Hercules Wimbledon AC round-up: Men take bronze at London Cross County Championships

Hercules Wimbledon Athletic Club’s cross country runners continued their impressive medal-winning series of performances in the London championships when they took the men’s bronze medals at Parliament Hill Fields at the weekend, writes Tom Pollak.

It was their fourth medal-winning performance in the event in seven years as they also finished top Surrey and South London club.

Hercules Wimbledon took bronze medals in 2013 and 2017 and claimed silver in 2015.

Leading the medal-winning team over the line in north London was Fred Slemeck, sixth of almost 500 finishers covering the 9.9 kilometres in 37:27. Finn Johnston was 11th in 38:08, Andrew Penney 14th in 38:40 and Hussein Ahmed, completing the scoring team, 21st in 39:27.

Thirteen Hercules runners took part in the race. Joe Clark was 23rd in 39:37, one second and one place ahead of club mate Xavier Gruot. David Lewin was 92nd in 42:28 and teenager Tommasi Forni 184th in 45:47, just two places ahead of club mate John Bull (45:51) with Simon Woodley 281st in 48:34.

London Marathon exponent Claire Grima was the best of six Hercules runners in the women’s 5.5km championship finishing 19th of more than 300 runners in 24:50. Alison Purnell was 83rd in 27:39, Lisa Thomas 136th in 29:24 and Marilena De Luca 228th in 33:30.

Forty of the club’s youngsters were in action at the same venue in the London Youth Games cross country championships and, at the other end of the age scale, the club’s oldest cross country runner.

Ellen Weir finished runner-up out of 104 runners in the U17 3km race in 11:49, just seven seconds behind the winner. She was representing Merton.

Georgie Clarke led Wandsworth to third team place, finishing fifth in 12:06, with Niamh Thompson (Merton) 19th in 12:47. Selma Hegvold was 45th in 14:03 with Alix Baccardax 51st in 14:13 and Rebekah Riches 61st in 14:44.

Lulu Weisz, finishing fifth out of 221 runners in the girls U15 2km race in 8:07, led Merton to sixth team place. Millie Thorpe was 11th in 8:20, two places and two seconds ahead of Georgia Winter (Wandsworth). Ore Adewale (Wandsworth) was 42nd in  8:48 and Millie Doyle (Wandsworth) 45th in 8:51.

Top Hercules Wimbledon finisher in the girls U13 2km race was Sophie Thorpe, 50th out of 247 runners in 9:05, leading the Merton team in. Sophie Conway (56th in 9:09)  and Elena Hernandez (66th in 9:13) were the other Merton scorers. Fiona Ivanovic, representing Hammersmith & Fulham, was 62nd in 9:11 with Charlotte Conway (Merton) 62nd in 9:14 and Grace Eminson (Wandsworth) 83rd in 9:24.

Best of the club’s boys in action were Declan Connolly, running for Richmond, 16th in the U17 boys race in 18:04 and Sebastian Cockerell, running for Merton, 17th in the boys U13 race in 8:02. Oliver Warbey (Merton) was 31st in 8:17 while Morgan Rennie (Merton) was 43rd in the U17 race in 19:08.
Pete Giles, was top over-75 finisher in the British Masters international at Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool in 25:22.