Hercules Wimbledon's men's cross country runners warmed-up for this weekend's postponed Surrey cross country championships at Lloyd Park, Croydon, on Saturday, with a confidence-boosting team effort in the East Surrey cross country league relays on Wimbledon Common last Saturday.
The senior men filled the top two team places with teenager Alex Robinson posting the fastest time of the day.
Running the opening leg for the club's A team which led on all four legs, Robinson covered the 1.95 miles circuit in 9 minutes 36 seconds, handing over three seconds clear.
Adam Przedrymirski stretched Hercules Wimbledon's lead to well over a minute as he completed the second leg in 9:55, the fourth best time of the day. Gervase King (10:10) took Hercules Wimbledon almost four minutes clear on the third leg with David Grima (11:06) bringing the team home in 40:47.
Veteran Frank Wood (12:01) and David Barham (11:57) brought the B team in eighth. Robinson, running his second leg of the day, clocked 10:01 to lift the team to fourth place on the penultimate leg with Przedrzymirski, also running for the second time, clocking 9:51, the third best time of the day, raced through to second place. The team's total time was 43:50.
Anna Garnier set a women's over 55 lap record in bringing the B team in 11th on the opening lap in 12:19. Masumi Dobson (12:52), Claire Grima 913:09) and Stewart Bond (11:57) completed the quartet which clocked a total time of 50:17 to finish 10th.
Hugh Saxby set a veteran men's over 55 lap record in anchoring the D team to 11th place. He moved through from 13th place in clocking 11:07. Other members of the quartet which clocked 50:49 were over 60 veterans Maurice Sharp (13:09) and Fred Green (13:50) and over 45 veteran Pete Clarke (12:43).
The Hercules Wimbledon trio of Ben Palmer (11:10), Augustin Mallon (12:04) and Joe Clark (10:38) were third in the young athletes relay in 33:52. Clark clocked the fourth best time of the day. Cassien Hyde boosted his Surrey championship title hopes by finishing runner-up in the under 13 race in 10:29, just six seconds behind the winner.
Two Hercules athletes represented Surrey in Sunday’s south-east regional sportshall final at Burgess Hill.
Eleanor Smith-Hahn was Surrey's only winner in the girls U13 contest where she took the six-lap race in 1:29.5. She was also third in the speedbounce event with a score of 80. Spencer Felix was called up at the last minute to compete in the eight lap paarlauf.
Hercules Wimbledon teenager Liam White, one of the contenders for the Surrey men U17 title at Croydon at the weekend, booked his place in London's team for the English schools cross country championships next month when he won the senior boys title at Parliament Hill Fields by more than half-a-minute in 21:35. Maire Gilmartin was 10th in the junior girls race and Thomas Bracegirdle 43rd in the junior boys event.
Peter Giles broke the Hercules Wimbledon veteran men's over 65 club record when he clocked 1:06:23 in the Bramley 10-mile road race nerar Reading on Sunday. He finished 41st out of more than 400 runners. Giles was first over 65 finisher and also managed to beat all the over 50, over 55 and over 60 runners.
Another Hercules Wimbledon runner in the race was Dan Pescod who finished 25th in 1:02:24. Adam Vandenberg was 33rd out of more than 700 runners in the 20 miles race at rthe same venue in 2:06:56.
Neil Aitken clocked the fastest 10km time by a Hercules Wimbledon runner this year when he finished ninth out of almost 600 runners in the Valentine's Day race at Chessington on Sunday in 34:06.
Other Hercules finishers: 13 Matthew Sharp 35.27, 55 Andrew Davies 38.11, 55 Maurice Sharp (second over-60) 43.11, Women’s race: 19 Rosemary Fernando 43.50.
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