Penney is on the money

It was another busy weekend for Hercules Wimbledon with Commonwealth Games runner Dwayne Cowan opening his summer track programme and other Club athletes picking up titles and medals in the South of England Championships at Bedford and Surrey Schools Championships.

Stand-out Hercules Wimbledon performance at the South of England Championships at Bedford was the Senior Men’s 5000m silver medal-winning performance by Andrew Penney. He crossed the line in a lifetime best of 14:36.32 after finishing third in his heat the previous day in 15:15.34. He took almost 19 seconds off his previous best of 14:55.02 set two months earlier.

European U20 Championships representative Rechmial Miller showed his best form of the summer in finishing fifth in the Senior Men’s 100m Championship in 10.55, racing into a slight headwind. He improved through the rounds winning his heat in 10.66 and finishing second in his semi-final in 10.55 with a slight tailwind.

Teenager Ryan Facey, in only his first year in athletics, just missed out on a medal in the U20 100m final. The Surrey silver medallist clocked a lifetime best of 10.86 into a slight headwind finishing 0.02 seconds behind the bronze medallist.

Teenager Jaleel Roper showed his best form of the summer in winning the Surrey Schools Intermediate Boys 100m title at Kingston. He raced to victory in the final in 11.06 seconds, after sailing through the heats in 11.38.

“It indicated Jaleel is getting back to his best form after slightly pulling his hamstring at the England Indoor Championships in February at Sheffield,” said coach Paul Miller. “It was only his second competition of the summer so I expect him to go faster now.”

It completed a hat-trick of Surrey Schools 100m titles for Roper, since he has taken the Junior Boys gold medals in the previous two seasons. Tara Bartlett (Junior Girls 200m) and Ellen Weir (Junior Girls 1500m) raced to bronze medal winning performances at Kingston. Over at the London Schools Championships in Battersea Park, however, there was disappointment for another of the Club's talented young sprinters, Zipporah Golding. Having won her heat, hamstring problems prevented her from getting amongst the medals in the final, where she finished fourth.

Dwayne Cowan showed good form when he competed in two European Classic Meetings. He finished third in the 400 metres in Prague in 46.18 and four days later was fifth in Chorzow, Poland, in a slightly slower 46.31. These were his first races since competing in the Commonwealth Games in Australia in April.

Hercules Wimbledon’s men posted their best performance of the season in finishing runners-up in their home Rosenheim League Eastern division meeting at Wimbledon Park, while the women’s team continued to dominate their section. Supervet Dominic Bokor-Ingram won the men’s 400m, while there was a quartet of women’s victories thanks to Ayoola Ajayi (400m) and U17s Johanna Tofte (200m) and Rebekah Riches (800m), together with the 4 x 200m relay team. (Note, though, that despite this result the men's team currently only lie in fifth place in the League, so please see Fred Green's rallying call for the next match, below!).

On Monday night the Vets were in action at Walton. Official results have yet to be posted, however Richard McDowell clocked a p.b. in the 5000m of 16:05.2, Peter Giles won the M70s 800m, and the relay team of Hamed Agboke, Mike Amsden, Matt de Freitas and Mark White comfortably won the relay. According to team manager Dave Orchard, 'again the women looked fabulous and there are now so many more of them!  We welcomed Helen Davies who was going to non-score in the 800m but ran in the 5000m instead – versatile eh? Also it was excellent to see Stuart Milton back and throwing in the Discus and Javelin'.

Club runners took the men’s and women’s honours in Saturday’s Bushy Park 5km parkrun. Jonny Cornish headed home the 1266-strong field in 15:41 with Claire Grima first woman in 18:22. Elsewhere Adam Harwood was the best of 16 Hercules Wimbledon runners on Wimbledon Common finishing second in 17:49 and Fred Slemeck was second of 282 runners in Keswick in 16:37. Emilie Bokor-Ingram was second woman finisher in Amager, Denmark, in 21:20.

Hercules Wimbledon’s teenage European junior championships hopeful Chad Miller, will be aiming to clinch his place in the team when he competes in the England U20 Championships at Bedford this weekend. He is entered for both the 100 and 200 metres. His stronger event is the 200m where he is the third fastest of the 44 runners entered. He decided to miss last weekend’s South of  England Championships to focus on the England Championships. The club’s other youngsters will be in action in their third Youth Development League Lower Age Group meeting at Sutcliffe Park, Eltham, on Sunday.

