HERNE HILL HARRIERS

Katie Snowden broke the Surrey County U15 girls 800m record when winning the South of England U15 girls’ championships at Ashford in a time of 2:11.10, becoming the first girl from the club ever to win a middle-distance title in these championships.

Katie kicked from the bend and out-sprinted Aldershot’s Emelia Goreka, who was unbeaten for over a year, in the home straight to shatter the club record which has been improved by seven seconds already this year and in doing so reversing the finishing order at the Surrey championships a fortnight earlier. In the last eight years, only five girls in the country have run faster.     

Her training partner, Hannah Edwards, just failed to beat Adele Tracey in the U17 women’s 800m final, but was rewarded with another PB and a club record of 2:12.26. James McDonald’s middle distance squad had another finalist in Lewis Lloyd, who was 4th in the U15 boys’ 800m in 2:04.44. 

In the field, Khalil Njoya won both the U15 boys’ shot in 14.47m and discus in 39.40m, both PBs and Jonathan Grant won a bronze medal in the long jump with a leap of 6.19m.

There were more excellent performances by Herne Hill’s youngsters which just missed claiming medals. Matthew Walcott, returning from injury, was 4th in the U17 men’s 100m hurdles, Rosa Williams was 4th in the U17 women’s pole vault with 2.90m, Charlotte Kanini-Parsons was 4th in the U17 women’s javelin with 35.41m whilst Simeon Ramsey-Graham reached both U17 men’s sprint finals, finishing 5th in both.