Herne Hill Harriers
a Community Amateur Sports Club founded in 1889
based at Tooting Bec Athletics track
www.wiggle.co.uk
28/06/09 - HHH national finalists, but no medals at England U20 and U23 champs
The England Athletics Under 20 and Under 23 Championships were held at a hot and sticky Bedford Athletics Stadium, with a small but select HHH contingent taking part. None were able to bring medals home this year, but you cannot get much closer to doing so than Paul Oluyemi in the U23 men's long jump. Paul improved throughout a close competition, but although producing his second best ever legal jump in the final round with 7.28m, he was a tantalising 1cm away from winning the bronze medal as he placed 4th. Also placing 4th, but in the U20 women's 100m hurdles, was Robyn St Luce Boyce, who clocked a time of 14.74 to acquit herself very well indeed in the final after having qualified as the 4th placed athlete in her heat.
At the start of the season Dele Onifade had high hopes of making the Great Britain team for the European Under 23 Championships, but a persistent ankle injury has held back his season and he arrived at Bedford knowing that it would be a tough call to make the GB sprint relay squad. A fine win in his heat with the best time by a HHH athlete so far this season (10.66) kept the dream alive, but the final was a step too far in his current condition and he placed a disappointed 8th in 10.74. In the U23 women's 100m Denise Osei placed a very decent 5th, recording a season's best of 11.94 in the final after a wind assisted 11.92 in her heat. (Geoff Jerwood)
28/06/09 - Blade Ashby breaks his brother's club U17 octathlon record
Blade Ashby became the second 15 year old in less than a week to break a club U17 record as he added over 600 points to his older brother's standard for the Octathlon with a fine score of 4,733 points. Placing 4th in the South East Counties Schools Combined Events meeting at Kingsmeadow, Blade booked his place at the English Schools Octathlon later this summer, where he will hope that some improvements in the throws and 1500m will see him score close to or in excess of 5,000 points. (Geoff Jerwood)
Blade's performances in the 8 events contested over 2 days were as follows:-
Long jump - 6.69m; Discus - 24m; Javelin - 31m; 400m - 52.39; 100H - 13.61; High jump - 1.86m; Shot 10.65m and 1,500m – 5:00.16.
The England Athletics Under 20 and Under 23 Championships were held at a hot and sticky Bedford Athletics Stadium, with a small but select HHH contingent taking part. None were able to bring medals home this year, but you cannot get much closer to doing so than Paul Oluyemi in the U23 men's long jump. Paul improved throughout a close competition, but although producing his second best ever legal jump in the final round with 7.28m, he was a tantalising 1cm away from winning the bronze medal as he placed 4th. Also placing 4th, but in the U20 women's 100m hurdles, was Robyn St Luce Boyce, who clocked a time of 14.74 to acquit herself very well indeed in the final after having qualified as the 4th placed athlete in her heat.
At the start of the season Dele Onifade had high hopes of making the Great Britain team for the European Under 23 Championships, but a persistent ankle injury has held back his season and he arrived at Bedford knowing that it would be a tough call to make the GB sprint relay squad. A fine win in his heat with the best time by a HHH athlete so far this season (10.66) kept the dream alive, but the final was a step too far in his current condition and he placed a disappointed 8th in 10.74. In the U23 women's 100m Denise Osei placed a very decent 5th, recording a season's best of 11.94 in the final after a wind assisted 11.92 in her heat. (Geoff Jerwood)
28/06/09 - Blade Ashby breaks his brother's club U17 octathlon record
Blade Ashby became the second 15 year old in less than a week to break a club U17 record as he added over 600 points to his older brother's standard for the Octathlon with a fine score of 4,733 points. Placing 4th in the South East Counties Schools Combined Events meeting at Kingsmeadow, Blade booked his place at the English Schools Octathlon later this summer, where he will hope that some improvements in the throws and 1500m will see him score close to or in excess of 5,000 points. (Geoff Jerwood)
Blade's performances in the 8 events contested over 2 days were as follows:-
Long jump - 6.69m; Discus - 24m; Javelin - 31m; 400m - 52.39; 100H - 13.61; High jump - 1.86m; Shot 10.65m and 1,500m – 5:00.16.
28/06/09 - Road runners face the heat in Dysart Dash 10K
Our young athletes maintained their 100% record this season by sweeping all before them at Battersea Park to record another very comfortable victory in the National Young Athletes League. Barring any mishaps in the final match of the season, the team looks set to secure promotion back to the Southern Premier Division at the first attempt. (James Ward)
Match result Herne Hill Harriers - 451; Southend AC - 337; Chichester Runners - 282; Ashford AC - 220
21/06/09 - Idris Odjurye and Sammy Mensah medal at South of England champs
The South of England track and field championships for senior and under 20 men and women were this year held at the newly resurfaced track at Watford. This move may have weakened the overall entry but that should not detract from the excellent medal winning sprinting performances of Idris Ojuriye and Sammy Mensah as they claimed silver and bronze respectively in the senior men's 200m.
