Herne Hill Harriers: Bronze medals for Snowden and Awuah at British Indoor Championships
The weekend saw the British Athletics Indoor Championship in Birmingham, with BBC TV red button coverage, and Katie Snowden and Kristal Awuah both won bronze medals in their national finals.
The duo are the two highest level senior athletes from Herne Hill Harriers,
Snowden returned from training in South Africa and described her participation in Birmingham as a gamble, following some interruptions due to a knee injury. She won her women’s 1500m heat in a controlled manner in 4:22.13 on Saturday.
A tactical race on Sunday saw Snowden make the first real move before being overhauled by two strong finishing rivals as she placed third in a season’s best time of 4:19.34.
Given the current strength of British female middle-distance racing, Snowden may not secure selection for the GB team for the upcoming European Indoor Championship in Glasgow, as she has yet to attain the qualifying time this season.
But her performance was encouraging at this early stage of the year and she can be happy to bring home another national championship medal.
Awuah will also have to wait until the British team is announced, as her third place in the women’s 60m final means she narrowly missed the automatic places available to the first two finishers if they have the qualifying standard.
Awuah has run the time, so she is in a strong position for the third team place.
After winning her heat and placing second in her semi-final, her final time of 7.35 won her a medal and put her in the mix for Glasgow selection, especially given her very strong PB performances in Berlin a week earlier.
Harriers were out in force in the Surrey League cross country races with the senior team performing superbly, the women in Richmond Park and the men in Lloyd Park. The Herne Hill women’s team smashed it in their Division One race with the full A team of five finishing in the top 15.
Stacey Ormerod made light of tired legs from a big week of training to clearly win the race, followed in by new member Jordan Foster, who began her HHH team life with a seventh place. Sarah Grover was eighth and Fiona de Mauny 10th. The A team was closed in 15th, thanks to a great breakthrough run for Olivia Zeltner.
Harriers women’s B team also won by a clear margin, courtesy of Nikki Sturzaker (34th), Lara Langston (48th), Katie Balme (57th), Aimee Hargreaves (58th) and Helen Hadjam (67th).
The Herne Hill men’s team finished fourth on the day and fifth overall in the end of season standings.
Herne Hill B team placed second on the day, beating the Division One A team champions Hercules Wimbledon by one point into third, a super show of squad depth. The team comprised Jeff Cunningham in 63rd, followed in by some others who would more usually score in the A team – Jack Dickenson (76th), Alan Barnes (77th), Jack Brotchie (78th), Andrew Grigg (81st), Carl Delaney (88th), Matthew Munro (97th), Bryn Reynolds (99th), Simon Thompson (110th) and John Appleton (116th).
In the women’s league there is still one race remaining, on March 2 in Lloyd Park. Having been 83 points behind Southern Cross country champions Thames Hare & Hounds before Saturday’s race, Herne Hill are now only 31 in arrears going into the final race and have the opportunity to take the league title race down to the wire.
