Hercules Wimbledon AC round-up: Defending champions have work to do after second place finish at Effingham Common

BY GEORGE MALLETT

Hercules Wimbledon Athletic Club had a busy weekend as scores of athletes competed in races across the South of England.

The majority of both women’s and men’s squads were competing at Effingham Common for the first race of the 2022-2023 Surrey Cross Country League Division One season.

The senior men are the defending champions but have left themselves with work to do with three fixtures to come after finishing a clear second to Guildford & Godalming Athletic Club.

Guildford scored a combined 202 points from the first 10 finishers, thanks in large part to six in the top 20, with Hercules behind on 304 ahead of Belgrave on 353. The aim of the competition is to score the lowest combined score over the four fixtures with the next taking place on Wimbledon Common on November 12.

Hercules’ first finisher was Fred Slemeck in sixth, his equal best-ever finish in the league, just over a minute behind individual race winner Andy Coley-Maud of Guildford over the 7.5km course.

Charlie Eastaugh was not far behind in 11th with Finn Johnson in 17th. For the latter it marks an impressive return to form which looks set to continue into winter.

Brothers Ed and George Mallett finished in 21st and 22nd respectively. Good packing in saw Richard McDowell in 40th, Joe Clark 42nd, Rhys Boorman 45th and Howell Harrod 47th. Oli Carrington in 53rd rounded out the scoring 10.

The men’s B team were clear winners in the B team competition finishing on 144 points to Belgrave’s 183.

Hercules’ women finished 18th in the opening fixture with Poppy Robson the highest finisher in 47th, ahead of Clare Grima in 60th.

Hercules’ men’s team were impacted by the absence of some of their top runners at other events with Jonathan Cornish travelling to Gloucestershire for the Bath Half. This half marathon is one of the most popular in the United Kingdom and provides healthy prize money for its competitors.

Cornish finished in a time of 65:36 to finish second, less than 30 seconds behind race winner Kadar Omar of Birchfield Harriers.

Omar found himself clear of Cornish over the first 10km before the Hercules athlete closed the gap, the pair passing side by side through 15k.

Though Cornish would struggle over the final 6.09km he finished seven seconds clear of Freddie Hessian of Notts AC, earning himself the tidy sum of £1,500 in prize money.

Closer to home in Twickenham, Hercules athletes were seen competing in the Cabbage Patch 10 Mile race on Sunday with the finish on closed roads in the town centre.

Andrew Penney, another Hercules athlete absent from Saturday’s cross-country, finished a creditable sixth in 51:15. Joe Wigfield of St Mary’s University took the race win in 48:44 in a high-class field.

Behind him were Rob Tuer in 88th (64:09) and Peter Lee (65:35) with seven further Hercules athletes following them home.