Herne Hill Harriers round-up: Minetti wins gold at European Masters Championship
After narrowly missing out on making the final of the M50 400m, Giuseppe Minetti became the one Herne Hill Harriers athlete to win a European Masters Championship gold medal three days later last Thursday in Venice. Minetti ran a very hard, committed and fast bend to lead his 200m final and clocked 24.25, just two hundredths ahead of the silver medalist.
Earlier in the day Minetti had been a more emphatic winner of his 200m semi-final in the fastest qualifying time (24.03). He won his heat the day before in 24.78.
Allan Long was an excellent fourth in the M75 200m final with a season’s best 30.25.
Harriers athletes won more European Masters medals last Friday as both Fiona de Mauny and Mike Cummings doubled their collection of silver medals, this time in their respective 800m finals.
W35 athlete de Mauny raced superbly as she placed second in a race she was realistically never likely to win, producing another season’s best after also doing so to win her 400m silver earlier in the championship with her time of 2:12.78.
Cummings also won his second silver medal in his first Masters Championship meet, racing in the M35 age group (1:57.25).
Cummings’ wife Penelope also came home from Venice with a European medal after finishing fourth in her W40 age group in the 20Km race walk on Saturday afternoon. This result enabled her to claim a team bronze medal with the Great Britain Masters women’s race walk team. She had two sixth-place finishes in the short road race walk and the 5,000m track race walk earlier in the week.
Allan Long made sure that all six club members came home with at least one go on the medal podium. He was part of a GB bronze medal 4x100m relay team.
Harriers’ M50 team won the Surrey Road Relay Championships title at Wimbledon Park on Saturday. The winning team was Gary Ironmonger (16:44), Jonathan Ratcliffe (16:47), Mike Boyle (18:16) and Tom Conlon (17.06).
The W45 team of Helen Oldfield (19:13), Fiona Nicholson (20:58) and Alexandra Fendina (23:54) also won bronze medals as the third-placed team in their category.
The senior men’s A team were fourth. Angus Butler clocked 14:38 for the three-mile loop, the fourth fastest overall time of the day). Nick Bester, in preparation for the Berlin Marathon recorded 14:54, then Matt Cartwright (15:55), Arlo Ludewick (15:31), Henry Brown (15:47) and Eoin Brady (15:57) completed the team.
The B team were 12th courtesy of Simon Coombes (15:07), Jeff Cunningham (15:31), Jack Dickenson (15:53), Ed Crowther (16:16), Stuart Morrison (21:23) and Eriç Dol (16:26).
The M40 team placed seventh thanks to Fabio Maroni (19:39), Robin Sanderson (17:45), James Ward (18:20) and Deron Fagan (22:41). The depleted senior women’s team came 10th – Julia Wedmore (17:52), Shannon Sinclair (19:56), Laura Miles (23:02) and Kate Crawford (22:09).
Bester came second at Run Through Richmond Park Half Marathon, while Jack Brotchie clocked 73:43 in the Copenhagen Half Marathon. Brotchie clocked his second-fastest 5,000m time of 15:35 when racing at the Kent AC races at Ladywell – Ratcliffe ran 17:31 as a tune up before featuring in the gold medal M50 team at Wimbledon on Saturday.
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