Hercules Wimbledon AC round-up: Cornish takes bronze medal in 10,000m at English Championships

Jonathan Cornish picked up an English Championships 10,000m bronze medal at the Fast Friday event in Walthamstow, writes George Mallett.

On the hottest day of the year, with temperatures reaching 32 degrees in the earlier races, Cornish led the field for much of the race and was only overtaken in the final 300m. It represents a significant breakthrough at the sport’s highest level for the long-time Hercules Wimbledon athlete, who added to a Great Birmingham 10k win in May.

The race was won by Newham and Essex Beagles athlete Charlie Brisley, narrowly ahead of Dylan Evans of Australia, though the latter was ineligible for national medals.

Cornish said: “I was excited for the race as training had been going quite well in the build-up though you never know if this will translate to race day. I was glad to be racing later in the evening at 9.15pm when the temperature had cooled, although it was still above 20 degrees – however I thought this might suit me as I usually like running in the heat, up to a point.”

Cornish sat in behind the pacemaker before taking the lead when he dropped out:

“There was a bit of jostling for position but I managed to stay as close to the inside as possible to minimise any unnecessary energy expenditure.

“Before I knew it 5km had passed in roughly 14:48 and the pacemaker stepped off the track. At the front Jack Gray was looking around waiting for someone to take it on, so reluctantly I obliged for two laps as I didn’t want the pace to slow.

“I then hoped we could share the workload, which seemed to work, but with five to six laps there were still four of us, with just three medals up for grabs, so I decided to take it on again without killing myself.

“I was still in first position as we went through the bell but could feel the group all on my shoulder waiting to pounce. Then the three waiting athletes streamed past. I crossed the line two seconds behind Jack Gray but was elated to realise I had achieved my aim of a sub-30 minute time by two seconds (29:58.53) – and also, although I finished fourth, I had actually placed third in the Championships, since one of the racers is an Australian national.

“Becoming an England Athletics bronze medallist was a proud moment.”

Hercules’ youngsters finished third in match two of the Ebbisham League, a junior league for boys aged 10 to 17. The body of points came from the junior middle distance athletes.

Hercules won both the A and B U13 800m races thanks to strong running from Otis Jones and Harry Allen respectively. They did the same over 1,500m, with Thomas Whorton and Sam Dyson taking maximum points.

The U15s continued where their juniors had left off, winning A and B 1,500m races through Noah Fernandez and Zach Elliott . They added to the points thanks to an 800m B race win from Yusuf Achchi.

A 4x100m win rounded off a positive week for Hercules athletes.