Hercules Wimbledon AC round-up: Three gold medals at British Masters Championships

BY TOM POLLAK

Hercules Wimbledon Athletic Club athletes gained a hat-trick of medals at the British Masters Championships at Derby’s Moorways Stadium.

Leading the trio was over-75 veteran Peter Giles, who won the 1,500m in 5:58.67 seconds, the fastest time by a British athlete in that age group this summer.

Fresh from her world record-breaking 2,000m steeplechase performance at Perivale Park the previous weekend, over-55 veteran Lisa Thomas took her gold medal in 7:52.12, just outside her record-breaking 7:51.91 a week earlier.

Anna Garnier took gold in the women’s over-65 800m in 3:05.29, also the fastest time by a British athlete in her age group this summer.

The club’s youngsters picked up 10 medals in the South of England age group championships at Kingston.

Elliott Turbin gained a golden double in the U13 events. He won the 200m in a personal best of 24.55 to top this season’s UK rankings, and also won the high jump with 1.49m. He also took silver in the 100m in a PB of 12.34.

Surrey champion Connor Kelly took silver in the boys U15 200m in a PB of 23.40 and bronze in the high jump (1.70m).

Mabel-Rose Scales also took silver in the girls U15 high jump (1.55m) with her younger sister, Willow clearing 1.43 metres for silver in the U13 long jump.

Darcy O’Shea leapt a PB of 1.63m to win the U17 high jump silver medal with Freddie Arkell taking bronze in the U17 100m in 10.97.

Florence Freeman, in only her second competition, took bronze in the U13 girls long jump with 4.41m.

Thirty-seven Hercules Wimbledon athletes competed in 19 parkruns on Saturday with two of them posting wins. Rhys Boorman followed up his first place at Hastings the previous weekend by heading home a 614-strong field at Shrewsbury in 15:52 improving on his 16:37 on his debut appearance in August 2018.

Teenager Ellen Weir returned to the Isle of Wight, where she was once again top woman finisher in 18:50.

Benjy Street, 14, was top age-graded performer on Wimbledon Common where he finished fifth of 449 runner in 18:13 to smash his PB for the course of 19:48 set in February 2019.

Matt Sharp was the top age-graded performer in Dulwich Park where he was third of 408 runners in a PB of 15:40. Fred Slemeck was sixth out of 1162 runners in Bushy Park in 16:34.