Hercules Wimbledon AC round-up: Elliott Turbin continues to impress in his first season with South London club

BY TOM POLLAK

Teenager Elliott Turbin is experiencing an outstanding first season with Hercules Wimbledon Athletic Club.

Turbin, who has come under the experienced coaching of former Surrey sprint champion Paul Miller and former high jump international Trevor Whittle since joining the club in May, proved himself a real talent with a hat-trick of wins in the Surrey track and field championships at the beginning of the month. He took the boys U13 100m, 200m and high jump.

He is ranked second fastest UK U13 over 200m and in the high jump with his 24.8 run and 1.55m leap at the Ebbisham League meeting at Coulsdon in July. He is also ranked seventh over 100m with his 12.43 Surrey victory.

Conor Kelly, who also joined this summer, won the Surrey boys U15 200m and high jump titles and is ranked seventh best UK high jumper in his age group this summer.

George Johnson, who won the U15 boys javelin at Kingston earlier in the summer, finished third in the English schools championships with a PB of 47.37m. It ranks him sixth in the UK for his age group in 2021.

Hercules Wimbledon hosted the Surrey 5km road running championship from their Wimbledon Park track headquarters on Sunday. It was incorporated in their Wimbledon Dash 5km event, which was not held in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Croydon’s James Hancock and South London Harriers’ Ollie Garrod set the pace before the former pulled away in the closing stages to win by 14 seconds in 15:48. Alex Penfold (Croydon) was third in 16:48.

First Hercules Wimbledon finisher was over-55 veteran Richard Evans, 29th in 20:42, with fellow supervets Stewart Bond (32nd in 21:00) and Ben Revill (38th in 21:28). The oldest competitor in the race was Hercules Wimbledon’s Peter Giles, 77, who was 39th in 23:21.

The club had a pair of parkrun 5km winners on Saturday. Will Woodcock headed home 467 runners on Clapham Common in 16:41.

Teenager Ellen Weir continued her winning run in the Medina, Isle of Wight event in a PB of 18:11. She was top woman finisher in fifth place. There were 331 runners.

Joe Toomey was second of 367 runners on Tooting Common in 17:21