Two Hercules Wimbledon youngsters will compete in the English Schools Cross Country Championships after superb qualifying runs in the Surrey Schools Cross Country Championships.

Cassian Hyde, 16, ran the race of his life in Reigate to take the bronze medal in the intermediate boys’ race to secure a place in the county team.
He finished third out of 60 runners in 19 minutes, 15 seconds.

Meanwhile, Matthew Gibbons, who was making his debut in the championships, finished fifth out of 71 finishers in the junior boys’ race in 14:12, just 14 seconds behind the race winner.

It was also his best-ever cross country performance after finishing 30th in the Surrey County championships at Croydon last month.

Elsewhere, Hercules Wimbledon had half-a-dozen of its members in action for their respective universities in the British Universities Cross Country Championships at Leeds on Saturday.

Best of the bunch was Liam White, representing Bristol, who was 65th out of more than 300 runners in the senior men's championship in 36:36.

Andrew Penney, representing Oxford, was 76th in 37:01, and Joe Toomey, running for Liverpool, 177th in 20:53.

Jonathan Cornish, representing Roehampton, was 203rd in 41:43 with his fellow Roehampton University student Chris Donnellan 252nd in 44:56.

Dominic Kiralyfi was 73rd out of more than 400 runners in the B race in 30:33.