Hercules Wimbledon U17 boys win gold at Wormwood Scrubs relays event

Hercules Wimbledon’s U17 boys won gold at the South of England Cross Country Relays at Wormwood Scrubs on Saturday, finishing 12 seconds clear of Chiltern Harriers, writes George Mallett.

Noah Fernandez got the team off to a fast start, running 9:41 over the three kilometre loop to leave Hercules well placed in ninth.

Alex McGuigan kept up the pressure as his 9:31 was the second fastest of any second legs and lifted the squad up, fittingly, to second.

Pancho Panchev ran the team’s fastest leg on the finale (9:25) to take the lead and was the second fastest of any on the closing stage.

The U13 boys claimed bronze, continuing a sequence that has seen them medal over almost every surface this autumn.

Thomas Hennigan has proved central to that success and Saturday was no different, running 7:41 on the opening two kilometre leg to leave the trio fourth.

Fredric Bolton kept pushing, running 7:50 to maintain their position with Max Harrison closing out the show in 7:29.
Harrison’s time was the second fastest over the finale and saw them pass and finish eight seconds clear of Herne Hill Harriers.

The U15 girls, made up of Freya McAndie, Freia Harper-Tee and Isabella Harrison, were fourth with the U15 boys fifth, Theo Creed ran the second fastest-leg of the day (6:33).

George Mallett was second in the Yorkshire Marathon in York, running 2:26:06, less than 90 seconds adrift of race winner George Ravenhall.

The time sees him move 17th on the all-time rankings and was achieved running identical splits of 73:03 for the first and second halves. England international Ed Buck was third, two and a half minutes adrift.

Hector Revill made his debut over the 26.2 mile distance in Frankfurt, Germany on Sunday, running 2:35:20 to finish 128th. Revill passed through halfway in 76:42, holding relatively firm over the second half to come back in 78:38.

Ryan McAlister (336th) and Chris McIllroy (381st) had outstanding runs in the always challenging Valencia Half Marathon, running 71:55 and 72:36 respectively

The weekend before competing in Manchester, Andrew McArthur nudged his own PB 50 seconds lower, finishing in 74:02 for 90th.
In the Cabbage Patch 10 Mile race in Twickenham, Adam May was first Hercules home in 64:43 in 132nd, with Gina Galbraith clocking 65:03.
For Galbraith that time is just outside the top-10 in the country this year for her 45-49 age group.