Hercules Wimbledon teenager Liam White battled to third place in the Virgin London Mini Marathon on Sunday despite taking a fall in the rush at the start of the race.

Despite his height, 17-year-old White was bowled over by the 200-plus other runners as they hurtled their way out of Old Billingsgate at the start of the three miles race to The Mall. By the time he had managed to pick himself up, White found himself at the back of the field and faced the enormous challenge of getting back in the mix. Remarkably, he managed to get back to third spot just 15 seconds behind the winner of the senior race.

White, who was racing in the event for the final time, said: "I'm certain if I hadn't fallen over I would have won the race. I was catching the leaders all the way but I just failed to make it."

He added:" I just don't know what happened. All I remember is lining up at the start, the hooter going and then finding myself on the ground. I was just bowled over in the rush." He clocked 15 minutes 2 seconds.

White faces the longest track race of his life when he tackles the 5000m for the first time in his club's opening Southern men's League meeting at Kingsmeadow tomorrow (Saturday).

Other leading Hercules Wimbledon finishers in the senior boys mini-marathon were Ed Saywell (28th in 16:22), Geordie Logan (47th in 16:50) and Joe Toomey (61st in 17:09).

Best placed Hercules Wimbledon runner in the mini-marathons was Tim Livingstone who was runner-up in the intermediate race in 16:33. Hamish Mould was 52nd out of 237 runners in 18:37.

Emma Headley led the Wandsworth intermediate girls team to victory in finishing 11th in her race in 20:07. Maire Gilmartin, another member of the winning Wandsworth team, was 34th in 21:15, Rebecca Stone 69th in 22:16 and Claire Rogers 93rd in 22:56.

Elliot Laville was 36th in the junior boys race in 19:30 with Ali Borthwick 95th in the senior girls race in 22:15.

In the main marathon race, Hercules Wimbledon's three times English cross country champion Dave Clarke was fifth in the men's over 50 category in 2:45:45, the second fastest marathon time ever recorded by a Hercules Wimbledon over 50 veteran. The record for that age group is held by Steve Badgery with 2:40:05 in the 1989 London race. Clarke tops the Hercules Wimbledon marathon rankings with 2:13:34 achieved in Stockholm in June 1989.

First Hercules Wimbledon finisher in the record 36500-plus field was Mike Halman who was 58th in a personal best of 2:29:59. Over 40 veteran Peter Lee was 331st in 2:46:02, also a personal best with John Querstret 844th in 2:57:35.

With Hercules Wimbledon's top two women marathon runners Claire Grima and Zoe Pike both expecting babies, first Hercules Wimbledon woman was Debbie Noel who was 994th in the women's race in 3:42:18.

Hercules Wimbledon's top woman sprinter Emily Martin made a promising start to her outdoor league programme with two personal bests in the club's opening Southern Women's League match at Perivale on Saturday. She won the 200m in an outdoor best time of 24.9 and finished third in the 100m in a lifetime best of 12.2.

Long jumper Cale Edmunds also showed promising early season form when he finished second at an open meeting at Crawley with a leap of 6.25m.

Hercules Wimbledon face a busy weekend with their opening Southern Men's League Division One match at Kingsmeadow Stadium tomorrow (Saturday) starting at 1pm and the club's youngsters in action in their opening McCain's Young Athletes League meeting at Sutton Arena on Sunday, starting at 11.45am.

* Hercules Wimbledon's track and field training sessions take place at Wimbledon Park athletics stadium on Tuesday and Thursday evenings starting at 6.30pm and Sunday morning at 10.30am. Further details from coaching coordinator Maurice Sharp on 020 8337 8707.

*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.