Hercules Wimbledon AC round-up: Impressive results posted at South of England Six Stage Road Relays

Autumn signals the start of the athletics ‘road’ season with Hercules continuing to break new ground at the South of England Six Stage Road Relays held at the Rushmoor Arena this Saturday.

The senior men showed again they have some of the best depth in the country as they improved on last year’s record-breaking performance to finish with two teams in the top eight, with the A’s moving one place higher to fifth and the B’s beating the majority of the South of England’s A teams to match last year’s eighth.  The C’s were 32nd of 103 teams with the D’s 66th.

Charlie Wyllie got the A’s off to an impressive start, clocking 18:21 for the 6k course to bring the A’s home in eighth on a always competitive opening leg. Eleven seconds back George Brown clocked 18:32 to bring the B’s home in 17th.

The gaps would stay small as Jonathan Cornish lifted the B’s to seventh, clocking 18:24, with Alex Milne in 18:30 to lift the B’s into the top 10. That gap would even shrink by the halfway stage thanks to Archie Walton’s 19:10, with Charlie Eastaugh struggling with his hip as he recorded a time of 19:22.

Hercules’ power play, in many ways. came from the A’s fourth leg with Andrew Penney ripping through the field to take five places and record leg four’s fastest leg of 18:15, with George Mallett lifting the B’s up to eighth (18:58).

Hercules now occupied their eventual final positions with Dan Cliffe (18:35) and Toby Cooke (18:46) closing out the show for the A’s and Tom Jervis (19:08) and James Stockings (19:03) negotiating some late challenges to cement their final position. The B’s were first B team, ahead of home club Aldershot, Farnham and District.

For the C’s the fastest leg was recorded by Henry Silverstein (19:07).

In the junior races Hercules U13 boys team won comfortably over three three-km legs.

Ivan Derian, part of the quartet that won team gold at the National Cross-Country Championships last weekend, led the trio to seventh after the opening leg (10:19) with Thomas Hennigan keeping Hercules in touch (10:30).

Max Harrison’s grandstand finish, the second quickest of any final legs (10:16) saw the decorated trio finish 15 seconds clear of Windsor Slough, Eton & Hounslow AC.

In the U15 girls, Max’s sister Isabella was the fastest of the Hercules trio, running 10:21 to lift the team to ninth on the final leg.

In the same age group for the boys, national cross-country champion Theo Creed was the quickest for the club, clocking 9:41 to lift the side up to 10th, again on the final leg.

Dillan Quinn was the fastest of the Hercules U17 girls, running 18:03 over 4.6km to close out the team in 14th.

In the senior women, Claire Grima was the fastest of a quartet that would eventually finish 44th, Grima clocking 22:52 over 6km.

PICTURE: JAMES STOCKINGS