Stellar results as Herne Hill Harriers host Tooting British Milers Club meeting
Herne Hill Harriers hosted the Tooting British Milers Club “Record Breaker” meet at Tooting Bec Athletics Track on Wednesday evening, writes Geoff Jerwood.
After the huge success of last year’s event this latest edition had much to live up to and did not disappoint.
Indeed the stellar results even surpassed the previous best men’s 1,500m races that the BMC has ever seen as again many internationals – including a handful of Paris-bound Olympians – raced on Harriers’ local track in South London at “the people’s Diamond League”.
No less than 20 male athletes ran sub 3:40 for 1,500m across the three fastest races with depth of a phenomenal level. Irishman Nick Griggs ran a BMC all-comers record 3:35.04, Kate Axford of Belgrave Harriers clocked a women’s 1,500m Tooting ground record of 4:10.06 and the host club a clear A race winner in both the women’s 800m – Katie Snowden – and 3000m – Georgie Grgec – in a PB 8:57.61, also a Tooting ground record. There were also a good number of other PBs or season’s bests for the local club.
It was fitting that one of the best track meets of any description ever to have been hosted at Tooting should be graced by local star Snowden, for whom a jog from home is not even long enough for her pre-race warm-up.
On the track where it all started for her, Snowden raced to a clear women’s 800m A race victory in 2:01.67, making her superior strength relative to the others tell in the closing stages to win by almost a full second.
Her time was largely irrelevant during the windier part of the evening, but it seals a very impressive last decade record over 800m of having run sub 2:02 in every one of the last 10 years apart from 2019 when she had no outdoor track season at all due to injury. An astonishing level of consistency for an athlete whose main event is the 1500m.
Georgie Grgec started her running comeback at Tooting track a few years after being a quality schools athlete growing up in New Zealand and the home club have been instrumental in bringing her back to both the competitive and social side of the sport. Since racing for her native New Zealand at the World Cross Country Championships earlier this year, it is clear she is now moving up a level.
This was well-illustrated by her superb win in the women’s A 3,000m, pushing the pace on after an excellent first four laps from the pacemaker and then following the innovative wavelights. Grgec smashed the nine-minute barrier for the first time with her PB in a Tooting ground record of 8:57.61.
The Herne Hill supporting cast – in order of appearance – saw U20 Sam Moloney back up his recent PB at the English Schools Championships with fifth in the men’s 800m C race in 1:53.91. Poppy Craig-McFeely sneaked a PB, placing sixth in the women’s 1,500m B race with 4:35.39, while in the A race Lucy Jones also ran a narrow PB of 4:25.37 in 10th.
The men’s 1,500m G race saw three finish within a second of each other. U20 Harry Bell prevailed from among this trio, fourth in a PB 3:58.30, ahead of George Withers 3:58.85 and Andrew Warburton 3:58.93. In the H race Tom Patterson ran well for a season’s best 4:06.38 in sixth place.
Photo: Daniel Moses
The men’s 3,000m B race was also one in which Harriers athletes excelled. Morgan Roberts led the PB charge in fifth with 8:32.48, followed by Ronan Tanguy 13th 8:52.39 and Ollie Mills 15th 8:55.69. M40 Jeff Cunningham battled to 21st in 9:13.81.
Also in the women’s A 3,000m, Liv Stillman continued her return to her best form in 10th place with a season’s best of 10:10.20.
The last race was the men’s A 3,000m where Sam Bramwell went for it from the gun with the aim of sub eight minutes. This proved a step too far on this occasion, but his 8:11.22 in eighth place is a time he would have loved not too long ago and a measure of his progress that he’ll now be unhappy with it. Brandon Dewar and Lewis Laylee enjoyed a great battle, finishing 17th in 8:25.61 and 19th in 8:27.60 respectively as both recorded PBs to round off a magical evening at Tooting.
A few days later on Saturday afternoon Snowden raced again in a World Athletics meet in Leuven, Belgium (as was the Tooting BMC) and again registered a clear 800m A race victory in another season’s best time. Ever closer to sub two minutes as on this occasion she ran 2:00.78 and with a winning margin of more than a second as she finds her form again with some unfinished business for this season.
The night before the Tooting extravaganza had witnessed a strong club turnout for the latest in the popular Sri Chinmoy 5km road race series in Battersea Park.
U20 Fabien Whitelock ran a PB by 20 seconds with an eye opening third place in 15:11. Behind him there was a season’s best 15:48 for Matt Cartwright, a PB for Ross Brown 15:49, then came Rory Christmas with 16:07.
Further back-up came from Harry Roberts, who clocked 16:09, M45 Raj Paranandi 16:16, Alex Gutteridge 16:36, Elvis Bektic 16:39, Eric Dol 16:57, M40 Paul Calver 17:02, Grace Leyland a 21 sec PB with her 17:10, Jamie Brown 17:25, Will Ellison 17:54, Helena Keenan 18:16 and M55 Joffah Ratcliffe 18:28.
MAIN PICTURE: JAMES RHODES