Going Fourth Again!

Above: George Mallet (top); Stuart McCallum (above left) and Jonny Cornish on the first three legs of the Southern 12-Stage Relays. Thanks to Mark Hookway for these, and the photograph of Fred Slemeck below

Athletics was right back where it belongs in Olympic Park as for the first time the Southern (SEAA) 12/6 stage Relays were staged around its paths in the shadow of the Velodrome.

The Club's teams were out in force, with the Men's A team finishing a fantastic fourth to match last year's position. That result was hailed as historic, since it was the finest finish in the Southern 12-Stage  since 1972, when Hercules were crowned champions for only the second time. So it is a measure of this squad's hunger for success that there was a shade of disappointment at finishing outside the medals as Aldershot, Farnham and District turned out a stellar squad to take the title, pushing our most recent rivals, Highgate Harriers and Tonbridge AC, into second and third spots respectively.

In this most inclusive of races each Men's team races over alternate long legs of 7.2km (entailing three laps of the park), and short legs of 4.8km (two laps), with the potential for numerous changes of position over the course of 3-4 hours.

Setting the A team up in a solid 16th position was George Mallett, who clocked 22:12 over the first 7.2km before handing over to GB&NI International Stuart McCallum, coming back from injury and running for the first time in a Hercules vest. He moved the team up to 11th in 14:59 before England International Jonny Cornish underlined his current stunning form as he kept pace with British Indoor 3000m Champion James West of Tonbridge, pulling away over the final lap to bring the team up into fourth position in 21:21.

Ed Mallett held onto the slim gap over the next short leg in 14:43, and then team Caption Fred Slemeck (left) found himself in the company of Alex Howard, who three weeks previously had come home in 15th place for Kent at the Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships at Loughborough, in which Fred finished 41st for Surrey. The Tonbridge athlete closed in, but on current form no one would bet against Fred on a run for home, and so it proved as he pulled away to hold fourth in 22:10, HW's second fastest long leg of the day. 

By the halfway point the pattern at the front had changed as early leaders Newham & Essex Beagles dropped out of the medal mix, AFD moved through to vie with Highgate for pole position over the next few laps, and Tonbridge eased through into third.

The word was that their team was back-loaded with talent including the National Cross Country Champion, James Kingston, on the penultimate leg so in reality the job for HW was to keep Kent AC at bay to hold fourth place.

Alex Robinson (right) coming back to racing after injury niggles, clocked 14:41, the second fastest time over stage 6 and second fastest Hercules short leg.

He was followed in by Archie Walton (22:36), Charlie Wyllie (14:41), another making his debut for Hercules, Charlie Eastaugh (22:47), Finn Johnson (15:06), Dan Cliffe (22:43) and Oli Carrington, who ran 15:04 to bring the team home.

The B team finished in 24th, ensuring that once again the Club will be represented by two teams at the National Championships to be held in the usual venue of Sutton Park near Birmingham on 15 April.

'I remember the first year I was involved with the Club as Performance Director, says coach Ben Noad. 'Myself and Rob Tuer, who was captain at the time, were desperately scrabbling to put together a team for the 6-stage road relays and when someone dropped out at the last minute we were tearing our hair out. Now there is massive competition to make the 12-stage teams and we are eyeing up medals. That is how far we have come'.

A combination of relatively new joiners and U20s made up the Club's Senior Women's team competing over six legs: four short and two long (2 and 4). Laura Arnold, in her first race for Hercules, led off, clocking 20:24 to hand over in 33rd to Poppy Robson, whose time of 27:47 over the first of the long legs lifted the team up to 26th. U20 Eloise Davies ran 19:10 to pick up another four places, with Pip Mitchell on the second long leg, clocking 29:04. She handed over to U20 Niamh Thompson whose time of 18:10 was the 10th fastest over stage five. Bringing the team home in 22nd (of 38 complete teams) was Allie Donoghue-Hunt, in a time of 21:48.

Full results

Below: the women's team, minus Eloise Davies