporting events being cancelled wholesale, some club athletics events would not be deterred and went ahead in safety, writes Geoff Jerwood.
These included the old traditional South of Thames Cross Country Association ‘Senior’ Championship over 7.5 miles in Wellesley Woods, Aldershot on Saturday afternoon and the Friday Night Under the Lights five-mile road race in Battersea Park on a very cold previous evening.
There were six Herne Hill Harriers men and six women beating the weather and train strikes to race at Aldershot, which was just about the minimum for a complete scoring team for each gender. The women brought home what are this season becoming almost customary team medals as they finished in second place on the day.
The silver medal women’s team was led by almost ever present Jenny Nandi in eighth, backed up by Karen Ellison (10th), Suzanne Swaine (12th), Annabelle Acres (17th), Jessica Winfield (33rd) and W60 Gillian Wheeldon (35th). Swaine also claimed the medal for first W40 finisher, while Ellison was first W35, but this age group was not a medal category.
The men’s team placed sixth and comprised Jeff Cunningham (29th), John Franklin (32nd), Ben Paviour (34th), James Brown (51st), Andrew Georgeson (57th) and M55 Rob Nagorski (67th). There was also masters age group medal success among the males, as Cunningham won M40 gold and the previous weekend’s Southern M50 champion Paviour took home the gold for this category.
Incredibly the Under the Lights race took place against all odds despite temperatures of -5C.
George Withers ran a breakthrough PB of 25:28 in 30th place in a strong field, followed by Robin Jones who was fourth M45 in 29:25 and Jonathan Ratcliffe was first M55 in 29:41.
Further afield the Harriers women continue to make their mark with two very notable road race performances over 10km on Saturday. Neither ran their fastest time, but both took important steps forward.
Australian star Chloe Tighe, currently teaching in Dubai, placed second in the ADNOC Abu Dhabi 10km on their big marathon weekend.
The only female to beat Tighe on the day was top Scottish athlete Eilish McColgan, clocking 31:44. Tighe’s 35:31 seems a long way behind but is still quite quick and represents a promising outing as she returns from recent injury.
Sophie Pikett embraced the notion that not every race has to be a PB attempt to finish first female at the Saltwell 10km road race in Gateshead.
Her time of 35:58 was a very strong run over a three-lap course with plenty of elevation.