Teenager boosts Euro team hopes

Teenager Chad Miller posted the best performances of his young life at meetings in Cardiff and Loughborough to give a big boost to his chances of representing Britain in the European Junior Championships in Hungary this summer.

Young Miller caught the selectors’ eye with two impressive runs at the Loughborough International meeting on Sunday where he gained his first GB vest. He ran a superb leg to anchor GB Juniors to a narrow victory over the senior England team, following the disqualification of the GB senior quartet after crossing the line first.

Later, he finished a close second in the 200m in a personal best of 21.17, just eight-hundreds of a second behind the winner. His appearance at Loughborough came after a hectic week for young Chad. Four days earlier he ran two races in the Welsh Run with the Wind Sprints meeting in Cardiff where, with the benefit of a significant 3.7 metres per second tailwind he won in 20.68, his fastest-ever time over the distance. He also won the 100m in a lifetime best of 10.29, again with a strong 3.3 metres per second following wind. He then had relay practice in Loughborough on Friday and Saturday before Sunday’s big meeting.

“You can imagine after competing in Cardiff four days before Loughborough and then having relay practice, Chad would have been quite tired,” said his dad Paul, a former Surrey 100 metres champion who helps with his coaching. “But, he ran very well, particularly in the relay.”

Chad’s 21.17 improved on his previous legal best of 21.34 set in the opening round of the England championships in Bedford last year where he finished fifth in the final. He is now looking for a race in Europe where he can achieve the 21 seconds qualifying time for the Euro Junior championships being held in Gyor from July 5th-8th. He is currently ranked second among GB juniors over 100m and fourth over 200m. “He is obviously aiming at the individual events but whatever happens I’m hopeful he’ll be in the sprint relay squad.” said Miller.

Meanwhile, Chad's brother Rechmial, who will be 20 at the end of June, was third in his 200 metres race at Loughborough in 21.50 running into a 1.5 metres per second headwind.

Hercules Wimbledon dominated the second Southern Athletics League match in glorious sunshine at Wimbledon Park on Sunday, coming away comfortable winners. Our athletes were strong on the track and among the winners were Ryan Facey (100m and 200m A), Zachary Stapleton (100m and 400m B, Antonio Douglas (200m B and high jump A), Ross Whelan (400m A), Sam Barker (800m 1500m A), Nicholas Thomas (800m and 3000m steeplechase B), Henry Silverstein (1500m B),  David Lewin (3000m B), Rob Tuer (3000m steeplechase A), Dave Orchard (pole vault A and shot and hammer B), and Sam Hitchings (hammer and shot A).

In the women’s events winners included Tianna Gayle (100m and 200m B), Emilie Bokor-Ingram (400m A), Lisa Thomas (800m and 1500m steeplechase A), Alison Murray (pole vault A) and team manager Heather Jones, who competed in half a dozen events, winning the hammer B. The Club even had a clean sweep in the relays, winning all four races.

The day before, many of the Club's youngsters travelled to the second YDL match at Dartford, where the team finished fifth. There were wins for Kyra Stone in the U13 Girls 75m B string and Dhanisha Banee in the U15 Girls 200m B, and the U13 Girls team were also victorious in the 4 x 100m relay. There were strong performances from the middle distance contingent, with wins for Lulu Weisz (U15 Girls 800m A) and the two Millies in the U15G 1500m. Millie Thorpe won the A race and Millie Doyle the B race. Tom Beare and Sam Spencer also did the double, winning the U13 Boys 1500m A and B races respectively. In the U13 high jump A events, there were wins for both Mathieu Lacour and Mabel-Rose Scales, while Freddie Arkell (long jump A) and Scotti Noel (shot put A) also came first.

Full results have yet to come in, but the Vets team scored some impressive victories in their second match at Ewell Court on Monday night, including Richard McDowell in the 3000m, and the men's 4x400m relay team.

