By Steve Bosley
This year's Reigate cross-country relays were low key for Herne Hill Harriers' men and women teams as our men were unable to repeat the routine team victory enjoyed in recent years.
The men placed a solid third, while the women slipped a place from last year's third to fourth this time in a race where wet conditions led to slower times overall.
Individually the performance of note came from Katie Snowdon was who returning to competition after injury.
Katie showed she is now well on her way back to full fitness in recording the second fastest women's time, running the 2.5 miles undulating course 15 seconds faster than last year.
Katie was second on the first leg and former road running international Ceri Diss, now a veteran and in a relatively rare racing outing of late, held this position on second stage.
Samantha Whiting ran well to keep the team in a prominent position on the final leg.
Although succumbing to the pace of the third best women of the race, Sam prevailed in holding off another challenger at the end to ensure a fourth-placed finish.
Jonny Henderson was the club's best man on the day, handing over in a close third at the end of first leg with a run that stood up as the equal sixth overall.
Jordan Stokes, Deron Fagan and veteran David Robinson kept the men's A team in third position for the remainder of the race, while never really being able to challenge for top two.
The men's B team, including Alan Barnes and John Kettle having run outs as part of their attempts to return from injury, placed a good seventh, while the C team were 27th of 43 complete teams of four, and the women's B team placed 19th of 21 full teams of three.
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