Hercules Wimbledon AC round-up: Senior men end 52-year wait for medal at South of England Road Relays

Hercules Wimbledon AC continued their 21st century renaissance as the senior men won the club’s first South of England 12 Stage Road Relays medal in 52 years at last Sunday’s area championships in Milton Keynes.

The A team finished third, less than 20 seconds adrift of Cambridge & Coleridge in silver, with Highgate Harriers taking their first ever title, two further minutes ahead.

Success didn’t stop at that, however, as the B team recorded a club record 14th place finish, beating over 20 A teams, and Thomas Whorton took individual bronze in the U15 Championships.

The last time Hercules medalled in the event was all the way back in 1972, when they earned their second title, a team which featured Mike Fuller, who was there again on Sunday to witness the team come full circle.

The event sees athletes compete in six sets of long and short legs of 8.65km and just under 5km respectively.

Hercules got off to an impressive start on an always competitive opening leg, with GB international Stu McCallum running 26:34 to steer the team to eighth.

What shows the depth of the club at the moment is that Ed Mallett, who will count himself unlucky to not be selected for the As, was just 23 seconds behind in 14th.

Tom Jervis took over for the A’s recording 15:10 to lift the As to seventh. George Brown,  making his Hercules debut, took the Bs to 13th, running 15:38.

So came the climb up the ranks. England international Jonny Cornish ran the third fastest third leg of 26:27, to move to fourth and Henry Silverstein 15:18 to take them into the medals in third,

After a 28:25 and 16:14 from Alex Sutton and Finn Johnson respectively, the B’s found themselves in 14th.

By the end of leg five the As were right in the mix as Andrew Penney lifted the club to second, 26:13 being the third fastest of the fifth legs. Charlie Wyllie pushed the A’s to within 40 seconds of the lead with a scintillating 14:51, the fastest Hercules short leg, and third fastest of any on the day. At the halfway stage the B’s continued in 14th with Alex Robinson and Chris McIlroy running 28:37 and 16:22 respectively.

Charlie Eastaugh and Fred Slemeck continued the As strong showing, the former running 27:03, with the latter clocking the fastest leg eight in 15:13. Toby Cooke, 26:31 and George Mallett, 15:27, ensured a minute gap to third with two to go.

James Stockings, deservedly selected on the crucial 11th leg, was unfortunate to come down with an illness that left him bedbound for the following days, but rallied valiantly to clock 28:24 and leave Bradley Goater with a small gap to chase down for silver on the final leg. Goater, however was nursing a difficult calf of his own, and while his 15:22 ensured a minute gap to Bedford & County in fourth, he was unable to perform the last lap heroics Hercules have come to expect.

For the B’s all subsequent long legs were within 10 seconds of each other, Sam Todd running 28:31, Ryan McAllister 28:40 and Eoin Brady 28:30, with Simon Wade (16:58), Jamie Bannister (17:24) and Richard Jones (16:57) showing similar consistency over the shorts.

In the juniors Whorton continued a stellar 2024 to take U15 bronze in the South of England 5k Champs, running an impressive 16:40, just one second behind silver.

All eyes will now turn to the English National 12 Stage Road Relays on April 6.

PICTURE: SHEILA KEATING