Hercules Wimbledon’s leading woman sprinter Emily Martin warmed up for the coming summer track and field season by twice improving on her 60m best at the Surrey indoor championships at Sutton Arena on Saturday.
Martin, 21, won her heat in 7.81 seconds to take two-fifths of a second off her previous best, set when finishing runner-up in the same meeting in 2007.
She then improved to 7.74 in finishing second in the final.
Her silver medal added to her already extensive collection of Surrey gongs, which goes back many years to 2002, when she took bronze in the girls’ U15 long jump.
Last summer, she took a bronze medal in the senior women’s 200m, while her last gold medal-winning performance came in 2007 in the junior women’s long jump at Kingsmeadow.
That year, she also won the 100m and was third in the high jump.
Another Hercules Wimbledon runner in action at Sutton was teenager Eleanor Hahn-Smith, came fourth in the girls’ U15 60m in a time of 8.35.
She had finished runner-up in her heat and semi-final in 8.39 and 8.40 respectively.
Richard Agyepong just failed to reach the semi-final of the junior men’s 60m, finishing fourth in his heat in 7.40.
Hercules Wimbledon’s top race walker Estle Viljoen, who is spending two months in her native South Africa, will contest the South African 20km road walking championship this weekend, after winning the Western Province title in 1:55:00.
Hercules Wimbledon's cross country runners completed their inter-club season on a high note by winning an inter-club match in Richmond Park.
Richard Xerri took individual honours covering the 3.87-mile course in 22:26, with Matthew Sharp third in 22:35, Rory McMahon seventh in 23:04 and teenager Joe Clark eighth in 23:05.
Other Hercules Wimbledon runners: 12 Hugh Saxby (over-55) 23.25, 13 Andrew Davies 23.58, 16 David Grima 24.44, 25 Augustin Mallon 27.13, 37 Craig Howard 31.38, 39 Agnieszka Mizerek 31:33.
Davies and Grima had competed in the Wimbledon Common parkrun over 5km earlier in the day.
Tim Livingstone booked his place in Kingston's team to compete in next month's Virgin London mini-marathon from Old Billingsgate to The Mall by winning the 13 and 14-year-olds trial race in Bushy Park in 13:16.
He finished 44 seconds ahead of the second runner in his age group.
Tom Bracegirdle finished 12th out of almost 100 runners in the London Schools Year eight boys’ cross country championships at Avery Hill Park, Eltham, in 11:30.
Peter Lee finished 110th out of almost 11,000 runners in the Bath half-marathon in 1:19:28. Lee, 43, was in the top dozen in the veterans’ over-40 category.
This weekend, three Hercules Wimbledon runners are in action for Surrey in the UK Inter-Counties cross country championships at Birmingham's Cofton Park on Saturday.
Liam White competes in the men’s U17 championship, Cassian Hyde in the boys’ U13 race, and Alex Robinson in the junior men’s event.
Other Hercules Wimbledon runners will be competing in the East Surrey road relays near Box Hill on Saturday. The young athletes race for U13s starts at 2.30pm, with the seniors off at 3pm.
Nearer home, some of Hercules Wimbledon's youngsters will be competing in Merton's Virgin London mini-marathon trials being staged in conjunction with the Wimbledon Common parkrun on Saturday (9am).
The leading finishers in the eight age categories will get the chance to run for Merton in the mini-marathon proper on Virgin London Marathon day, Sunday, April 25.
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