Idris capped a fine weekend in which he had already placed 7th in the 100m final, one place behind clubmate Robert Graham by the narrowest of margins (10.80 to 10.81) by recording personal best times in both the semi final and final of the 200m. Idris improved to 21.74 and then to a superb 21.62 to claim second place behind former GB World Junior team representative James Alaka. Sammy had a bad day on the Saturday, with elimination in the first round of the 100m, but bounced back from that disappointment to chase Idris home in third place in the 200m with a 21.84 clocking after having stopped the clock at 21.79 in the semi final.
Other club members who placed well at these championships were Matthew Walcott, 4th in the under 20 men's 110m hurdles and Stuart Thurgood, also 4th in the senior men's hammer. Allandre Johnson showed he is heading back towards his best form in 6th in the senior men's javelin and under 17 Julien Allwood could be satisfied with 5th in the under 20's triple jump, but Paul Oluyemi's 5th place in the senior men's long jump was down on his high expectations. Herne Hill women appeared to enjoy less success, but notable exceptions were Jennifer Honeyball who pole vaulted a new PB of 3.20m to be 7th senior woman and Robyn St Luce Boyce who made it into the final of the under 20 women's 100m hurdles.
Peter Phillips continued his exciting emergence as a new 400m prospect and although unable to qualify for the senior men's final recorded a personal best tantalisingly close to the 50 seconds barrier (50.09) in his heat and then backed this up with a semi final time of 50.21 later in the same afternoon. Ben Paviour ran his first 5000m track race since completing the London Marathon with a strong looking 15:20 timing to place 14th of 33 finishers, while steeplechaser Jeff Cunningham improved his 5000m PB to 15:41 as he finished 22nd in the same race after overtaking 10 runners in the final 5 laps of the race. (Geoff Jerwood)
Idris capped a fine weekend in which he had already placed 7th in the 100m final, one place behind clubmate Robert Graham by the narrowest of margins (10.80 to 10.81) by recording personal best times in both the semi final and final of the 200m. Idris improved to 21.74 and then to a superb 21.62 to claim second place behind former GB World Junior team representative James Alaka. Sammy had a bad day on the Saturday, with elimination in the first round of the 100m, but bounced back from that disappointment to chase Idris home in third place in the 200m with a 21.84 clocking after having stopped the clock at 21.79 in the semi final.
Other club members who placed well at these championships were Matthew Walcott, 4th in the under 20 men's 110m hurdles and Stuart Thurgood, also 4th in the senior men's hammer. Allandre Johnson showed he is heading back towards his best form in 6th in the senior men's javelin and under 17 Julien Allwood could be satisfied with 5th in the under 20's triple jump, but Paul Oluyemi's 5th place in the senior men's long jump was down on his high expectations. Herne Hill women appeared to enjoy less success, but notable exceptions were Jennifer Honeyball who pole vaulted a new PB of 3.20m to be 7th senior woman and Robyn St Luce Boyce who made it into the final of the under 20 women's 100m hurdles.
Peter Phillips continued his exciting emergence as a new 400m prospect and although unable to qualify for the senior men's final recorded a personal best tantalisingly close to the 50 seconds barrier (50.09) in his heat and then backed this up with a semi final time of 50.21 later in the same afternoon. Ben Paviour ran his first 5000m track race since completing the London Marathon with a strong looking 15:20 timing to place 14th of 33 finishers, while steeplechaser Jeff Cunningham improved his 5000m PB to 15:41 as he finished 22nd in the same race after overtaking 10 runners in the final 5 laps of the race. (Geoff Jerwood)
20/06/09 - Records tumble at HHH open meeting
A number of club records have already been revised on more than one occasion already this season and this trend continued at the first Herne Hill Harriers open meeting of the season at Tooting Bec.
The U13 boys' 3000m record had stood for almost 30 years prior to its revision at the end of May by Lascelles Hussey and Lascelles himself ensured that his own record did not last 30 days by lowering his PB by over a second to 10:18.39. Lascelles' latest record also represents a new championship best performance.
Alexandra West also set a new U15 girls' record over the same distance, recording 10:48.40 to beat the previous record by over 20 seconds. Like Lascelles, Alexandra's time also represents a new championship best performance.
Whilst not quite a club record, Katie Snowden's time of 56.15 in unfavourable conditions was nonetheless hugely impressive, being just 0.11 seconds outside the U17 women's 400m record.
The meeting also incorporated the London races forming part of the Run2Live Great Britain v. Kenya international mile races promoted by club member Tim Elsey. Hywel Care of Woodford Green triumphed in the headline race in 4:23.37 to finish 5th fastest in the combined results. Tim found the time to take part in the event himself and fought of a determined challenge from Chris Busaileh to finish 2nd in 4:28.99 to Chris's 4:30.19.
