Hercules Wimbledon Athletic Club’s track and field team faces a tough week of fixtures with the final Southern Athletics League match at Tooting Bec on Saturday.

The tough encounter will be followed by the Rosenheim League finals at the Weir Archer Athletics Centre, Kingston, next Wednesday (August 21st)

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Meanwhile, Hercules Wimbledon’s Dwayne Cowan boosted his chances of making Britain’s IAAF World Championships team for Doha next month with a fine second place in the 400 metres at the European Super League team championship in Bydgoszcz, Poland, last Saturday when he raced to second place in 46.18 seconds.

 

Cowan is ranked second in the UK this summer with 45.77 in Switzerland at the end of June and is hoping for a good run at the British Championships in Birmingham, which double up as the trials for Doha, over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

 

Cowan said after his run: “I was trying to defend the title I won in Lille last time so I went out really hard. The Italian boy (who won) is really in good shape but hopefully in two weeks I should be up there. It’s been a long, long season and hopefully in a few weeks I’ll get my speed up.”

 

He added: “I am a bit rusty, because I haven´t raced much this year, so I struggled a bit here. But I will get better in the next few weeks.”

 

Hercules Wimbledon are the only unbeaten side in their 17-team Southern League division and so will be aiming to complete a clean sweep at Tooting Bec. Other teams in the match are hosts Herne Hill (fourth), Lewes & Haywards Heath (11th) and Swale Combined (12th).

 

Meanwhile next Wednesday evening, Hercules Wimbledon’s men’s team defend the Rosenheim League title they won at Tooting Bec last summer while their women’s team will be aiming to complete the double after finishing runners-up to Belgrave in 2018.

 

It’s been a busy period for Hercules Wimbledon as last week they hosted a Night of 5000 metres running at their Wimbledon Park track and also organised the Perserverance 5km Road Race on Sunday morning. Two hundred runners took part with Vegan Runners’ Andrius Jaksevicius pulling away 500 metres from the finish to win in 15:43 from South London Harriers’ Ollie Garrod (15:47) and Woking’s Stephen Blake (16:03). First Hercules Wimbledon finisher was Andrew Thomas who was seventh in 16:49.

This Is Local London: Ollie Garrod, Andrius Jaksevicius and Stephen BlakeOllie Garrod, Andrius Jaksevicius and Stephen Blake

Fortunately, the heavy rain earlier in the day last Wednesday thankfully gave way to a dry and almost windless evening so runners in the third staging of the Hercules Wimbledon Festival of 5000 Metres meeting were able to race in almost ideal conditions. The result was that half of the 119 runners in action in seven paced races posted lifetime bests while a further 27 achieved season’s bests. 

 

A quartet of Callan Moody (Serpentine), Andrew Fyle (Belgrave), Jonathan Cornish (Hercules Wimbledon) and Jonathan Escalante-Phillips (Cambridge & Coleridge) broke away early on in the fastest 12-and-a-half lap race until New Zealand international Moody put in a decisive 64-second lap with 1200 metres to go.

 

This left his three rivals in his wake and he won by five seconds in 14:17.43. Fife who was second in 14:22.51 and top Hercules Wimbledon finisher Cornish (14:24.27) posted personal best times. Cornish chopped 18 second off his previous best time set in Milton Keynes at the end of July. Hercules Wimbledon’s Fred Slemeck clocked a season’s best of 14:51.34 in finishing 16th in the A race.

 

Youngster Mabel-Rose Scales warmed up for this weekend’s South of England age-group championships at the Julie Rose Stadium, Ashford, by turning out in three events at an open meeting at the David Weir Leisure Centre, Sutton, on Sunday. The 12-year-old, who tops this summer’s UK under 13 girls high jump rankings with 1.60 metres, was second in the long jump, sixth in the 100 metres and seventh in the 200 metres. Her younger sister, Willow, 10, posted personal bests of 3.93 and 14.75 metres in the long jump and javelin. Willow was also second in her 70 metres hurdles race.

 

At the other end of the age scale, a small squad of seven Hercules Wimbledon oldies had a successful time at the British Masters Championships in Birmingham. Septuagenarian Pete Giles gained a hat-trick of gold medals taking the over 75 800, 1500 and 3000 metres. Lisa Thomas gained a double in the over 50 400 and 2000 metres steeplechase and was second in the 400 metres hurdles and Anna Garner won the over 60 1500 metres. A seventh gold medallist was Dominic Bokor-Ingram who took the over 50 400 metres. He was also third in the 200 metres. Two other medallists were Helen Davies and Paul Wignell who took bronze in the over 45 800 metres and over 65400 metres.