Herne Hill Harriers Great Britain junior cross country international Charlotte Alexander was the winner of the under 17 women’s British Road 5km Championships held in conjunction with the Mini Marathon at the Virgin Money London Marathon on Sunday.
This is the second National age group title Alexander has won at this prestigious event and puts her in a very exclusive club of young stars over the years since this event was inaugurated and rounded off a superb cross country and road racing season.
It was a successful day for the Harriers young athletes, in particular the group coached by Wayne Vinton which includes Alexander. In addition to Alexander’s gun to tape victory, Phoebe Anderson placed tenth in the Regional under 17 women’s race, while Yasmin Marghini was the winner of the London Borough under 17 women’s category and Poppy Craig-McFeely was fourth under 15 girl from among those racing for their London Borough teams.
An epic weekend saw 25 first claim Herne Hill runners complete the London Marathon plus some second claim members, one of whom - by a very narrow margin - ran the quickest time on the day of those from among the club ranks. Richard Henderson's time of 2.29.59 ducked under his 2 hours 30 target by a single second, while Nick Bester missed the same goal by the same time gap as he clocked 2.30.01, just two seconds in arrears.
The results of the England Athletics national club team championship are awaited, but it is hoped that the three fastest Herne Hill women - Steph McCall 2.51.49, Stacey Ward 2.52.33 and Olivia Zeltner 3.04.07 - may be placed prominently. One thing that is known is that McCall wins the title of Herne Hill club women's marathon champion for 2019.
There were some excellent runs on the list in finishing order as follows: Rich Henderson 2.29.59, Nick Bester 2.30.01, Carl Delaney 2.33.29, Jeff Cunningham 2.39.13, Raj Paranandi 2.41.06, Jonathan Ratcliffe 2.43.19, Simon Thompson 2.47.18, Myles Preston 2.49, Eduardo Vallejo 2.50.24, Steph McCall 2.51.49, Matt Munro 2.51.58, Stacey Ward 2.52.33, Gav Newsum 2.54.30, Craig Barney 2.59.14. Olivia Zeltner 3.04.07, Jordan Foster 3.09.43, Ruth Chalmers 3.17.01, Andrew Simms 3.29.17, Daniel Williams 3.31.34, Rick Pearson 3.44.48 (pacing the 3.45 runners), Susan Mair 3.48.26, Chantal Berowksy 3.50.47, Ed Sayce 3.57.37, Evie McDermott 4.05.11, Bethan Dean 4.11.24, Nick Heptinstall 4.15.05 and Laura Miles 4.32.59.
There was also an excellent third place at the Shakespeare Marathon in Stratford upon Avon recorded by Angus Butler with a marathon debut run of 2.41.18 after a final ten days in which he was hardly able to run at all before his race, a fine performance on a not especially fast course.
Away from marathons in Spain, the ITU duathlon sprint world championship saw Sarah Grover win a gold medal in her age group, an exceptional achievement from another athlete who was very close to not being able to race and a wonderful reward for her efforts. Grover was not only the winner in her age group, but was actually the first British woman overall and placed fifth among all of the female finishers.
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