Hercules Wimbledon Athletic Club's road runners continued their impressive series of autumn performances when they took the team honours in the Maidstone half-marathon in Kent.

The prize-winning squad was led home by Jamie Helmer who finished fifth out of the field of more than 500 runners in 1 hour 15 minutes 52 seconds. The other members of the winning team were Justin Kelly seventh in 1:17:16 and Phil Glynn 16th in 1:21:15. A fourth Hercules Wimbledon runner in the race was Arnaud Claverie who finished 22nd in 1:22:27.

Also on the road, Hercules Wimbledon's Mike Halman was runner-up in the Lexus Croydon 10 kilometres road race in 32:46 while supervet Stu Littlewood was third fastest in the Crook Log five kilometres event at Bexleyheath.

Meanwhile, Hercules Wimbledon's Peter Giles was second veteran over 60 finisher in the opening Ron Hill Surrey Classic 10 kilometres road race at Oxshott on Sunday. He was 60th out of 269 finishers in 41:58.

Arnaud Claverie led the Hercules Wimbledon runners home in the East Surrey League five miles cross country race in Lloyd Park, Croydon. Arnaud was 12th out of more than 100 finishers in 31:47 with over 50 veteran Hugh Saxby 17th in 32:31, Andy Waites 29th in 34:51, over 55 veteran Dave Betts 41st in 36:56, Frank Wood 51st in 37:04, Kerrith Stewart 57th in 38:31 and over 60 veteran Alan Turner 68th in 39:49.

Hercules Wimbledon's top teenage woman long jumper Emily Martin is ranked in the top 10 in the UK junior women's listings for 2007. Martin leapt a personal of 5.80m in the English championships at Bedford in June where she finished just outside the medals in fourth place.

It was 14 centimetres further than she managed before the start of the season and four centimetres better than her previous best set in taking the bronze medal in the South of England championships the previous weekend. During the year she won the Surrey County and schools long jump titles and took the bronze medal at the English schools championships at Birmingham in July.

Earlier in the year, she took the silver medal at the English indoor championships at Birmingham with a leap of 5.62m and also took the silver medal at the Surrey indoor championships at Sutton Arena in March with a more modest 5.36m.

Martin was also ranked 28th in the country in the junior women's triple jump as a result of her 11.36m leap in taking the silver medal in the South of England championships at the Lee Valley indoor athletics centre at Picketts Lock in January. It was a three centimetre improvement on her previous best set two seasons ago.

During the year she also took the junior women's 100m silver medal at the Surrey Championships at Kingsmeadow in May where here time of 12.59 proved to be her best of the season.

*Hercules Wimbledon hold track and field training sessions at Wimbledon Park athletics stadium on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6.30pm and on Sunday mornings from 10am.

*Hercules Wimbledon Athletic Club hold mid-week road running training sessions for marathon, cross country and road runners from Lauriston Cottage, 6a Southside, Wimbledon Common, at the junction with Lauriston Road, every Wednesday evening from 7pm. Contact Pete Mulholland on 020 8761 4308 for more details.