Weekly Update 30th Apr. 2025
- Noel Carmody
- Apr 30
- 6 min read
Updated: May 4
London Marathon (Sun. 27th Apr.)
The club had twenty-six finishers at the London Marathon on Sunday , held in warm conditions, that probably impacted some performances. Bobby Babaker (pictured left) produced an excellent performance on debut to finish in 69th place overall in 2:25:19. James Macdonald (pictured right) was the next Harrier to cross the line in 2:29:39. The clubs first lady in was Jessica Lowe in 3:35:54.
Results: Bobby Babaker 2:25:19, James Macdonald 2:29:39, Kyle Hurst 2:38:09, Ben Shearer 2:32:69, John O'Mahony 2:38:35, Duncan Hope 2:52:35, David Worden 2:54:03, Rob Shearer 2:57:18, Geoffrey Smith 2:55:06, Anthony McGinty 3:00:02, Stephen Thompson 3:00:54, Ben Rew 3:08:15, Paul Broadway 3:18:23, Jonathan Sargent 3:20:20, Marco Piccirillo 3:32:19, Jessica Lowe 3:35:54, Clinton Lowe 3:36:49, Chantelle McGinty 3:40:31, Rose Baker 3:41:03, Maggie Illingworth 3:54:32, Roger Henderson 4:25:42, Sophie Johnson 4:36:25, Lucy Hine 4:43:15, Maria Macdonald 5:16:40, Mark Newell 6:49:06, Paul Warricker 6:58:43.
London Mini Marathon (Sat. 26th Apr.)
Twenty-eight of our young athletes represented their respective boroughs (Greenwich/Lewisham) in this year's London Mini Marathon, reports Mark Newell. Starting at Horse Guard Parade, the 2.6km course finished along The Mall at the iconic finish of the London Marathon. Each race had in excess of 100 athletes.
There were a number of notable performances on the day. Highest placed finisher for the club was Charlotte Foster in 6th place in the under 13 girls race. Seren and Esther Yeatman were part of the Lewisham team that finished 2nd team of 25 boroughs in the under 13 girls race. In the under 15 girls race, Celia Yeatman (26th) and Celia Allen (30th) helped Lewisham Borough to 6th team place.
Herbie Tobin put in a good performance in the under 13 boys race when placing 30th overall. In the under 17 boys race, Olly Buck and Oliver Cook both finished within five seconds of each other in 19th and 24th respectively.
Kent Young Athletes League, Ashford (Sat. 26th Apr.)
The summer league action got underway on Saturday with the first of the Kent Young Athlete League fixtures at Ashford, with depleted squads due to the London Mini Marathon.
U13B (Martin Johnson): The three athletes who travelled, were all competitive debutants. Rafael Rosoga, recovered in time from a week under the weather to take on both the 1500m & 200m, finishing in 5:35.02s and 29.4s respectively. Israel Ajao, posted two impressive B String performances clocking 13.70s for a second placed finish in the 100m and jumping 1.25m for a first in the high jump.
The standout performances was reserved for Oladesire Ayinia, who opened his account with a new 75m hurdles club age group record. Oladesire cleared the barriers cleanly to cross the line first in 12.70s. An impressive 13.29s for third was to follow in the 100m, before rounding off his days work with his second club age group record of the day, jumping 1.60m in the high jump!
U13G (Debbie Cook): The U13G comprised a small squad of three new members, Shahzia Abdula, Emily Floyd and Allie Rioland. The girls worked hard in their first outing for the Club to cover as many events as possible, but unfortunately, we had insufficient numbers to field a relay team.
U15B (Annisha Thomas): It was an amazing start to the season for the U15B Team. They competed to a high standard and should be very proud of their achievements. Special mention to Elazar Adejinmi who jumped 1.70m in the high jump, Kendrick Onolememen first in shot put with a throw of 13.45m, Lucas Colley PBs in both 300m and 100m and Waylon Lee first in B-string 100m and on track to run a sub-12 time this season with this run timed at 12.05s. The icing on the cake was a superb win in the 4x100m relay.
U15G (Emily Yeatman): The U15G made a solid start to the KYAL. It was the first time that some of the girls had participated in a league competition and for the club. In the high jump new joiners Udoka Mokwenye (1.45m) and Evelyn Grayston (1.35m) which was a fantastic debut for both. We also had a great debut from Belle Farram who ran the 300m (46.41s) and long jump (3.86m).
