Hercules Wimbledon AC round-up of their festive action

BY GEORGE MALLETT

The festive period proved little rest for Hercules Wimbledon’s distance runners, competing in races across the country as many returned home for the Christmas break.

Earlier in December Alex Milne was representing Great Britain in Bangalore, India, where he finished seventh in the World 100km Championships, yet in the same month he has already raced again twice. On December 20, Milne returned for the Friday Nights Under the Lights Xmas 5 Miles in Battersea Park, where he finished 11th in 24:21 before winning the Buntingford 10 Miler in Hertfordshire this Sunday 29th, in a time of 51:29.

What is all the more impressive is the time is more than one minute better than when he won the same race last year and occurred only 22 days after his 100km performance.

In Battersea Park at the 5 Miler, however, Milne’s performance was outshone by an incredible run by Andrew Penney.

In a race where winner Abdinasir Elmi comfortably broke the course record in 23:10, Penney was third over the line in 23:32. That time makes him the fourth quickest of any UK athlete this year and sees him enter at sixth on the Hercules all-time list. While run less frequently in modern times, that leaderboard is one of the club’s most competitive, with the distance a mainstay for athletes competing in the 1970s and 1980s, when the club enjoyed some of their best success.

Penney equals Simon Raynor’s performance from the Hillingdon 5 in 1990 and is the quickest by any Hercules athlete in almost 25 years. The aforementioned Milne moves to 15th on the all-time list.

Also competing in Battersea Park were Tom Drayton, who finished 45th in a new best of 25:52, Hector Revill, 67th, in 26:44 and Tom Davies, 129th in 28:44.

On December 21, Tonbridge hosted the South of Thames Cross-Country Association Championships. Held over 7.5 miles of muddy fields the competition is one of the oldest on the calendar, dating back all the way to 1888. Hercules had two representatives. It proved a case of quality over quantity, with Ed Mallett running strongly to finish seventh and Sam Todd in 13th.

Finally on the same weekend, as part of a training session, Jonathan Cornish ran the fourth fastest parkrun in the UK that weekend. Remarkably, five of the six quickest were at the same Poole event as Cornish ran 14:41 with all five clocking times between 14:38 and 14:47. Needless to say Cornish and the rest of the contingent rewarded themselves with a post parkrun workout afterwards.