Top Quartet in British Championships

A quartet of the Club's top runners will be in action in this weekend’s British Athletics Championships in Birmingham, which also doubles as the trials for the European Championships.

One lap runner Dwayne Cowan is the strongest contender for a place in the British team to compete in the European Championships which are being held in Berlin from August 7th to 12th. Cowan goes into this weekend’s Championships as Britain’s third fastest 400m runner this season with 45.68, posted in the Commonwealth Games in Australia in April. He has only had two races since then.

Cowan had an outstanding 2017 which culminated in his winning the IAAF Diamond League 400m in Birmingham in August in a lifetime best of 45.34. He also helped Britain take bronze medals in the 4x400m relay at the IAAF World Championships in London clocking the fastest leg of the four runners.

Fresh from his victory in the England Under 20 100m Championship in Bedford, which gained him selection for the IAAF World Junior Championships in Finland next month, Hercules Wimbledon teenager Chad Miller comes up against senior opposition including his elder brother Rechmial in the 100m Championship, where a third Hercules Wimbledon runner, Theo Etienne, will also be in action.

Chad’s 10.35 victory at Bedford earlier this month ranks him 15th in the country ahead of his two clubmates. He will do well to reach the semi-finals but his aim is to consolidate his form before he flies out to Finland a few days later. Etienne is ranked 23rd with a season’s best of 10.40 achieved in Italy last month, while Rechmial’s 10.53 posted in Poland earlier this month ranks him 40th.

Hercules Wimbledon teenager Zac Purnell showed good form to beat a 113-strong field to win the Bridge Triathlon in Dartford by almost two minutes in 1:10:04. He won both the swimming and cycling phases and was narrowly beaten in the running phase. His mum, Alison, was also first in her age group in the standard distance event : 1500m swim, 42km bike and 10km run.

Club runners dominated the track events in the third Southern Athletics League meeting of the season at Twickenham on Saturday winning 24 of the 40 events. Armani Thomas and Devonte Casely-Hayford gained maximum points in the 100m before finishing second and first in their respective 200m races. Charlie Easthaugh and Nicholas Thomas gained maximum points in the 800m before Thomas won the 400m B race. Teenager Sam Barker took the 1500m while Belal Aly and Jonny Earl won the 5000m A and B races, with Earl also finishing second in the 1500m B race. Rob Tuer and Lance Power also gained maximum points in the 2000m steeplechase.

The women's team also performed strongly with Selma Hegvold and Olivia Drigui winning the 200m A and B races, Rebekah Riches and Olivia taking the 400m A and B events, Claire Grima and Selma taking the 1500m A and B races, and Claire and Gina Galbraith securing maximum points in the 3000m. Lisa Thomas and Heather Jones won the steeplechase A and B races and HW were victorious in both the 4x100m and 4x400m relays. Former Scottish international Alison Murray won the pole vault and triple jump B and was second in the high jump, while Maider Lizoain won the high jump B. Team manager Heather Jones led by example winning the triple jump A and steeplechase B and taking second in th 100m and 400m hurdles A races.

Hercules Wimbledon runners dominated the Wimbledon Common 5km parkrun for the second successive week providing both the men’s and women’s individual winners and the top three in the women’s event.

Ben Toomer maintained his impressive record of wins heading home the 460-strong field in 15 minutes 49 seconds. He has only failed to win the event four out of 44 times since competing in it for the first time in March 2014. He was the first of 19 Hercules Wimbledon runners in the event with M50 Stuart Fraser fifth in 18:04, just one second ahead of M45 Peter Collins in sixth place.

Competing in the event for the first time for a month, Alex Binley was top woman finisher in a personal best of 19:02, slicing nine seconds off her previous best time set in July last year. Ellen Weir, 14, was second in the women’s race, also in a personal best of 19:53, a big improvement on her previous best of 20:41 set in April last year. Eileen Brandley was third woman finisher in 20:00.

Results

June 23: Southern Athletics League Division 3SE
Teams: 1 St Mary's Richmond 206; 2 Hercules Wimbledon 184; 3 Swale Combined 96; 4 Thanet 86  Full results

June 23: parkrun 5km

Wimbledon Common

1 Ben Toomer (HW) 15:49 other HW: 5 Stuart Fraser (M50) 18:04; 6 Peter Collins 18:05; 11 Alex Binley (1st F) 19:02; 13 Richard Evans 19:20; 17 Ellen Weir (2nd F) 19:53; 18 Eileen Brandley (3rd F) 20:00; 22 Edward Charlesworth 20:11; 24 Charles Hampden-Smith 20:16; 42 Lauren Armitage 20:54; 63 David Scrimshaw 21:45; 70 Millie Thorpe 21:52; 77 Simon Woodington 22:15; 148 Fenella Willis 24:16; 151 Alastair Brown 24:23; 196 Katarina Scrimshaw 25:46; 225 Andrew Balcerkiewicz 26:50; 298 Charles Lawrie 29:11; 337 Jason Taylor 30:35 (460 finishers)  

Old Deer Park, Richmond
1 Michael Everard (Ranelagh H) 18:44 HW: 6 Gabriel Durand 20:39 (153 finishers)  

Bishops Park, Fulham, SW6
1 Alex Milne (Enfield & Haringey) 15:47 HW: 23 Andrew Davies 18:38; 324 Charlotte Lam 26:56 (495 finishers)

Clapham Common
1 Richard Ollington (Thames H&H) 16:07 HW: 30 Adam May 19:44 (434 finishers)

Richmond Park
1 Danny Russell (Highgate H) 16:13; HW: 32 Josh Tatters 21:18 (405 Finishers)

Tooting Common, SW17
1 Unknown 16:30 HW: 34 Victor Ray 20:02; 326 Matthew Wehrle 27:23 (619 finishers)

Hove Promenade (Nr Brighton)
1 Thomas Ireland (Rogue R) 16:57 HW: 62 Matthew Rockwell Wolf 22:11 (309 finishers)

Southwark Park
1 James Young (Morpeth H) 18:18 HW: 112 Anastasia Hancock 23:11 (356 finishers)

Stevenage
1 William Shippin (Redway R) 18:15 HW: 112 Kate Driskell 27:13; 

Bushy Park, Teddington
1 Paul Lowe (Belgrave H) 16:31 HW: 115 Martin O’Halloran 21:17; 169 Barry King 22:15; 403 Suzie Alway 25:20 (1260 finishers)

Kingston
1 Will Barker (Unattached) 18:01 HW: 270 John Wasbrough 41:07 (289 finishers)

June 23: British Milers Club Grand Prix, Loughborough

1500 (F race): 6 Fred Slemeck 3:56.64

5000 (C race): 2 Andrew Penney 14:31.90 (PB)  

June 23: Sri Chinmoy 10km, Battersea Park
1 Nicholas Handley (JP Morgan) 32:15 (HW):  59 Gary Forde 42:56; 72 Matthew Dodd 45:19 (141 finishers

June 20: British Milers Club Regional Races, Eltham, Kent

800m D race: 6 Jack Collins 1:59.08 (PB)

5000m B race: 1 Robert Tuer 16:40.41

June 20: Cambridge H Open, Eltham
400 (race 1): 1 Timothy Ajayi (U17M) 58.94; 3 Ayoola Ajayi (U23W) 61:06

June 20: Crawley Open Meeting, Crawley
1500 (race 2): 6 Thomas Beare (U13B) 4:55.02 (PB) 

June 16: SE Schools Inter County, Crawley

U17 Men
100m Hurdles: 4 Finn Blakeney 14.23/-0.6