Hercules Wimbledon Athletic Club’s track and field athletes enjoyed an outstanding weekend of success with their Southern League team maintaining their unbeaten run this season to clinch their divisional title and some of the club’s youngsters winning titles and medals in the South of England age group championships, writes Tom Pollak.
The fifth and final Southern League match at Tooting Bec on Saturday proved the toughest of the season and after a five-and-a-half hour battle with hosts Herne Hill, Hercules Wimbledon emerged the winners by just 11 points to be the only team in the 17-club division win all five matches this summer.
Match result: 1 Hercules Wimbledon 323pts; 2 Herne Hill 312; 3 Swale Combined 108; 4 Lewes & Haywards Heath 87. Final Division Three South-East standings:- 1 Hercules Wimbledon 25 league pts; 2 Guildford & Godalming 24; 3 Herne Hill 22; 4 Cambridge Harriers 21.5; 5 Hastings 21; 6 Horsham Blue Star 19.5; 7 Sutton 19; 8 St Mary’s Richmond 19. Both Hercules Wimbledon and Guildford & Godalming are promoted to Division Two in 2020.
(Hercules Wimbledon's Freddie Arkell who took silver in the under 15 100 metres and long jump at Ashford)
It was a true team effort with the delighted and hard-working team manager, Heather Jones, also playing her part in the triumph. She competed in seven events winning the high jump and javelin B, finishing second in the 100m hurdles and pole vault A, third in the long jump A and triple jump B and fourth in the hammer B.
Hercules Wimbledon’s men dominated the track events with Ryan Facey and Armani Thomas winning the 100 and 200 metres A and B races, Hamed Agboke and Andrew Sarpong the 400 metres A and B races and Charlie Eastaugh posting the best Hercules Wimbledon performance of the day in winning the 800 metres by nine seconds in one minute 55.80 seconds. Ross Franks won the B race. Eastaugh made it a middle-distance double as he took the 1500 metres A with Jonny Cornish securing maximum points in taking the B race. Finn Johnson took the 5000 metres B.
All-rounder Mark Andrews also played his part before suffering a nasty injury as he took a tumble at the first flight in the sprint hurdles. He could just about hobble afterwards and the injury was being diagnosed this week. Before his dramatic fall, he gained valuable points winning the high jump and pole vault and taking second place in the shot, discus and hammer as well as winning the javelin B.
Other Hercules Wimbledon winners were top individual woman performer Gina Galbraith (3000 metres A), Alex Binley (1500, 3000 and 2000 metres steeplechase B), Ann-Kathrin Miekle (100m hurdles B and javelin A), Lance Power (400 metres hurdles and pole vault B), Andrew Thomas (2000 metres steeplechase A), Agith Naval (high jump B), Denzil Agyeman (long jump B), Pete McLeod (triple jump A) and Ryan Hester (triple jump B).
(Hercules Wimbledon’s Scottie Noel girls under 13 shot putt winner at Ashford)
The men ended the match by winning both their relays. Ryan Facey, Jaleel Roper, Antonio Douglas and Armani Thomas combined in the 4x100 metres and Douglas, Hamed Agboke, Morgan Rennie and Devonte Casely-Hayford linked up in the 4x400 metres.
Meanwhile, the club’s youngsters were in good form at the Julie Rose Stadium, Ashford. Mabel-Rose Scales retained her girls under 13 high jump title with a 1.45 metre clearance and Scottie Noel took gold in the under 13 shot with her superb final effort of 7.71 metres which lifted her from fifth to first place. Scales just missed out on a second medal finishing fourth in the long jump with 4.50 metres.
Freddie Arkell took two silver medals in the 100 metres (11.53 seconds), battling into a stiff 2.5 metres per second headwind and long jump (6.13 metres) where he led until the fourth of the six rounds. Making her debut in the South of England track championships, Lulu Weisz sliced half-a-second off her lifetime best to take bronze in the under 15 girls 800 metres in 2:19.69. Georgie Clarke missed out on a medal by 0.43 seconds in taking fourth in the under 17 1500 metre in 4:49.70.
(Hercules Wimbledon's Mabel-Rose Scales high jump winner at Ashford)
Hercules Wimbledon runners gained a hat-trick of parkrun wins on Saturday. Fred Slemeck was in action in Gothenburg, Sweden, where he crossed line in 17:21 with wife Suzie third in the women’s race. Ellen Weir was top woman finisher on the Isle of Wight in 20:53 while Chloe Binley was first woman on Wimbledon Common in 19:50.
This weekend, one lap runner Dwayne Cowan heads the Hercules Wimbledon contingent in action in the British Championships in Birmingham. They double up as trials for the World Championships in Doha starting at the end of next month.
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