Sophie Floyd, Esther and Seren Yeatman travelled to Ashford after competing in the London Mini Marathon Borough Challenge. They all picked up valuable points for the team. Sophie in the 300m (46.53s) and shot (6.94m). Seren came a close 4th in the 1500m with Sophia-Rose Bonnar 3rd. Esther picked up the shot to help secure some points.
Vittoria Arleo attempted 75mH for the first time and gained some competition experience to build on for future events. Chloe Lindsay, came 3rd in the javelin with a respectable 15.66m. Amaiah Lopez-Teape placed 3rd in non-scoring 100 with Victoria Erinfolami (2nd A-string) and Samuela Cuffie (3rd B- string). Lizzie McKen came 3rd in both the 75mH and long jump. The 4 x 100 relay squad (Victoria E, Samuela, Amaiah L-T and Lizzie McKen) demonstrated amazing team-work and the benefit of a couple of early practice sessions (thank you coach Kenny!), finishing second to a strong Medway team.
Well done to all the girls - looking forward to seeing how the rest of the season progresses.
UK Youth Development League (Upper), Woodford (Sun. 27th Apr.)
After relegation from the lofty heights of the Southern Premiership last year, writes Mick Bond the question was could we be strong enough to challenge for a bounce back promotion? The YDL (Upper) covers the U17 & U20 age groups and there is always a lot of “churn” as athletes move out the top of the age group or take time out for GCSE’s and A Levels whilst others move into the age group having graduated from U15s. The first match of the season is when the team managers on paper team sheets meet reality! Our opposition were five strong clubs from across the South East including home club Woodford Green who’s Under 15’s were third at National finals last year, suggesting a very strong U17 team this year.
Conditions were ideal with warm sunny weather and a gentle breeze, whilst team spirit was great and in the end we finished second to Woodford but well ahead of Medway, Croydon, Crawley and Basildon. With home advantage at the second match in the series a win over Woodford would leave it all to play for in the final match
Sprints: The standard at this match was high to say the least with a number of National Champions competing for their clubs, but we held our own finishing 1st, 2nd or 3rd in most races. In the relays a seemingly cursed 2nd change over for three of our teams meant we didn’t quite perform as well as we could but we still managed top three placings.
Hurdles: To say we dominated in this area is an understatement as we won eight out of eight of the sprint hurdle races and six out of eight in the 3/400m hurdles events. Special mention for Hans Nmaju (pictured below in full flight) who’s 100m hurdle time of 13.18s was a PB, club record and a UK leading time.
Middle Distance: With the Mini Marathon the previous day and exams this week our middle-distance squad was weakened. This is where we struggled last year especially on the girl’s side but a number of athletes doubled up and came along despite Marathon fatigue and we picked up good points in most events. Amelia Lawrence (pictured (foreground) with Celia Yeatman (U17)) impressed with another 800m PB of 2:17.61s, whilst Delilah Lester had a winning debut in the steeplechase.
Throws: Javelin thrower Freddie Luckett (pictured) volunteered to cover the B string 400 after someone dropped out with injury. He won the event in a PB of 53.15s but then collapsed with a combination of exhaustion and heat stroke. The on-site medic said he should go home but he stayed, and a couple of hours later threw 52m in the javelin for second place with Cian Whelan backing up with a 41m PB to win the B-String. Elsewhere Brenda Adetunji stepped up and won the U20 women’s shot despite being an U17 and had good support from Kiki Olaigbe across the throws.
Jumps: Daniel Obike comfortably cleared 1.90m after his 1.95m at last week’s club trials. In the triple jump we won four out of the six men’s and women’s strings with Tess Hepple setting her third PB of the day with an 11.03m jump. In the long Jump Jack Jones won the U20 competition with a 6.46m though a hamstring pull in the 4th round ended his day early.
Adidas Manchester Marathon (Sun. 27th Apr.)
Three club members travelled up to Manchester for the Adidas Manchester Marathon. Jack Beresford- Allan reduced his PB by 45 minutes with a time of 3:00:06. Amy Smith (W45) recorded a time of 3:23:57 and Sebastian Onorati (M45) 3:52:47.
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