Star trio show good opening form
May 8 2018
Three of the Club's international athletes have made great starts to the summer track and field season with good performances at meetings in Loughborough, Plaistow and Lee Valley: promising warm-ups for the sprinting trio, who are all competing in the prestigious Loughborough International Meeting on May 20th, now established as the track and field season’s traditional opener by the British team selectors.
Sprinting brothers Chad and Rechmial Miller were in action at the Loughborough Students BUCS Trials and Open meeting on April 28th, where 18-year-old Chad finished third in the 100m and first in his 200m race. He posted a lifetime best in the 100m of 10.77, improving on his time of 10.94 set last season. He also clocked 21.70 in the 200m into a stiff 1.6 metres per second headwind, which was not far off his lifetime best of 21.34, set last season when he took the bronze medal in the 200m at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Nassau, where he also helped England win silver in the sprint relay. Last Sunday (May 6th) Chad went even faster at the Newham & Essex Beagles 100m Sprint Open Meeting in Plaistow, where he ran his 100 metres races in 10.62 into a slight headwind, and 10.46, with a following wind.
His older brother Rechmial, 19, who represented Britain over 100m in last season’s European Junior Championships in Italy, finished second in the 200m at the BUCS Trials and Open meeting in 21.81, into a strong 2.7 metres per second headwind. Three days earlier, he had clocked a lifetime best of 21.02, finishing second in a 200m race at the Lee Valley Sprint Open Series meeting, with the aid of a 2.9 metres per second following wind.
A third Hercules Wimbledon sprinter who will be in action at the Loughborough International Meeting, Theo Etienne, also opened his outdoor season last weekend at Plaistow, where he won his first 100m race in 10.55 seconds into a slight 1.3 metres per second headwind, and then clocked 10.29 seconds, finishing runner-up in his second race over the distance with the help of a 2.2 metres per second tailwind. Etienne, 21, who represented Britain in last year’s European under 23 championships in Poland, was not far off his lifetime best of 10.23.
Hercules Wimbledon’s sprint coach Paul Miller, himself a former Surrey 100 metres champion, said: “I think all three have opened their seasons really well. Chad’s runs in the 100 metres ranks him second in the UK this season for his age group and it means he is in good shape to run really well in the 200 metres, his main event. Theo and Rechmial are also in good shape to run really well this year and all three will be aiming to post good performances at Loughborough.”
As the Loughborough International meeting is only a week after this weekend's Surrey Track and Field Championships at the Weir Archer Fitness and Athletics Centre in Kingston, the international trio will be missing. However almost 70 Hercules Wimbledon athletes will be in action, including the Club's top two young sprinters, Jaleel Roper and Zipporah Golding. Roper, who was unbeaten in all his under 15 championship races last season, winning Surrey, South of England, England, Surrey Schools and English Schools 100m titles, has moved up an age group and competes in the Under 17 200m where he will be aiming for a medal. Golding, 14, defends her Surrey Girls Under 15 100m title which she won in a lifetime best of 12.48 12 months ago.
Hercules Wimbledon athletes across all age groups were out in force at the Herne Hill Open meeting on Bank Holiday Monday with no less than 14 athletes taking part in the series of Stan Allen Mile races. U17 Hector Revill posted the fasted time, finishing 11th in Race 1 (of 5 races) in 04:55.62 (full results in next week's newsletter).
The Club's runners also dominated the weekly Wimbledon Common 5km Parkrun on Saturday, with Ben Toomer, returning to action after a four week spell out due to injury, leading home the 527-strong field in 15:58, only 17 seconds outside his best time for the course. Zac Purnell (17:19), Henry Silverstein (18:12) and Felix Allen (18:30) were third, fifth and seventh, respectively. Gina Galbraith (19:50), Eileen Brandley (20:02) and Lulu Weisz (21:05) were second, third and fifth women finishers. Twenty-five HW runners completed the course with Toomer also posting the top age-graded performance.
Claire Grima, in her first race since winning the women’s over 40 category in last m month's Virgin Money London Marathon was top woman finisher in Bushy Park in 17:57. She was 17th overall out of 1479 runners. Meanwhile, Emilie and Dominic Bokor-Ingram competed in the Parkrun event in Copenhagen, where Emilie was first woman in 22:32, with Dominic third in the men’s race in 20:28.