Jonny Cornish was the fastest of five Hercules Wimbledon runners in the Night of 10,000 PBs meeting at Parliament Hill Fields on Saturday, incorporating the British Championships and European Cup 10,000m. He was fourth in his race in a personal best of 30: 56.86 seconds, improving on his 31:23.27 in the same event last year. Ben Toomer also shaved over three seconds off his previous best finishing 15th in the same race in 31:30.42. Alex Robinson clocked 31:50.16 on his 10,000 metres track debut finishing 22nd. 


Tom mixes it with the Red Devils

Congratulations to Tom Cheetham who completed his run in the Paras 10 on Sunday 20th in Colchester, whilst carrying 35 pounds in a bergen (military backpack), in 1hr 50 minutes 8 seconds. He did, however, give the parachuting a miss, unlike the Red Devil seen with him in the photograph below. Donations which go to help severely injured paras can still be made through his fundraising page 


Results

May 19: YDL Division South Central 2, Dartford  Full results

May 19: Highgate Harriers Night of the 10,000m PBs (inc British Championships & European Cup 10,000m) Full results

May 20: SAL Wimbledon Park
Match result: 1 Hercules Wimbledon 191; 2 East Grinstead 164; 3 Holland Sports/Dorking & Mole Valley/Reigate Priory Composite 138; 4 London City Runners 68. Full results in next week's newsletter.

May 19, parkrun 5km

Bushy Park, Teddington

1 Jamie Hinton (Thames H&H) 16:28 HW: 11 James Greene 18:08; 16 Guy Cotter 18:32; 20 David Scrimshaw 18:40; 45 David Gold 19:29; 217 Barry King 22:15; 373 Maurice Sharp 23:35; 505 Katarina Scrimshaw 25:04; 760 Florence England 27:55 (1341 finishers) 

Wimbledon Common

1 Jonny Earl (HW) 16:11; 2 David Grima (HW) 17:17; 3 Henry Silverstein (HW) 17:18; 4 David Lewin (HW) 17:19 Other HW): 10 Richard Mcdowell 17:57; 18 Gina Galbraith (1st F) 19:06; 21 Peter Small 19:33; 24 Richard Evans 19:41; 35 Gabriel Durand 20:10; 40 Charles Hampden-Smith 20:24; 45 Dominic Fraser 20:40; 58 Lauren Armitage 21:04; 66 Lisa Thomas 21:19; 77 Tom Corbett 21:48; 87 Simon Bodle 22:18; 89 Simon Woodington 22:21; 102 Alison Purnell 22:39; 109 Ben Revill 22:40; 166 David Lanfranchi 24:14; 184 Alastair Brown 24:43; 219 Matthew Tyson 25:41; 231 Peter Metcalf 26:17; 306 Andrew Balcerkiewicz 28:14; 387 Luca Grima 31:18; 389 Alex Grima 31:21; 487 Jasper Grima 37:31 (507 finishers)

Richmond Park

1 Paulino Macias (Sheen Shufflers) 17:21 HW: 8 Andrew Davies 19:28 (411 finishers)

Roundshaw Downs, Croydon

1 Luke Fowkes-Smith (Unattached) 18:53 HW: 17 Martin O’Halloran 22:05 (141 finishers)

Guildford

1 Slava Galancia (Unattached) 18:33 HW: 167 Scarlett Miller 24:55 (518 finishers)

Kingston

1 Gary Denny (Unattached) 18:31 HW: 37 Richard Mellor 21:39; 284 John Wasbrough 39:31 (299 finishers)

Colchester Castle, Essex

1 Jason Gunn (Unattached) 17:14 HW: 123 Rachel Brenton 24:50 (389 finishers)

South Norwood, Croydon, SE25

1 Phil Symonds (Unattached) 18:07 HW: 3 Chris Ore 19:03 (114 finishers)

Bishops Park, Fulham, SW6

1 Chris Olley (Tonbridge) 14:45 HW: 37 Finlay White 19:38; 185 Michelle Howie 25:15 (425 finishers)

Clapham Common

1 Andrew Wallace (Unattached) 17:24 HW: 38 Victor Ray 19:52; 62 Keith Scofield 20:34 (526 finishers)