Hercules Wimbledon AC round-up: Forty club youngsters compete in Morden Park meeting

BY TOM POLLAK

More than 40 Hercules Wimbledon youngsters were in action in the Downs Young Athletes cross country league meeting in Morden Park.

Highest-placed finishers for the club were Grace Eminson and Thomas Whorton – runners-up in the girls U15 and boys U11 races respectively.

Whorton was just seven seconds behind the race winner in 6:32. Team-mates Harry Allen and Max Williams were 10th and 11th of the 29 runners in 7:13 and 7:15 respectively.

Eminson took runners-up spot in her race in 11:49 with Sophia Anderson 13th of the 36 finishers in 12:23. Yasmin Amnrani Hussain and Ariana Shala were 21st and 22nd in 13:17 and 13:18.

Debutant Nathan Manfield finished fourth in the boys U15 race (10:34) with ith Hugo Kelly eighth (10:54), Jack Hobden ninth (11:15) and Oliver Warbey 11th (11:18) as they took team victory.

Ava McCandie and Charlotte Gurney were the club’s top finishers in the girls U13 race taking fifth and sixth spots in 12:48 and 12:55 respectively. Josie Hughes was 14th in 13:37 and Iona Alexandr 22nd in 14:06.

Oliver Winter was the leading Hercules runner in the boys U13 race finishing 10th in 11:29 with Zach Elliott 15th (11:48), Sammy Hobden 16th (12:14), Noah Fernandez 18th (12:21), Matthew Wehrle 19th (12:25) and Enzo Brown 20th (12:31).

Isabella Harrison was the best of 10 of the club’s runners in the girls U11 race, taking seventh spot in 7:48. Halili Waikwa was 11th (7:59), Tilly Crome 15th (8:09), Julia McDonnell 21st (8:30), Leah Paulson 22nd (8:31) and Darchie Gunn 23rd (8:33).

More than two dozen athletes competed in Hercules Wimbledon’s Break Out Field in Competition meeting at Wimbledon Park on Sunday morning. They threw the javelin, long jumped and putt the shot.

Ben Taplin making a successful return in winning the javelin with 42.46m in his first competition since August 2019. He was just six metres below his lifetime best of 48.69 metres set in winning the Berkshire schools title as a teenager in 2011.

Alexander Abebrese, in his first competition since October, won the shot with a PB of 14.70m to top the UK boys U15 rankings. Bryan Cann was runner-up in the U20 long jump with a PB of 5.57 metres.

Darcey O’Shea produced PBs in the long jump (4.78m) and javelin (21.91m). Bryn Cann leapt to a PB of 5.57m in the long jump and made it a pb double in throwing the javelin 27.03 metres.

Hercules Wimbledon all-rounder Jenny Steinitz posted a pb of 6.81 metres in winning the senior women’s shot.