Hercules Wimbledon AC: Six youngsters set PBs at open meeting at Coulsdon

BY TOM POLLAK

Ten Surrey clubs are taking part in two road races organised by Hercules Wimbledon Athletic Club on Saturday which are being staged under both government and England Athletics Coronavirus social distancing guidelines.

The races will start and finish at Wimbledon Park Athletics Stadium and will take in a five kilometres loop along Wimbledon Park Road, Church Road, St Mary’s Road, Arthur Road, and Home Park Road. Each participating club will be allowed to field a maximum of six runners in the women’s race starting at 1.30pm and 10 in the men’s race due off at 2.20pm.

It will be the first cross country or road race that Hercules Wimbledon have put on since the start of the pandemic in March although the club has successfully staged two track meetings since the end of August.

Six of the seven Hercules Wimbledon youngsters who raced at an open meeting at Coulsdon on Saturday posted personal best times.

Sophie Conway shaved nine-tenths of a second off her PB set at Tooting Bec a week earlier in clocking two minutes 40.00 seconds to finish third in her 800m race. Fellow teenager Grace Eminson was just outside her PB of 2:39.91 set at Tooting Bec at the beginning of last month in clocking an identical time in finishing fourth in her race.

Grace’s younger sister Maria shaved just over half-a-second off her PB set at Tooting Bec at the end of September to finish fifth in her race (2:52.72).

The other of the teenage Conway twins, Charlotte, took more than a second off her PB as she came third in her 1,500m race in 5:32.38. Fellow U15 Charlotte Gurney ran a faster 5:17.67 to finish fourth in her race.

Niamh Thompson came seventh in her 3,000m event in 11:31.41.

The club’s cross country runners are competing in the East Surrey League meeting at Croydon’s Lloyd Parkon October 24 and the opening Downs Cross Country Young Athletes League meeting on Epsom Downs on Sunday, November 1