Herne Hill Harriers missed out on a team medal by nine points at the Southern Cross Country Championships at Exmouth in Devon last weekend, writes Stan Allen.

Harriers' star was Matt Norminton, who finished second in the nine-mile race to another HHH John Downes, who was racing for his first-claim club London Irish.

Dave Taylor, another HHH runner, was fourth for his first-claim club Blackheath.

Herne Hill's heroes were Keith Newton 35th, Dave Robinson 40th, Mike Boyle 56th and Paul Phillips 82nd.

Simon Coombes was 113th, Ben Woodd 120th and Vic Maughn 148th.

Ian Lockett, who normally runs number two in the squad, pulled a hamstring in the first 800m of the race.

Sam Kissi finished 14th in the U15 race.

Herne Hill won a hatful of medals from the National Indoor Championships for U15, U17 and U20 athletes in Birmingham.

Precious Ojighoro won the U15 400m in 54.0 seconds.

At U17 level, Dexter Nicholls won the triple jump.

Shani Rainford took silver in the high jump with 1.68m, only missing out on gold on the counttback while Rebekkah Pasley took silver in the long jump. Moyo Sankofa's 50.26sec run earned bronze in the 400m.

January 31, 2003 11:32