Athletics: Hercules Wimbledon Athletic Club

Another of the club’s youngsters was selected to represent the UK in this weekend’s European Junior Championships in Sweden, while several athletes will be turning out for Surrey in this weekend’s South of England under 17 inter-counties match at Chelmsford on Sunday, writes Tom Pollak.

Hercules Wimbledon teenager Chad Miller is competing for Britain in the 100m and 4x100m relay in this weekend’s European junior championships in Boras, Sweden.

He is following in the footsteps of his older brother Rechmial who represented Britain in the 2017 European championships in Italy. Chad clinched his place in the team with a fine 10.43 seconds effort in an international meeting in Germany last month.

Another talented Hercules Wimbledon teenager Freddie Arkell will be representing England in the Home Countries Schools international in Swansea on Saturday after taking the junior boys 100m silver medal at the English Schools Championships in Birmingham in a lifetime best of 11.18, last weekend. It ranks him second in the UK for his age group this season. He also tops the 200m rankings. Georgie Clarke also reached the intermediate girls 1500m final in finishing seventh in her heat in a lifetime best of 4:44.96. She finished ninth of the 12 runners in the final in a sightly slower 4:45.30.

International 400m runner Dwayne Cowan turned out to support the Hercules Wimbledon track and field team at Worthing and ran a superb opening leg of 48.1 for the mixed 4x400m relay team. He linked up with Rebekah Riches, Jaleel Roper and Rebecca Afriyie to set the team on the winning road. It clocked a swift 3:45.0 seconds, just outside the divisional record, to win by a massive 15 seconds.

Sprinter Ryan Facey gained a hat-trick taking the 100 and 200 metres in 11.1 and 22.5 before anchoring the sprint relay team to victory. Roper won the 100m B race in 11.5 and was second in the 200m B.

Hercules Wimbledon dominated the men’s endurance events with Tom Jervis winning the 1500m A and 3000m B races, Justin Reid the 1500m B and Finn Johnson the 3000m A race. Nicholas Thomas and Jamie Bannister won the 3000m steeplechase A and B races. Mark Andrews and Lance Power gained maximum points in the sprint hurdles while Andrews also won the 400m hurdles A race.

It was another busy day for all-rounder Andrews who competed in nine individual events. He also won the discus A and triple jump B, took second in the high jump A and shot, hammer and javelin B events and third in the pole vault A. Throwing exponent Sam Hitchings won the shot A and was second in the hammer A and discus B.

The day ended with Devonte Casely-Hayford, Roper, Armani Thomas and Facey linking up to win the 4x100m relay.

The club’s women also made a vital contribution to the team victory with teenager Rebekah Riches (400m A), Alice McCormack (800m B), Heather Jones (100m hurdles B and discus B), Lisa Thomas (400m hurdles A and 1500m steeplechase B), Ellen Weir (400m hurdles B and 1500m steeplechase A), Jenny Steinitz (pole vault, triple jump and javelin B) winning their events.

Match result: 1 Hercules Wimbledon 324.5pts; 2 Hastings 245; 3 Worthing 235.5; 4 Paddock Wood & Folkestone 99; 5 Medway park Phoenix 4.

The victory means Hercules Wimbledon are top of the Division Three South East table as the only unbeaten team in the 17 team division and short of a disaster in the final match at Tooting Bec next month are certain for promotion.

The following day, Lisa Thomas set a Hercules Wimbledon women’s over 50 2000m steeplechase record of 7:52.31 in helping Surrey win the South of England women’s inter-counties match at the Julie Rose Stadium, Ashford.

Sprinters Rechmial Miller, Theo Etienne and Ryan Facey head the Hercules Wimbledon contingent competing in the England senior championships at Bedford this weekend, which also incorporate the UK Inter-Counties Championships. Ellen Weir is running the 3000m for Surrey in the under 17 inter-counties meeting at Chelmsford on Sunday.