Hercules claim three Surrey titles
12:20pm Wednesday 14th May 2008
Hercules Wimbledon athletes came away from the annual Surrey track and field championships at Kingsmeadow Stadium with a bagful of medals.
Best of the Hercules Wimbledon contingent in action was former junior international 400m hurdler Austin Ferns who smashed the championship record in retaining his Surrey title with an outstanding run.
Ferns secured his place in the Olympic trials at Birmingham in July by posting the third best time this season by a UK athlete.
He swept over the 10 flights of hurdles in an impressive 52.66 seconds, significantly faster than his 53.23 last year and just inside the championship record of 52.7 set in 1995.
Another impressive Hercules Wimbledon winner was veteran long jumper Royden John. He managed to snatch the gold medal by just two centimetres with the last of his six attempts, after lying in silver medal position for the opening five rounds.
He leapt out to 7.28m, his best long jump performance for 16 years and comes just a week after he posted his best 100m time since 1992 of 11 seconds.
Both Ferns and John are automatic choices for Surrey team to compete in the UK Inter-Counties Championships at the end of the month.
Making it a hat-trick of titles for Hercules Wimbledon athletes was teenager Jose Costa who took the boys U15 javelin with a throw of 39.79m.
Another outstanding performer on the track was sprinter Dwayne Dowding who took the silver medal in an extremely competitive 200m final.
Dowding looked medal-winning material as he won his heat in a lifetime best of 21.95, breaking the 22 second barrier for the first time.
He then took his semi-final in 22.06, also inside his previous best of 22.1 set last season and then clocked 22.05 to take the silver medal by just five-hundredths of a second in the tightest of finishes.
Cale Edmunds leapt 6.32m to take the silver medal in the junior men's long jump and three other Hercules Wimbledon silver medallists were Liam White, continuing his return after injury, clocking 9:38.42 in the men's under 17 3000m, Rosemary Fernando in the junior women's 1500m in 5:10.93 and Tim Livingstone in the boys under 13 800m in 2:22.26.
Busiest and most successful in medal terms of the Hercules Wimbledon contingent in action at the Surrey championships was Eleanor Smith-Hahn. She secured a hat-trick of bronze medals in the under 13 girls 200m (29.28), 800m (2:33.23) and 1500m (5:11.27). She had a hectic two days also finishing fourth in the long jump and fifth in the 100m.
Three other Hercules Wimbledon bronze medallists were Emily Martin in the senior women's long jump (5.57m), Michael Adjei-Tadirade in the junior men's long jump (5.90m) and Sharon Obayuwana in the girls under 15 200m (27.87).
Steve Davies was fourth in the senior men's 400m hurdles, Jennifer Fernando in the junior women's 800m, and Jose Costa in the boys under 15 400m.
Hercules Wimbledon's James Trapmore was the outstanding individual in the opening Rosenheim League East Division meeting of the season at Battersea Park.
Within he space of two hours he won four events, the 800m followed by the 400m and 10 minutes later the 1500m and finally the 3000m. He then successfully defended his Coombe Hill five miles road race title in Kingston on Sunday.
This weekend, Hercules Wimbledon athletes will be in their second Southern Men's League match at Lee Valley Athletics Centre on Saturday. They will be looking to repeat their first match victory at Kingsmeadow Stadium.