Racing Round-Up

The 2020 track season will be remembered for starting and finishing in a matter of weeks, but HW athletes have been making the most of every opportunity to race in the short window.

Last Saturday, 5 September, saw the South London Athletics Network (SLAN) Open meeting at Tooting Bec take two. Building on the success of the meeting on August 22, this one featured the 100m, 200m and 800m, plus long jump, and allowed athletes to compete in two events. With races once again seeded on times, irrespective of age and gender, the meeting was all about positive individual performances, rather than race placings.

There were double PBs in the 100m and 200m for U15s Romane McFarlane (13.05/26.83) and Njiye Orlu (13.04/26.95). In the 100m there were PBs, too, for U15s Sade Ajami-Akinfolarin (13.59) and Missy Cooper (13.25); and in the 200m for Cora Barnett (27.36), Kyra Stone (27.37) and U17 Marcus Gayle (25.27). U13 Javon Blake, who only began competing this year, built on his impressive start over 60m indoors by posting 13.20 in the 100m and 27.63 in the 200m, while U15 Khalid Ali, competing in the 200m for the first time, clocked 25.89.

'What has excited me most', says sprint coach Paul Miller, 'is the hard work that the athletes in our group have put in to compete in the way they have done in the two SLAN events. These competitions have been invaluable as they have told me what we need to work on going forward. It has taken a few years, but I think this group of athletes can really develop and we can start producing champions again'.

For the talented group of girls who train with Anne Hegvold, the wait for track competition in middle distance events has been even longer, but they finally got their chance on Wednesday (2 September) at the Herne Hill Harriers 800/3000m Evening. U17 Georgie Clarke (left) celebrated her first track race since last August with a PB in the 3000m to improve on the 10:30.63 she posted in Norway in June last year. Albane Fery and Millie Thorpe, racing over 3000m for the first time, posted times of 11:03.36 and 11:24.65; and there was a PB for senior athlete Ed Mallett of 8:56.41.

In the 800m, there was a PB for U15 Grace Eminson, who went on to better her time again three days later at the SLAN meeting at Tooting Bec. In the SLAN event there was an 800m PB, too, for U17 Lulu Weisz, competing for the first time since running for Surrey in the CAU Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships in Loughborough back in March. Her time of 2:18.48 bettered the 2:19.69 she set when taking the bronze medal as an U15 last August in the South of England Championships at Ashford. U13 Charlotte Gurney, competing in her first 800m, posted a time of 2:34.29.

Gold standard for Charlie at Lee Valley. Photograph by David Lowes, BMC

In the thirst to race again, some of the Club's senior men are remembering what it is like to fit in racing and training around hectic days at work. Amongst the busiest has been Charlie Eastaugh who clocked a pb in the 3000m – a distance he was relatively unfamiliar with until these last few weeks – at Wimbledon Park on August 26, only five days after racking up another best time in the MK5K at Milton Keynes. On 29 August he was on the track in the 3000m again, this time at the Gold Standard BMC meeting at Lee Valley, but was unable to build on his Wimbledon Park performance.

'The weather was terrible and the race panned out very differently to Ben’s Wimbo Mob Match, with the third place athlete finishing slower than the top five at Wimbledon, despite this being a high calibre field', he says. 'While my finish and time (8:46) are forgettable, and a third race in eight days was probably a bit much, it was still fun to be racing again and great to represent Hercules in the A race and get some more experience at this distance'.

Come Wednesday night (9 September) however, he was back again as part of the Hercules contingent competing in the 3000m at the Highgate Middle Distance Open on the Parliament Hill track. Once again the times posted in the final race of the night were slightly slower than in the sheltered surroundings of Wimbledon Park, however both Jonny Cornish and Joe Toomey (in an earlier race) managed to better their 'Herc Wimbo' times, while David Lewin and Dave Grima improved on their performances at the Herne Hill event, and Robbie Hynes notched up a faster time than at Wimbledon Park, to post season's bests.

U23 Matt Gibbons was another HW athlete making up for lost time by running in three races in a week. On 30 August he ran the 800m at the Midland Open in Nuneaton, followed by the same distance in the Yeovil Summer track on 5 September. The next day he competed in the 3000m in the London Inter-Club Challenge meeting at Lee Valley.

Results

Saturday, 29 August: BMC Gold Standard Races, Lee Valley Full results
Wednesday, 2 September: Herne Hill Harriers 800/3000m Evening Full results
Saturday, 5 September: SLAN Open Full results
Wednesday, 9 September: Highgate Harriers Middle Distance Open Full results