This week we feature two valiant solo challenges taken on by two HW athletes, Lisa Thomas and Richard McDowell, who in the absence of organised competitions, decided to test themselves in very different ways.

While most of the HW distance runners have been grateful for the challenge of some virtual 5K competitions during these unprecedented times of no racing, marathon runner Richard McDowell decided to test himself much, much further.

Kent AC would like to offer its condolences and thoughts to Pete Mulholland's family, his friends and clubmates at Hercules Wimbledon. He was a familiar and friendly face on the athletics scene for many years and will be greatly missed.

This is the newsletter that we never wanted to post. The one in which we are paying tribute and sharing our personal memories of Pete Mulholland, 'Mr. Hercules Wimbledon' who so sadly passed away on Wednesday (25 March).

Competing in one of the last major meetings to be staged before the current suspension of events due to the coronavirus outbreak, a handful of the Club's athletes were in tremendous form, returning from the British Masters Indoor Championships at Lee Valley with seven gold medals between them. 

The Club underlined its appeal to all age groups over the last two weekends, with successes for the U11s on Epsom Downs, and a contingent of vets at Lee Valley.

More than 30 HW athletes were in action in testing, muddy conditions in the Saucony English National Cross Country Championships at Nottingham’s Wollaton Park on Saturday.

Freddie Arkell, the England Indoor and Outdoor U15 Champion over 200m in 2019, took the silver medal for the 60 metres in his first major event as an U17 in the Surrey Indoor Championships at the David Weir Leisure Centre in Carshalton last weekend in a warm-up for this weekend's National Indoor Championships in Sheffield, where he goes in the U17 60m and 200m. Efe Peters will also be competing in the U17M 60m, and Missy Cooper in the U17W 60m.

HW's young women and girls teams emphasised the strength in depth of their squad last Saturday in Richmond Park as the U17 Women clinched the title in the final match of the Surrey Cross Country League season. The U15s finished second in their league and the U13s third.

Three HW athletes were celebrating personal bests last Sunday at the finish of the 29th Chichester 10K road race, which culminates in a lap of the iconic Goodwood motor racing circuit.

HW's Senior Men posted their best team performance for almost half a century when they finished just outside the medals in the South of England Cross Country Championships at Parliament Hill Fields on Saturday.

Having won the Oxfordshire County Championship two weeks ago, Jonny Cornish posted a PB of 29:38 to finish fourth out of 183 runners in the Speedway 10km road race organised by Chepstow Harriers in Beachley, near the Welsh border, on Sunday.

While HW's Senior Men put in another solid performance at Beckenham Place Park last Saturday to maintain their runners-up position in the Surrey Cross Country League, Ellen Weir followed up her victory in the County Championships at Dorking by winning the U17/U15 race in the Ladies League on Wimbledon Common.

HW teams kicked off 2020 in style with a hat-trick of team medals in the Surrey County Championships at Denbies Vineyard, Dorking, on Sunday.

More than 60 Hercules Wimbledon runners took part in the club’s annual Christmas Cracker relay at Wimbledon Park on Tuesday December 10th.

In unfamiliar red and black, HW's Emilie Bokor-Ingram won a hat-trick of medals in the London Universities & Colleges Indoor Championships at Lee Valley, setting a new 400m record for King's College London in the process. 

HW's senior men's team continued their impressive run of performances, taking the men’s bronze medals in the London Championships on Parliament Hill last Saturday. They were also top Surrey and South London club. 

It was a touch of deja vu for the Senior men and boys teams on Wimbledon Common on Saturday, as they raced through rain and mud reminiscent of similar conditions in last year's race.