National News — Hercules Wimbledon Athletic Club

The Club enjoyed its best results of recent times at the National Cross Country Championships at Weston Park, Staffordshire, on Saturday, 14 September. An inspiring team performance from the U13 Boys saw them take the gold medals, led home by UK Inter-County Champion Theo Creed in an outstanding display of front running, which also earned him the individual crown – the first for the Club since the first junior win since Jeina Mitchell took the U15 Girls title in 1990. Although the U13 Girls team of 1992 took the title, no HW Boys team had ever won medals at the Nationals until last year when the U13 team (which included Theo) made history by coming second – and now they have gone even better.

The U17 Men’s team won bronze medals, led in by Benjy Street, who was an excellent 16th, while the Senior Men finished fifth, the highest placing since the team of 1974 finished in bronze medal position (the team of 1970 were silver medallists).

Behind Theo in the U13 race, James Fraser came home in 17th, with Max Harrison in 39th and Ivan Derian in 41st on his debut for the Club. Thomas Hennigan and Cyrus Sheikh finished in 51st and 52nd respectively, while Ivan's twin brother Alex was 105th and Evan Cotter 199th of 227 finishers.

The Championships should have taken place in the cold and mud of February in true cross country fashion, but the event was somewhat controversially called off for only the third time in its history (the others being due to the war and Covid) after torrential rain and flooding was deemed to make the venue impossible even for seasoned cross country runners and spectators.

'So we were greeted with sunshine in Weston Park for a rare, dry September Championshipsl', says Men's team captain, James Stockings. 'It's always an interesting time of year to race – usually unique to the road relays – which inevitably leads to some skewed results, with many coming off the back of a long track season and others from a rest period. This fast, dry course certainly favoured the former, as track speed was a bonus.'

The conditions certainly played to Theo’s strengths as he has spent the summer honing his speed and racing skills on the track over distances from 300m to 3000m. In his first year as an U15 he immediately topped the Club rankings for the mile and went straight into second place on both the 1500m and 3000m lists behind Mark Slowikowski, HW star of the 1980s. In July, in part two of the Surrey County Championships, he took the gold medal in the U15B 3000m.

For one day only at Weston Park, however, Theo and team-mates James Fraser and Cyrus Sheikh were U13s again, as the age groups as of February were retained. Club members were able to watch the Championships via live stream as Theo commanded the race from the start, moving into the lead and staying there, stretching out the gap to finish comfortably. ‘What a superb performance – leading almost from gun to tape! Well done Theo, and well done to his coach and training group!’, enthused Club Chairman, Dave Clarke, who won the senior title three times, the last in 1988.

For athletes and U13s coach Andrew Davies, the quite special team spirit within the squad is what makes days like that in Weston Park extra-memorable. ‘We all support each other. We are great friends which makes training sessions fun, and before and after every race we are always talking strategies’, says Theo.

‘I really love the photo (above) of the whole team celebrating', says Andrew. ‘Even though only four of the eight boys entered could win medals, there is a great camaraderie and six of the team finished in the top 52 – three of them are still U13s this season, too – which highlights the strength of the squad’. Such was their dominance, that all six were home before the third athlete from silver medallists, Windsor, Slough Eton & Hounslow, had finished.

Fellow middle distance Coach Anne Hegvold was equally delighted at the bronze-medal winning performance from the 4-to-score U17 Men's team (above), led in by Benjy Street in 16th, with Pancho Panchev in 39th, Noah Fernandez in 41st and Sebastian Cockerell in 68th. Jack Hobden was 93rd and Tom Davies 100th of 163 finishers. 'The team have all been steadily improving over the summer, setting multiple PB’s on the track and road, training together and inspiring each other to put in the extra work', says Anne. 'All six runners could be in the scoring four on any given day, and all the coaches are so proud they came away with a medal'.

The U13 Girls were tenth, and the Senior Men, fielding a small-but-strong squad, were fifth in both the 6-to-score and 9-to-score categories, the best result since the team of 1974 took the bronze medals (having won the title in 1970).

First home was Stuart McCallum in an impressive 9th place. Jonny Cornish finished in 27th and James Stockings in 54th, with George Mallett one place behind and his brother Ed in 71st. Henry Silverstein closed out the scoring team in 88th.

'Most of us admitted to finding it hard to get in the “National” mindset whilst warming up', says James Stockings. 'The weather, smaller fields and lack of racing under the belt all contributed to that! Nonetheless, everyone can be proud of their performances and it was a great start to the season, giving us an extra bit of sharpness heading into the Road Relays and the first match of the Surrey Cross Country League'.

Full results

Below: Stuart McCallum tucked in just behind Jonny Cornish . Photo courtesy of Mark Hookway

Relay Relay Special

The successes of the U17 and U20 Men's 4 x 100m teams over the last year were acknowledged in an iinvitation to compete in the National Relay Championships at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham on 25 August, an event revived by England Athletics this summer after a gap of 40 years! The U20s team (Khalid Ali, Shawn Bell, Omari Koroma and Josh Martin) won the bronze medal in 42.96, while the U17s (Adam Ofeimun, Matthew Wehrle, Javon Blake and Tyler Agyekum) clocked the third fastest time (43.06) in the qualifying round, finishing fifth in the final.

*Above: the U20 team, and below the U17 team, with coach Devonte Caseley-Hayford*

At the Surrey Combined and Relay Championships at Carshalton over the weekend of 14/15 September in the 4 x 100m relays the U13 Boys team of Mosimiloluwa Ajayi, Jamari Roper, Tom Roessler and Zane Irhzo won the gold medals in 52.38, setting a new Club record in the process. The U15 Girls (Patience Namazzi, Olivia Ifeanyi-Nwobodo, Neema Chuol and Naomi Igbintade) won silver in 50.54; and the U13 Girls (Alisha Timms, Kanelle Charmant, Asia'lee Harper and Ariana Raish), took the bronze in 56.18.

In the 4 x 300m the U15 Girls team of Beatrice Eminson, Freya McAndie, Amelia Barnes and Keiyan Waikwa won the the silver medals, also setting a new Club record by six seconds in 3:01.13.

In the Combined Events, Coach Mark Andrews won the Senior Men's Decathlon 'by default' as he admits, considering he was the only participant, but still notched up 2772 points. Ever the glutton for competition, he was also third in the Masters Pentathlon with a score of 1713, just three points behind the second-placed athlete. 'My left quad was very tight all weekend', says Mark, ''but had I realised how close it was I would probably have managed to run a little faster than my very, very slow jog in the 1500m!'

U17W Charlotte Gurney just missed out on the medals, finishing fourth with 2838 points in her first heptathlon, in which she was also competing in three of the events for the first time; while in the U15 Boys Pentathlon Tife Ajayi also finished in fourth with 1776 points. 'He was pretty disappointed with his jumps'. says Mark, 'but considering he joined the Club earlier in the summer mainly to do the hammer and discus, he did well to compete in so many different events'.