Hercules Wimbledon AC round-up: Weir stars for England U20 team while older athletes medal on Wimbledon Common.

Teenager Ellen Weir bounced back after suffering from Covid to head home the England U20 team in the Home Countries International Cross Country in Belfast on Saturday, writes Tom Pollak.

Running over a hilly grassland four-kilometre course with a few muddy patches, the 18-year-old Wimbledon High School pupil led England to the silver team medals behind Scotland, She was fifth of the 36 runners in her race in 14:22, 26 seconds behind the winner.

“Last week, training was hard after Covid,” said Weir’s dad Andy, who accompanied her to Ireland. “But, she was happy with the result, and felt she was running properly, if lacking a bit in speed.”

Richard McDowell headed home a 93-strong field in Veteran Athletic Club’s five miles cross country championship on Wimbledon Common.

McDowell was inspired after listening to an interview with Britain’s former world 10,000m record-holder and London marathon race director Dave Bedford, whose tip was to go out very hard from the start.

“I made the mistake of taking it too easy the last time this race was held,” said McDowell.

“Despite being quite fresh at the end, I didn’t have the finishing speed to clinch the win. With Bedford’s words in my head, I did indeed take it out hard from the off. I had company until around halfway around the first of two laps, where the course drops down to Queensmere pond from the Windmill and managed to pull away on the descent.”

He stretched his lead to win by 48 seconds in 25:49. Justin Reid was seventh in 29:04 to take the over-50 title while over-45 veteran Gina Galbraith took the women’s title in 31:16.

Peter Giles, the oldest of the nine Hercules Wimbledon runners in the race, won the veteran over-75 title in 38:06. Anna Garnier took the women’s over-65 gold medal in 38:40.

Hercules Wimbledon youngsters picked up six medals in the South of England indoor age-group championships at Lee Valley.

Thomas Wharton broke the championship record in winning the U15 800m in 2:21.24 while Elliott Turbin won the U15 high jump and was third in the 200m. Connor Kelly took silver in the U17 200m and bronze in the high jump. Isabella Harrison won the girls U13 800m bronze medal.

Hercules Wimbledon had a quartet of parkrun winners on Saturday. Robbie Hynes took the Shepton Mallet event in 17:20 with other wins posted by Kieran White (18:40 at Rushmere), Jonny Earl (16:02 in Melbourne) and Alex Binley (20:13 in the Bath Skyline event.

Hercules Wimbledon’ are heading for Beckenham Place Park for the South of England cross country championships, which are being staged there for the first time. The traditional venue, Parliament Hill Fields, north London, is unavailable as it is being used for next month’s English National cross country championships. Every three years, an alternative venue has to be found in the South.

The first race for U15 boys starts at 11am with the last of the 10 races over 15km for senior men, is due off at 2.50pm.