Results

June 6: Rosenheim League Division East, Match 3, Wimbledon Park  Full results

June 8: Run Dorney Half Marathon, Eton

1 Dominic Kiralyfi (HW) 73:28; 2 Chris Mason (West 4) 75:44 (203 finishers)
 

South of England Championships, Bedford

Sat June 9 (a); Sunday June 10 (b)

Senior Men

100 (a): 5 Rechmial Miller 0:.55/+0.1 SF: 2 Rechmial Miller 10.55/-1.6 Heat 1 (a): 5 Ross Whelan 11.47/-0.6

200 (b): 8 Antonio Douglas 23.57/-0.7 Heat 2: 7 Armani Thomas 23.51/-1.1 Heat 3: 8 Devonte Casely-Hayford 24.71/-0.8  

5000 (b): 2 Andrew Penney 14:36.32 (pb) Heat 1 (a): 3 Andrew Penney 15:15.34   

U20 Men

100 (a): 4 Ryan Facey 10.86/-0.1 Heat 1: 3 Ryan Facey 11.11/-0.3 

5000 (b): 2 Andrew Penney 14:36.32 (pb) Heat 1 (a): 3 Andrew Penney 15:15.34  

U20 Women

1500 (b): 1 Alex Brown (2C) 4:29.90

June 9 parkrun results

Bushy Park, Teddington

1 Jonathan Cornish (HW) 15:41; 2 Matt Atkins (Kingston & Poly) 15:57 (Other HW): 19 Claire Grima (HW-1st F) 18:22; 98 Richard Clark 20:48; 404 Maurice Sharp 24:51 (1266 finishers) 

Keswick

1 Unknown 1633: 2 Frederick Slemeck (HW) 16:37 (282 finishers)

Wimbledon Common

1 Matthew Glitz (Unattached) 17:33; 2 Adam Harwood (HW) 17:49 Other HW: 5 Hector Revill (U15B) 18:15; 23 Alexandros Tsagkas 20:08; 28 Tony Saiban 20:18; 31 Tom Cheetham 20:25; 39 Charles Hampden-Smith 20:53; 45 Simon Bodle 21:10; 52 Ben Revill 21:19; 55 Lisa Thomas (4th F) 21:22; 62 Dominic Fraser 21:40; 74 David Scrimshaw 22:09; 82 Simon Woodington 22:23; 96 Tor-Ivar Guttolsrod 22:41; 140 Peter Metcalf 23:54; 236 Alastair Brown 26:14; 407 Niamh Wilson 31:59 (509 finishers)

Amager, Denmark

1 Henrik Skifte (Unattached) 18:55 HW: 8 Emilie Bokor-Ingram (2nd F) 21:20 (85 Finishers)

Dulwich Park, SE21

1 Matthew Rees (Swansea H) 15:52 HW: 4 David Lewin 17:03 (388 finishers)

Richmond Park

1 Martin Shore (Thames H&H) 16:47 HW: 7 Simon Woodley 19:22 (419 finishers)

Old Deer Park, Richmond

1 James Riley (Ranelagh H) 17:50 HW: 8 Gabriel Durand 20:12 (140 finishers)  

Sheringham, Norfolk

1 Finlay Swanson (North Norfolk) 19:29 HW: 10 Gary Forde 22:43 (165 finishers) 

Roundshaw Downs, Croydon

1 David White (Croydon H) 18:57 HW: 19 Martin O’Halloran 22:02 (143 finishers)

Eastville Park, Bristol

1 Jonathan Thewlis (Vegan R) 15:39 HW: 25 James Greene 20:41 (413 finishers) 

Boulder, Colorado, USA

1 Sophie Seward 17:49 HW: 29 Kate Driskell 28:58 (58 finishers)

Lymington, Hants

1 Duncan Hooper (Poole) 17:30 HW: 49 Katarina Scrimshaw 25:00 (169 finishers) 

Bishops Park, Fulham, SW6

1 Christopher Greenwood (Kent) 15:37 HW: 66 Thomas Beare 20:49; 296 Charlotte Lam 27:52; 386 Sophie Beare 31:09 (444 finishers)  

Tooting Common, SW17

1 David Wilson (Thames H&H) 16:10 HW: 258 Keith Scofield 25:51; 505 Victor Ray 31:47 (605 finishers)

Kingston

1 Robert Eveson (St Mary’s Richmond) 17:51 HW: 292 John Wasbrough 39:58 (308 finishers)