Hercules Wimbledon round-up: Ellen Weir wins silver at English U20 Championships

Ellen Weir continued her impressive 2022 with a 3,000m silver at the English Athletics U20 Championships at Bedford on Saturday, writes George Mallett.

The event served as a trial for the World Junior Championships which Weir narrowly missed out on due to falling slightly outside the qualifying standard in tough conditions.

Weir, pictured right, finished less than 10 seconds adrift of Cheltenham’s Kaitlyn Sheppard to clock a time of 9:47.88.

It adds to an international win in the spring cross-country in the Cross Cup Diest in Belgium and a runners-up finish in the English National Cross Country Champs, showing significant versatility across the disciplines.

In the U23 champs, also held on the same day, Chad Miller won both his heat and semi-final in the 100m before finishing sixth in the final in a time of 10.51. He was just 0.05 seconds from taking a medal.

At the same event, and over the same distance, U20 sprinter Freddie Arkell qualified for the semi-finals in the 100m, running 10.91 to finish fourth in his heat before an eighth-place finish in the next round.

Arkell also ran the 200m, finishing fourth in his heat in 22.52.

Fellow U20 athlete Hannah Bell was fifth in her 100m heat (12.48).

Hercules had a narrow win over Radley AC in the third Southern Athletics League fixture.

With several athletes missing in the aforementioned championships it looked a difficult prospect for Hercules to make it three consecutive Southern Athletics League wins but they finished three points clear.

It puts the club in pole position for promotion to Division One, with one final fixture on August 13 at Aldershot.