A number of other athletes also raised their own standards and future expectations to record new PBs during an enjoyable afternoon. (James Ward)
14/06/09 - Julien Allwood extends U17 men's triple jump record
Having claimed the U17 triple jump record at the Surrey championships in May, Julien Allwood wasted no time in updating his own mark at the Surrey Schools championships. Again competing at Kingsmeadow, Julien extended his record by 7 centimetres to 14.47m to win the intermediate boys' competition by over a metre. (James Ward)
10/06/09 - Rosenheim League team on course for final
The Rosenheim League team achieved another high placing at Wimbledon Park to comfortably remain within the qualification berths for the final in August. A competitive team finished just behind host Hercules Wimbledon in the match standings, tieing for second place with arch rivals Belgrave Harriers. (James Ward)
Match result: Hercules Wimbledon - 70; Belgrave Harriers - 65; Herne Hill Harriers - 65; Serpentine RC - 44; Croydon Harriers - 32; Striders of Croydon - 30; South London Harriers - 20
08/06/09 Vets extend their lead
A strong team extended our lead over Hillingdon in the Vets League to two points. We swept the board in the M35 races. M60 sprinter Bob Fraser made a welcome and winning return to competition. (Dave Wilson)
Match result: Herne Hill Harriers - 122; Hillingdon AC - 107; Serpentine RC - 82; Ealing Southall & Middlesex - 65; Metros - 60; St Mary's Richmond - 54; Hercules Wimbledon - 36
A strong team extended our lead over Hillingdon in the Vets League to two points. We swept the board in the M35 races. M60 sprinter Bob Fraser made a welcome and winning return to competition. (Dave Wilson)
Match result: Herne Hill Harriers - 122; Hillingdon AC - 107; Serpentine RC - 82; Ealing Southall & Middlesex - 65; Metros - 60; St Mary's Richmond - 54; Hercules Wimbledon - 36
07/06/09 - Women 7th in UK Women's League debut
The women's track & field team fared less well than their male counterparts in their first ever match in the UK Women's League at Stevenage. Weakened by unavailability, the team battled bravely but could still only finish 7th of the 8 teams in the contest. (James Ward)
Match result: Herts Phoenix - 183; Leeds AC - 175.5; Reading - 172.5; Coventry Godiva - 163; Channel Islands - 134; Gateshead - 134; Herne Hill Harriers - 126; Aldershot, Farnham & District - 90
06/06/09 - Good start for British League team at a very soggy Cardiff
The Herne Hill Harriers British Athletics League men's team started the season well by finishing 5th in the opening match of our campaign at a brand new, but very wet Cardiff International Stadium. Even though travelling to a land which champions the leek as its top vegetable we could not have expected the deluge that descended from the sky as the match began and which turned the early events into something of a lottery. The pole vaulters and discus throwers and the early track events men suffered the brunt of rainfall for which the description torrential would be a huge understatement, and although the conditions did improve later the cool, wet conditions were not conducive to any events other than the distance races.
Under these circumstances our 5th placing was commendable, if somewhat frustrating. During the afternoon and we, among others, found ourselves fluctuating between 7th and 3rd at various stages, but our hopes of finishing in the top half of the 8 teams in the division were eventually dashed after a couple of our potentially big event points scorers had struggled with the atrocious conditions. 5th in the first match of the season when on a luckier day we may have placed 3rd leaves us with more work to do, but this team is capable of beating most of our opponents and I am confident we will do so if the team turns out in full force for our remaining 3 BAL fixtures, 2 of which are local.
Match result: Cardiff - 343; Harrow AC - 338; Thames Valley Harriers - 273; Blackheath & Bromley Harriers AC - 271; Herne Hill Harriers - 260; Swansea - 239; Kingston & Polytechnic AC - 237; Leeds AC - 222
Under these circumstances our 5th placing was commendable, if somewhat frustrating. During the afternoon and we, among others, found ourselves fluctuating between 7th and 3rd at various stages, but our hopes of finishing in the top half of the 8 teams in the division were eventually dashed after a couple of our potentially big event points scorers had struggled with the atrocious conditions. 5th in the first match of the season when on a luckier day we may have placed 3rd leaves us with more work to do, but this team is capable of beating most of our opponents and I am confident we will do so if the team turns out in full force for our remaining 3 BAL fixtures, 2 of which are local.
Match result: Cardiff - 343; Harrow AC - 338; Thames Valley Harriers - 273; Blackheath & Bromley Harriers AC - 271; Herne Hill Harriers - 260; Swansea - 239; Kingston & Polytechnic AC - 237; Leeds AC - 222
06/06/09 - Southern League team advances into promotion places
A depleted Southern Men's League team enjoyed a successful trip to Horsham, beating league leaders Crawley, hosts Horsham Blue Star and Hastings to claim maximum league points. Despite being hit by a couple of late withdrawals from the squad, the team was strong enough to win the match by 12 points after a dominant performance on track and thereby leapfrog Crawley and move into the promotion berths.
Match result: Herne Hill Harriers - 102; Crawley - 90; Horsham Blue Star - 86; Hastings - 64
06/06/09 - Girls win in Lily B League
On a very busy weekend for the club, the U13 and U15 girls achieved more success for the club, winning their Lily B League fixture at the Sutton Arena.
Match result: Herne Hill Harriers - 262; Bracknell AC - 201; Kingston & Polytechnic - 194; Croydon Harriers - 189; Walton AC - 169; Epsom & Ewell Harriers - 151; Dorking & Mole Valley - 61
