Hercules Wimbledon athletics in 10k action over Easter weekend

Hercules Wimbledon Athletic Club filled a generally quiet Easter of running with a number of 10k races throughout the country, writes George Mallett.

Making the return home over for the holiday period was Sam Todd. The former City of Norwich AC athlete took over 45 seconds off his 10km personal best thanks to a fourth-place finish in the Easter Sunday Trowse 10k.  Todd recorded a mark of 33:17, his first time under the 34-minute barrier and was less than two minutes behind race winner Reuben Andrews.

Closer to home a number of athletes took a break from their London marathon build-up to take on the Eton Dorney 10k on Saturday.

There was a sea of yellow as Hercules athletes came in fourth, fifth and sixth – all under 35 minutes – that is if we discount some questionable provisional results which at the time of writing had both the men’s and women’s world records broken.

We will assume that they may be in fact results for the 5km, also taking place at the same time, but if not congratulations to new world-record holders Matt Whitehouse and Kate Mercer, you surely deserved more press.

First home for the Hercules trio was George Longworth in a new PB of 34:13.

It marks a 27-second improvement on his previous best set only two weeks ago in Battersea Park and is just reward for a period of consistent training around Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park.

Indeed two of his training partners during that time were just behind him in Berkshire. Stu Byrne took three full seconds off his PB, running 34:26 for fifth. It is certainly well earned, marking his first PB of 2023.

Simon Wade finished just behind in 34:40. While outside his PB of 34:18, Wade took solace from the fact it was done with heavy legs as he builds up to the London Marathon, to be held on April 23.

Many of Hercules athletes instead focused on a final weekend of training as they build up to this weekend’s English National 12 Stage Road Relay Championships, taking place on Saturday in Sutton Coalfield. Hercules are taking two teams in the senior men’s with ambitions to maintain or improve on last year’s record finish of sixth.