HERCULES Wimbledon Athletic Club is continuing to show promise thanks to some encouraging performances by the club’s up-and-coming female athletes.

Last Saturday, June 3, saw the opening fixture of the Lily B league at Epsom, an athletics event providing competition for Surrey’s girls from Under-13 to Under-17 level.

The Lily B league is currently enjoying its 50th anniversary, having been established in 1972 and providing a learning ground for the county’s best young females, many of whom have gone on to achieve junior international honours.

Hercules’s youngsters finished an impressive third out of 12 teams, thanks to a breadth of performances across the board. What is all the more remarkable is many of athletes were competing for the first time in their gold and red vests.

In the Under-15 age group, Neva Jansen excelled in both the hammer and discus throw, winning both disciplines with distances of 17.10m and 23.46m respectively. Her performance in the hammer is the 25th best in the country for her age group so far this year.

Jansen was ably supported by Visne Bariman, whose 16.69m saw her win the B-string in the hammer, and Charlotte Gurney whose 14.62m saw her take the B string win in the discus.

Bariman showed impressive range by also clearing 1.25m in the high jump.

Willow Scales enjoyed a busy day in her Under-15 category winning the A-string high jump with a 1.56m clearance, the joint 15th best in the country for her age group so far this season. In a no doubt tiring afternoon Scales was also second in both the 75m hurdles in 12.6 seconds and the javelin, with a throw of 20.74m.

It was a family affair for the Scales' in Epsom as older sister Mabel-Rose won both the Under-17 high jump and long jump, the latter a highly impressive leap of 4.90m. Ella Ianotti, backed up the older Scales ably with a 3.79m effort in the long jump.

Success in the jumps continued as Florence Foster flew 3.72m to finish second in the Under-13 long jump, with Poppy Guest finishing fourth for the B string with 2.98m. Marly Taylor’s 1.35m saw her to take the Under-13 high jump win.

Promising hurdling saw Flo Freeman finish first in the Under-15 75m Hurdles B string in 12.8 seconds to help secure valuable points for Hercules. Freeman’s afternoon also included a second-place finish in the long jump, supported by a fourth-place finish for Tallulah Broadbent in that discipline’s B string.

On the track Hercules athletes excelled in both the sprints and distance events. Under-13 Isabella Harrison was second in 29.2 seconds over 200m, with high-jump winner Taylor taking the B string in 29.0 seconds.

Fellow Under-13s Poppy Guest and Tilly Crome showed stamina to finish second in the A and B races respectively, finishing in 5:23.1 and 6:34.6.

Hercules will look to build on this success at Guildford on June25 where they will take on Surrey’s brightest girls in the second of the league’s three fixtures.