Hercules Wimbledon Athletic Club’s Ellen Weir battled through hurricane force winds in Liverpool on Saturday to make Britain’s team for the European cross country championships in Dublin next month.

The 18-year-old Wimbledon High School pupil, who ran for Britain in the European Junior 5,000 metres championship in Tallinn, Estonia, last summer, ran a well-judged race to gain her second international vest.

A downhill start with a 40 miles-an-hour tailwind encouraged some runners to make very fast starts for which they suffered later. But, Ellen wisely held back and moved steadily through the field from about 20th position to finish in fifth place and secure her second British international vest.

“I’m thrilled to have made the Dublin team and am very excited about it,” she said. The European Championships are being held on Sunday, December 12.

Hercules Wimbledon Athletic Club’s young cross country runners will be in action in the second of this season’s Downs Young Athletes Cross Country League matches on Epsom Downs on Sunday morning (December 5).

The first race for Under-11 boys and girls over 2.2km starts at 10.45am followed by the Under-13 3.2km race (11.05am) and the joint Under-15 and Under-17 race (11.30am).

In last month’s opening match of the season, the Hercules Wimbledon girls Under-11 and Under-13 teams did particularly well in winning their contests. Isabella Harrison led the Under-13 team to victory in taking the individual honours in 12 minutes 43 seconds. She triumphed in a tight finish beating her closest rival by just one second.

With Mae Losson fourth in 13:11, Josie Hughes seventh in 13:21 and Iona Alexander 10th in 13:33, Hercules Wimbledon took the team honours with 22 point beating Herne Hill (28) and Kingston and Polytechnic (62). A fourth Hercules Wimbledon runner in the race was Isabelle Sparkes (19th in 14:45).

Poppy Guest led Hercules Wimbledon to team success in the Under-11 girls 2.2km race finishing fourth in 9:18. With Enoki Calvert-Ansari fifth in 9:32, Tilly Chrome 10th in 9:58 and Freia Harper-Tee 11th in 10:03, Hercules Wimbledon were again top team winning with 30 points from Herne Hill and South London Harriers, both on 63 points.

Other Hercules Wimbledon finishers were Blanka Domsodi 13th in 10:05; Ariane Freemantle 24th in 11:03 and Alex Aumuller 31st in 11:28.

Max Harrison who finished third of the 45 runners in the 2.2km boys Under-11 race in 8:57, led Hercules Wimbledon to third team place. Cyrus Sheikh (seventh in 9:07), Thomas Hennigan (ninth in 9:16) and Jasper Grima (37th in 10:55) completed the team.

Harry Allen was Hercules Wimbledon’s top finisher in the boys Under-13 3.2km race taking sixth place in 12:13. Oliver Mealor (13th in 12:43), William Moret (18th in 13:16) and Thomas Wharton (35th in 15:16) completed the Hercules Wimbledon team which was fifth.

Hercules Wimbledon’s Matt Sharp was the top veteran Over-40 finisher in the Sri Chinmoy 10km road race in Battersea Park in 32:30. He finished sixth of 137 runners. Tom Cheetham was top Over-55 veteran in 41:21 in 66th place with Over-40 veteran Jim Carrington 75th in 41:56, like Cheetham’s time a 2021 best.