Hercules Wimbledon AC round-up: Hat-trick of team medals at UK Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships

The five Hercules Wimbledon Athletic Club runners competing for Surrey in the UK Inter-Counties cross country championships at Loughborough on Saturday returned with a hat-trick of team medals, writes Tom Pollak.

Best of the quintet was teenage international Ellen Weir, who raced to individual silver in finishing runner-up in the U20 women’s 6km race to help Surrey take team gold.

She was just 13 seconds behind Surrey team-mate and rival Pippa Roessler, from Aldershot, as she crossed the finishing line in 25:44.

Club-mate Albane Fery made an impressive Surrey debut in finishing 23rd of the 135 runners in 28:11, Surrey comfortably took the team gold medals ahead of Yorkshire and Merseyside.

Hercules’ cross-country captain Freddie Slemeck also helped Surrey to team gold in the senior men’s 10km championship. He was 42nd of the 289 finishers in 35:35 and was the fourth scoring member of the six-strong winning team. His finishing position was a big improvement on his 130th place in the championship in 2019.

Teenager Benjy Street, making his representative debut for Surrey, was the fourth scoring member of the silver medal-winning boys U15 team. He was 39th of the 301 finishers in the 4km championship in 15:02.

Lulu Weisz and Millie Thorpe finished 123rd and 128th in 23:44 and 23:50 respectively in the women’s U17 5km championship. They were the fifth and sixth Surrey runners to finish.

Four Hercules Wimbledon athletes will be in action in the English Schools cross country championships at Paddock Wood, tomorrow.

The quartet is being led by junior international Weir in the senior girls championship. The race will mark the end of an outstanding winter season for the 18-year-old Wimbledon High School pupil in which she helped Britain to take the women’s U20 team bronze medals in the European championships.

The two other Hercules runners in the Surrey senior girls team are King’s College School Wimbledon pupil Fery, who was fourth in the county championship at Reigate in January, and Kiara Valkenberg,who came fifth .

Lulu Weisz just missed out on selection, finishing just two seconds behind the sixth finisher, who did make the team.

The club’s fourth runner is Ava McAndie, a pupil at Ashcroft Academy in Putney, who has been selected for London after finishing fourth in the junior girls championship on Wormwood Scrubs last month.

Hercules Wimbledon youngsters will be targeting four of the six team titles when they contest the final Downs Young Athletes cross country league races of the season on Epsom Downs on Sunday. They go into the match leading in the boys and girls U13 and U15 team competitions.

Bradley Goater, made a winning start with his new club as he headed home 131 runners in the Wimbledon 5km Dash at Wimbledon Park on Sunday.

Other leading club finishers were Ed Mallett (fourth in 15:29), Joe Croft (sixth in 15:47), William Leslie (10th in 16:17) and Simon Wade (16th and first veteran over 40 in 16:55).

Justin Reid was top veteran over-50 in 17:32.