Herne Hill Harriers had seven men towing the start lines for the Daunting 25 laps of the track challenge that is the 10,000m, competing at an excellent Sunday afternoon of athletics organised by local club Kent AC at Ladywell.

Two found the going a bit too tough, but the five finishers all ran personal best (PB) times as some prepare for autumn marathons and others get ready for the upcoming road relays and cross country season which will soon be upon us.

Henry Brown was a very good second place in his race with a time of 35.27.60, followed not far behind by Jonathan Ratcliffe who is still able to run a lifetime PB in his 50s with 35.48.73. A third best performance in the same race came from M40 Gav Newsum, who ran 35.59.36.

In the following race Matt Cartwright clocked 35.13.48 and then as the race pace quickened through the programme of seven races the in-form Andrew Grigg ran an excellent 32.44.70 as his relentless progress continues unabated.

This was a good display of strength from the Harriers male runners who were preceded by some good road racing on Sunday morning at the Maidenhead Half Marathon. In warm weather Robin Jones clocked 76.30, Matt Munro 78.49, Eric Dol 81.06, Richard Keeble 83.31 and James Ward 89.17.

Herne Hill Masters men’s and women’s team both qualified for Sunday’s South of England track and field league final at Ashford as the best from the South London Division over the season. Full results are not yet available at the time of reporting, but the teams saw some valiant and in a few cases very good quality performances from those who turned out, the likely overall outcome is thought to be the men finishing fifth team on the day and the women in sixth. These squads will be aiming to build on this latest experience and return stronger next summer.

On Tuesday the Great Britain team was announced for the upcoming World Athletics Championship in Doha and Herne Hill Harriers are delighted to see the inclusion of star sprinter Kristal Awuah, who is selected in a strong women’s 4 x 100m relay squad to travel to the Middle East, more global championship experience for her, following last year’s World Junior Championship.