Congratulations to Dwayne

Great news that Dwayne Cowan has been selected to compete for Britain in the 400m in next month’s European Championships in Berlin thanks to an impressive victory at the Anniversary Games, just 24 hours before the selectors met to choose the British team.

His win convinced the selectors that he should take the third individual place, as well as being in the squad for the 4x400m relay. Running in the difficult sixth lane, Cowan got off to a superb start as the fastest of the nine competitors out of the blocks and came powering through in the final straight to clinch victory in 45.65, his fastest time of the year and just shy of his lifetime best of 45.34, set when winning his race at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Birmingham last August.

Cowan finished just ahead of his British rival and reigning European 400m champion Martyn Rooney from Croydon who was second in 46.11, and afterwards said, "I am happy with the race today. I've been injured all season, so hopefully I can finish the year off strongly. I love this stadium – I always run fast here.”

Another Hercules Wimbledon runner in action at the Anniversary Games was teenager Chad Miller. Fresh from competing in the IAAF World Junior Championships in Finland, Miller, the England U20 100m Champion, ran the second leg for the British junior 4x100m relay team which finished sixth in a swift 39.49.

Teenager Harris Mier posted a personal best time when he led a Hercules Wimbledon clean sweep in the Wimbledon Common 5km parkrun on Saturday. Mier, visiting Wimbledon from his home in Cornwall, crossed the line in 16:37 to take eight seconds off his previous best set a year ago, on his last appearance in the event. In heading home the 491-strong field, he finished well clear of  clubmates Henry Silverstein (17:05) and Matt De Freitas (17:21) with Adam Harwood fifth (17:53). Eighteen Hercules Wimbledon runners were in action with Lisa Thomas third woman finisher.

Meanwhile, Robbie Hynes headed home a 392-strong field in Burgess Park in 16:19, winning by 27 seconds and Joe Toomey and Rob Tuer were second and fifth out of 491 runners on Clapham Common in 17:07 and 17:53, respectively.

The next generation of Hercules Wimbledon sprinters showed promising form in their final Youth Development League Lower Age Group meeting at Linford Christie Stadium on Saturday. In her first race for more than a month, Zipporah Golding posted her best 100m time of the season in finishing third in her U15 race in 12.6 and then was second in the 200m in 26.8. Dhanisha Banee and Tara Bartlett won the 100m and 200m B races. They then linked up with Laeticia Etse to win the sprint relay. Golding was also second in the shot while Ellen Weir and Alex Baccardax took the 1500m A and B races.

Freddie Arkell was Hercules Wimbledon’s only boys under 15 individual winner taking the long jump by 70 centimetres with a winning leap of 5.23 metres.

Hercules Wimbledon’s Mabel-Rose Scales warmed up for the biggest competition of her young life – the U13 Inter-counties match on Saturday –  by winning the high jump at the Linford Christie Stadium and finishing second in the 150 metres. 

Entries for the Hercules Wimbledon Night of 3000 metres Festival at Wimbledon Park next Wednesday evening (August 1st) have now closed with 142 runners listed to take part. There will be seven races on what promises to be a good evening of racing, starting at 6.40pm. Five sub-nine minute runners, Andrew Penney, Fred Slemeck, Belal Ahmed, Tom Jervis and Ben Toomer are among the 24-strong HW contingent entered for the event, with Pete Clarke offering a bottle of Champagne, and Mike Fuller offering to add £50 to any Club athlete who can beat Pete's best time of 8:07.47 set in 1986.