Hercules Wimbledon round-up: Dwayne Cowan sweating on World Athletics Championships spot

BY TOM POLLAK

Dwayne Cowan faces a nail-biting wait to see if he is selected for the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha at the end of this month.

The 34-year-old battled to fourth place in the British 400 metres championships in Birmingham on Sunday after qualifying for the final eight in winning his heat.

His best time this season – 45.77 seconds in an international meeting in Switzerland at the end of June – was just outside UK Athletics qualifying time for Doha of 45.30, so the best he could hope for is a place in the 4x400m relay squad.

Cowan was below his best form in the crucial trials in Birmingham as he clocked 46.66 to win the first of four heats.

He improved to 46.46 to finish fourth and just outside the medals in the final.

Theo Etienne,  one of Hercules Wimbledon’s three sprinters in action in Birmingham, managed to reach the 100m final.

Etienne, who reached the European indoor championships 60m final in Belgrade in 2017, was the fastest of the trio in winning his heat in 10.45.

He ran a faster 10.34 to take fourth place in his semi to scrape into the final where he finished ninth into a stiff 1.9 metres per second headwind in a slower 10.54.

The Miller brothers, Rechmial and Chad were third and second in their respective first round heats, with a strong following wind, in 10.68 and 10.78. By the time of the semi-finals, the wind had turned and was in their faces.

They both finished seventh in their races. Rechmial clocked a faster 10.57 and Chad a slower 10.85.

The club’s women’s squad lifted the Rosenheim League Trophy for the first time in a tight finish to the competition at Kingston.

Highlight of the team performance was a British women’s over-50 veterans record by Lisa Thomas in the 2000m steeplechase. Her time of 7:51.40 improved on the 7:52.31 she posted when competing for Surrey in the South of England inter-counties match at Ashford, Kent in July.

Three days later, Thomas improved on her British record when she clocked 7:50.15 at an open meeting at Tooting Bec on Saturday. It was the fifth time she has bettered the PB of 8:08.69 set by Jane Pidgeon in taking the bronze medal at the World Masters Championships in Lyon, France, in 2015.

It was a solid team effort as Hercules Wimbledon found winners hard to come by in the Rosenheim League final – teenagers Danisha Banee (200m in 26.85) and Georgie Clarke (1500m in 4:54.94) their only successes.

Without any of their top sprinters, the men’s team failed to retain the trophy they won last year with Pete McLeod, who has competed for Hercules Wimbledon in all 11 Southern and Rosenheim League matches this summer, filling in.

The closest they came to an individual win in the men’s match was in the 800m – Ross Franks lost out by 0.62 seconds to finish second in 1:58.90.

Former Swedish international Christer Hagberg also missed out in the discus by just 23 centimetres finishing second with 41.28m.

Jonny Cornish got under four minutes for 1,500m when he clocked 3:59.54 in a British Milers Club’s Gold Standard meeting at Watford.

It took more than five seconds off his PB for the distance.

Also at the open meeting at Tooting Bec, veteran Hagberg produced his best form since returning to the sport this summer to win the men’s hammer and discus with throws of 48.58m and 41.81m respectively.  Hagberg, 45, now based in London, achieved his best hammer throw of 57.14m in 1998 and has a best discus to his name of 60.39m, achieved in 1999.