Herculean effort by Wimbledon's women (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

Herculean effort by Wimbledon's women

3:09pm Thursday 9th February 2012 in Sport

Hercules Wimbledon’s senior women set a new a women’s course record in the East Surrey League cross country relay on Wimbledon Common last Saturday, writes Tom Pollak.

Led by marathon mum Claire Grima, the quartet clocked 50 minutes, six seconds in finishing 13th out of the 25 teams.

The four runners were remarkably consistent with first leg runner Grima and third leg runner Vikki Filsell clocking the same 12:23 time, while second leg runner Michaela Knepl was only a second slower in 12:24 and anchor woman Maire Gilmartin finished in 12:56.

The women now turn their attention to their final Max Sports Surrey Ladies League meeting in Esher this Saturday confident of retaining third spot.

First leg runner Alexie Calvert-Ansari was the fastest member of the Hercules quartet which took third spot in the senior men’s event.

He handed over in third clocking 10:08 with over 45 veteran Pete Clarke (10:33), fellow vet Stewart Bond (11:02) and Andrew Davies (10:55) hanging on to a podium spot.

Augustin Mallon, who ran the opening leg in 10:35, was the fastest member of the young athletes team which also finished third in their event in 36:08.

Alex Lloyd-Jones (11:19) and Imogen Willis (15:14) completed the trio.

Sam Helms was fourth in the boys’ U13 1.95 miles race in 11:08 ahead of Alex Bond (10th in 12:16) and Eliot Mier (14th in 12:29).