Hercules Wimbledon enjoy two race wins at Surrey Cross Country League fixture at Nonsuch Park
It was the turn of Hercules Wimbledon’s juniors to impress on Saturday as they came out in their masses for the second fixture of the Surrey Cross Country League, held at Nonsuch Park.
There were race wins for both the U13 boys and U15 girls, with further individual and team podiums throughout the afternoon.
In the U15 girls, Isabella Harrison took the individual race win, finishing 17 seconds clear of the rest of the field.What makes Harrison’s performance all the more impressive is it is a combined race with the U17 girls, meaning she comfortably beat some girls two years her senior.
Freia Harper-Tee was the third U15 overall and fourth in the combined race. Eleventh and 21st respectively in the U15 race were Leah Paulson and Isabelle Sparkes, leading the quartet to a narrow win over Waverley.In the U17 race Hercules were second. Ava McAndie was seventh in the age group, ably backed up by Lara Delport (ninth), Dillan Quinn (12th), and Elisabeth Thompson (27th).
The U15/U17 competition for the boys is a strange one with the two age groups competing as combined teams. This should in theory put U15 athletes like Theo Creed at a significant disadvantage, but he made a mockery of that theory by finishing a hugely impressive second overall. More than 20 seconds clear of any U15s, only U17 Alex Lennon could deny him the individual win.
With U17s Pancho Panchev fourth, Noah Fernandez 12th and U15 Harry Allen in 15th, Hercules were a not too distant second to Sutton & District AC.
The U13 girls were imperious. Jessica Wood won the race by 13 seconds with Anna Wait third. Ava Wallace-Shafie in 11th and Gwyneth Morgan 14th cemented a comfortable win from South London Harriers.
For the U13 boys, Max Harrison led the yellow-and-red contingent, winning a sprint finish for second.Only four seconds behind was Alex Derian in fourth with Thomas Hennigan (seventh) and Ivan Derian (eighth) leading some heavy packing from their winning four counters.
Alex Milne will this weekend be representing Great Britain & Northern Ireland in Bangalore, India at the IAU 100km World Championships, but used Battersea Parkrun on Saturday as one of his final preparations.
Duly breaking the course record Milne clocked 15:00 over the 5km distance. Having ran sub-30 minutes over 10km just two weeks prior and finishing third in the Surrey Cross Country League Division One before that, Milne certainly heads to Asia in impressive form.
There was success last weekend at half-marathons both at home and abroad. Sam Todd, originally from Norfolk but for the past few years a Wimbledon resident, was third at his hometown Larking Gowen Norwich Half Marathon on Sunday November 24 2024. Clocking 74:24 on his half-marathon debut, Todd was more than a minute clear of fourth and just 75 seconds from race winner Michael Eccles of Bure Valley Harriers.
On the same day, in the perhaps more illustrious surrounding of Northern Italy, James Stockings was 12th at the Milano21 Half Marathon, clocking 69:10, just more than a minute outside his own personal best.
Special final mention should go to David Grima, who this weekend took seven seconds off his marathon best to clock 2:38:18 in Valencia. Aged 45, Grima was an agonizing 18 seconds off the 2025 London Marathon Championships qualifying standard, but ran sub 2:40 for the fifth time.
PICTURE: HERCULES WIMBLEDON