bu Jonny Muir
Katie Snowden smashed her personal best and the Herne Hill Harriers club record in a scintillating 1,500m performance on Sunday.
In a solo front-running effort, the 19-year-old from Balham clocked four minutes, 27.15 seconds to destroy the rest of the field and win the South of England AA U20 Inter County Championship at a windy Barnet Copthall stadium by 14 seconds.
In the process, she reduced her personal best by five seconds, surpassed Clare Pauzers’ former mark of 4:31.0 to enter Herne Hill's record books, and also broke the championship best time held by GB international Lisa Dobriskey by a second.
Another Harriers winner at the SEAA meeting was Saskia Millard, who triumphed in the U15 1,500m, clocking 4:45.93.
Harriers’ senior men’s team were in track and field action at the Southern Men’s League Division One championship play-off match at Eton, where they were narrowly defeated by Hercules Wimbledon.
Team manager Sam Knight once again led from the front, competing in seven events and gaining a personal best of 67.4 in the 400m hurdles.
Further highlights were a personal best of 1:56.0 and third place for U17 800m athlete Ed Olsen, while U20 John Tayleur followed a midweek 2:05.52 for 800m with another breakthrough performance, clocking 4:15.0 in the 1,500m. Billy Black, another U17 athlete, also acquitted himself admirably with a 2:03.5 finish in the 800m that was narrowly shy of his personal best.
Other notable showings included Tayo Andrews’ victory in the A-string high jump, Ben Paviour’s first place in the B 5,000m and Frederick Afrifa’s top spot in the B 200m. Fawaaz Okunola also ran impressively in the 100m A race, finishing second in 10.9.
On the road, Basil Wallace was Harriers’ leading contender at the Wimbledon Dash 5k, clocking 16:30 to finishing fifth. Gary Ironmonger was second V50 and 28th overall in 17:55. Helen Hodgson was first of the Herne Hill women home, finishing 76th overall in 20:38, closely followed by Hayley Cook (89th in 21:13). Other club finishers were Eric Dol (52nd in 19:26), Jessica Winfield (127th in 23:45) and Sarah Allen (141st in 24:43).
Robin Jones ran a 16:58 personal best at the Brockwell parkrun in finishing second, a place ahead of Richard Wonnacott in 17:40. Stuart Slavicky was 15th in 19:33. Elsewhere, Ben Hallifax was eighth at the Crystal Palace parkrun in 20:13.
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