HERNE HILL HARRIERS

Click here to view the full championship results (hyperlink to Surrey County AA website).

HHH athletes claimed 16 gold medals at the Surrey county track & field championships over the weekend of 10-11 May as the sun shone and the wind occasionally blew at Kingsmeadow Stadium.

One of our athletes set a Championship Best Performance (CBP), none other than Olympic hopeful Jade Johnson in the Senior Women's Long Jump with a good early season mark of 6.56m. Supporting her county championships after a few years absence, she also won a bronze medal in the 200m, beaten only by a CBP and a junior international heptathlete.

Our other gold medalists in the women's events were Lakesha Abrams-Quannina in the U13 Shot and Discus, the latter with a club U13 record of 29.47m, Jade Dodd in the U20 Javelin and Shot, again the latter being a club record of 12.32m, Briony Phillips in the U20 Discus, Jade Phillips won the U20 100m and Jennifer Honeyball the U20 Pole Vault.

For the men, Khalil Njoya - U15 Shot and Discus, Simeon Ramsey-Graham - U17 100m and 200m, Johnny Fairclough - U17 Javelin, Dele Onifade - U20 100m and 200m and Paul Oluyemi -  U20 Long Jump all won gold.

Although neither claimed gold, both Katie Snowden and Hannah Edwards claimed a brace of club age group records in their events. Katie placed 2nd in the U15 girls’ 800m in 2:15.51, beaten only by a CBP and was 4th in the 1500m in 4:47.12. Hannah won two silver medals, in the U17 women's 800m in which she clocked 2:13.30 in a narrow defeat in a very exciting race and in the 3000m with a time of 10:26.41. Interestingly, both ran faster than the winners of the U20 and Senior Women's 800m races despite being unable to claim the titles in their own age groups.

If Hannah's 800m race was the best of the first day of action, the race of the weekend was surely the Senior Men's 100m, in which Robert Graham and Idris Ojuriye both ran wind aided personal bests and were beaten into 2nd and 3rd respectively by a CBP from the race winner. Robert's time of 10.57, legal or not was one of the fastest ever recorded by a HHH club member and Idris in running 10.63 added to his bronze in the 200m the day before in which he had also run a PB. More superb sprinting came from the above mentioned double gold medalist in the U20 races, Dele Onifade, who ran 10.81 and 21.65.

Although no HHH first claim member won a Senior men's gold, there were 3 club members eligible to compete for HHH in the British League under the Higher Competition rule who did win their events. Austin Ferns won the 400m hurdles in the colours of Hercules Wimbledon emphatically in a CBP time of 52.66, his second fastest ever run, while his clubmate for both HW and HHH, Royden John, won the Long Jump in the final round with 7.28m. Kevin Quinn, racing in the colours of Aldershot, won the 5000m while James McMullan, who races for Thames H&H in the winter was Kev's nearest challenger.

Geoff Jerwood