Hercules Wimbledon round-up: Southern League test as Hastings main threat for top spot
Hercules Wimbledon Athletic Club’s track and field team faces a crucial Southern League test this weekend when the leaders comes up against the strongest of the other 16 squads in its division in a battle on the South Coast at Worthing.
The club have hired a coach to ensure as strong a squad as possible turns out for the club in their fourth fixture of the season which will almost certainly decide the fate of the Division Three South East title.
Hercules Wimbledon top the 17-team division as the only unbeaten side on 15 league points – just one point ahead of Hastings in second place on 14.
The men’s and women’s teams will go into next Wednesday’s final Rosenheim League Eastern Division match at Tooting Bec topping their respective divisional tables.
The women have a comfortable lead going into the match and look set to retain the title they are defending.
Hercules Wimbledon men are tied on 18 points with Serpentine and Belgrave.
The top four men’s and top three women’s teams will qualify for the Rosenheim League finals at Kingsmeadow Stadium on August 21.
Hercules Wimbledon’s women triumphed in their penultimate Eastern Division match at Battersea Park to strengthen their position at the top of the table.
Emilie Bokor-Ingram took the 400m and helped the team to victory in the 4×200 m relay.
The other winners on the night were Ann-Kathrin Mielke in the women’s triple jump and Lisa Thomas in the 400m hurdles. Thomas was also third in the 800m and Bokor-ingram second in the 200m.
Alex Binley was second and third in the 1,500m and 3000m. Michelle Mason was third in the discus and hammer and Aisha Amodu was third in the 100m.
The men’s team managed to cling on to their Rosenheim League Eastern Division lead by the skin of their teeth after finishing third on the night.
Sam Hitchings threw a lifetime best to win the hammer with 42.85metres while the other winner was Mark Andrews in the triple jump. He was also second in the 400m hurdles, pole vault and discus.
Andy Greenleaf was the best of eight Hercules Wimbledon runners in Highgate Harriers’ Night of 10,000m PBs at Parliament Hill Fields on Saturday.
He was 16th in his race in a PB of 30:37.75. Ben Toomer, visiting London from his New York base, clocked a PB of 31:06:49. Jonny Cornish clocked a season’s best of 31:09:07.
Hercules Wimbledon’s London Schools junior boys 100m champion Freddie Arkell is in action for the capital in this weekend’s English Schools Championships in Birmingham along with club-mate Georgie Clarke.
Teenager Arkell warmed up for Birmingham with an impressive 200m win in a Youth Development League meeting in Battersea Park in a PB of 22.7 seconds.
It puts him top of the British rankings for the U15 boys age group. He also ran a PB of 11.32 in winning the 100m at the same meeting.
His time ranks him eighth U15 boy in the UK this summer. Arkell competes in the junior boys 100m in Birmingham while Clarke runs in the intermediate girls 1,500m after taking gold in the event in the London championships.