Hercules Wimbledon AC round-up: Senior men achieve club records at English National Road Relays

Hercules Wimbledon’s senior men continued their recent upward trajectory as they achieved club records in the English National Road Relays at Sutton Park on Saturday, writes George Mallett.

Hercules’ A team finished sixth with the B claiming 17th, both their best-ever positions at the national competition.

The A team time of 1:46:56 also improved on their best-ever time, 10 seconds better than their 2022 mark.

They were led off by Henry Silverstein, who performed well on his A team debut to post a solid opening leg of 18:06, bringing the team home in 29th. Archie Walton was not far behind in 18:21, good enough for 41st, representing the B team.

Both sides progressed through the field on leg two, Andrew Penney making a 20-man improvement to lift the A’s to ninth. His 17:28 was the fastest of the day by any Hercules athlete and the third fastest of any on his leg. Jervis took the B’s up 15 places, running 18:06 for the B’s fastest of the day.

Hercules continued to move through on leg three. GB international Stuart McCallum took the A’s into the top seven (17:40) , the fifth fastest of any leg three athlete. George Mallett helped the B’s to 22nd, running 18:21.

England international Jonathan Cornish continued the momentum and closed the gap to sixth-placed Highgate Harriers on leg four, running 17:41, the eighth best on his leg. Charlie Wyllie behind had taken Hercules inside the top 20, thanks to a 18:15 showing.

Daniel Cliffe caught Highgate on leg five, his 17:57 giving the A’s an eight second buffer heading into the final leg, one which Charlie Eastaugh was able to stretch as he ran 18:04 to close out a record sixth place.

The B’s reached a high of 14th thanks to Ed Mallett’s 18:25 but were eventually overhauled due to a string of top-class final leg athletes from other teams. Rhys Boorman ran 18:31 to guide the B’s to 17th.

The B’s were the second of any second string in 1:50:00, 37 seconds behind Leeds City B, who also won the A team race.

The club’s junior athletes excelled at the Bruce Judd Cross-Country relays, the junior Surrey county championships held in Stoke Park on Saturday.

Golds were achieved in both the U13 boys and girls with Theo Creed (7:18) and Alexandra Bramwell (8:16) posting the fastest legs of any athletes in the field.

Bramwell was assisted by Blanka Domsodi  (9:03) and fourth fastest on the day Freia Harper-Tee (8:30), finishing almost 30 seconds clear of South London Harriers.

The boys enjoyed a similar margin of victory with fifth fastest James Fraser (7:39) and Cyrus Sheikh (8:02) completing the trio.

The U15 girls also took the title. Ava McCandie (8:16), Otelia Garcia-Davis (8:21) and Isabella Harrison linked up to beat Sutton & District by four seconds. Harrison’s time of 7:28 was the fastest in the field, overtaking Sutton in the final metres.

The U15 boys took third place thanks to consistent clockings by Sam Dyson (7:35), Harry Allen (7:37) and Sammy Hobden (7:19).

The trio of Lara Delport (8:24), Grace Eminson (8:36) and Dillan Quinn (8:36) in the U17 women achieved the same result to round out a successful day in Guildford.