02-07-2025
Hercules Wimbledon runners win multiple medals at South of England Championships
Hercules Wimbledon's junior squad impressed both at home and abroad this weekend, with regional and national medals aplenty.
The South of England Championships hosted a number of distance events in Chelmsford, with Hercules winning four 3000m medals on the Sunday.
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Anna Wait kicked off the medal glut with an outstanding second place in the under-15 girls, taking an outstanding 19 seconds off her best over the distance to run 10:19.27, over eight seconds clear of third.
Minutes later it was the turn of Theo Creed in the boys' equivalent of the same age group.
Creed, who has the second-best time in his age group in the country so far this year, dominated the field to win by over 12 seconds in 9:11.94 and take the southern title.
It means he has now won titles at an area, national, and UK level in the last two years, further cementing his position as one of the nation's best up-and-coming prospects.
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Thomas Hennigan was 11th in the same race, clocking 9:56.94.
Isabella Harrison ensured that the titles continued, again dominating her under-17 women's field to win by almost 14 seconds, the only athlete in the field to break 10 minutes in 9:48.97.
Leah Paulson was eighth (11:16.62).
Max Barckhahn continues to make an almighty impression on the junior ranks at Wimbledon, recording a new personal best in far from ideal sweltering conditions to win bronze in the under-17 men's.
His time of 9:04.30 saw him three seconds clear of fourth in only his first season competing for Hercules.
Further afield, under-20 Pancho Panchev earned two national medals at the Bulgarian U20 Championships, a competition he qualifies for by heritage.
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On day one he was a hugely comfortable winner over the 3000m steeplechase, thus qualifying for the Balkan Championships, before coming back one day later to take 5000m silver.
Fellow under-20 Jack Hobden recorded a new personal best of 15:35 at the Battersea Top Flight event on Wednesday night, finishing 63rd in an all-elite field.
Earlier in the month, though missing from our latest report, Alex Milne recorded a hugely impressive sixth place at perhaps the most famous ultra-marathon in global running, the Comrades Marathon, running the 90km from Pietermaritzburg to Durban in a staggering 5:32:09.
Milne was ninth in last year's edition that saw athletes head in the opposite direction and with his seventh place finish at last year's World 100km Championships, he can rightly claim his place amongst the finest ultrarunners on the planet.
