Let's Hear it for the Girls

The Club’s women’s team dominated their events in the penultimate Southern Athletics League match at the David Weir Leisure Centre, Carshalton, on Saturday 14th, to help the squad run out comfortable winners. And in the Rosenheim League match on the following Wednesday the women's team consolidated their lead in the table by winning their match, while the men also answered team manager Heather Jones's rallying call. Their mission was a simple one: beat Croydon to qualify for the finals on 22 August. Not only did the team win the match but according to the provisional results, they finished third in the League.

Meanwhile at the Youth Development League match at the Linford Christie Stadium, the winning U15 Girls 4 x 100m team, who have designs on the Club record of 48.9 set back in 1996, came home in 51.6.

At the SAL, victories by Ayoola Ajayi and Emilie Bokor-Ingram (400m A and B), Rebekah Riches and Selma Hegvold (800m A and B), Alex Binley and Vikki Filsell (1500m A and B) and Claire Grima and Binley (5000m A and B) laid the foundations for the victory.

Once again team manager Heather led from the front with a hat-trick of victories in both the 100m and 400m hurdles and 1500m steeplechase B race as well as picking up valuable points in the high jump, triple jump, shot, discus, hammer and javelin. W50 Lisa Thomas won the steeplechase A race and the HW team also won the women’s 4x400m relay.

There were maximum points, too, in the men’s 400m hurdles thanks to Finn Blakeney and Rowan Davies. Rob Tuer and Nicholas Thomas also gained maximum points in the 3000m steeplechase while M55 Dave Orchard won the pole vault and shot and hammer B, and Ben Taplin and Stuart Milton won the javelin A and B events.

Devonte Casely-Hayford won the 200m B race after Armani Thomas was second in the A race. Thomas and Casely-Hayford were also second in the 100m A and B races and Antonio Douglas and Dominic Bokor-Ingram were second in their respective 400m races. James Meiklejohn won the 800m B race and David Grima took the 3000m B race.

Andrew Bullimore took the long jump A and triple jump B events while teenager Morgan Sullivan reaped the benefits of working with visiting Jamaican coach Kerrylee Ricketts, winning the triple jump A and achieving second place in the long jump B. The men's team were also victorious in the 4x400m relay.

Match result: 1 Hercules Wimbledon 214pts; 2 Sutton & District 176; 3 Lewes and Haywards Heath 140; 4 Paddock Wood and Folkestone 49.

Congratulations to Freddie Arkell who won the 100m at the London Youth Games at Crystal Place in 11.7; and to Finn Johnson who came second in his age group in the Estonia European Triathlon.

There was further disappointment for Hercules Wimbledon’s Chad Miller in the sprint relay at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Tampere, Finland. Having failed by just two hundredths of a second to make the 100 metres final he ran a strong second leg to put the 4 x 100 team in medal contention. Unfortunately, the anchor leg runner went too early and failed to receive the baton so the quartet failed to finish.

There was relay drama too for Hercules Wimbledon’s Dwayne Cowan in the inaugural World Cup meeting at the London Stadium. Cowan was due to run the second leg for the British team in the 4x400m relay, the final event of the two-day meeting. But the first leg runner pulled out with a hamstring injury and the team failed to start.

Eighteen Hercules Wimbledon runners were in action in the Wimbledon Common 5km parkrun on Saturday, 14th, with veteran Gina Galbraith first woman in 19:11, just 12 seconds outside her personal best set a month earlier. She was 13th out of the 432 finishers. Adam Harwood was fourth in 17:31 with teenager Hector Revill seventh in 17:31, five seconds outside his personal best. Over 45 veteran Peter Collins was eighth in 18:39. Finn Johnson was runner-up on his debut appearance in the Liverpool event, where there were 340 finishers, in 16:43.

14 July Southern Athletics League Division 3SE Full results

21 July Youth Development U13/U15 League Division South Central 2, Linford Christie Stadium  Full results