Hercules Wimbledon Athletic Club’s Caroline Jackson was an impressive winner of the women’s title in sweltering heat in the Limmasol marathon in Cyprus on Sunday.

Jackson won the event by more than 17 minutes and was then handed an enormous trophy at the awards ceremony which she was “was almost bigger than the FA Cup”.

A delighted Caroline said:”It was a tough run and the heat started to get to me six miles from the finish. I really enjoyed it though although I’ve never made use of all the water stations especially in those last six miles.”

“My legs and everything felt great. It was just the heat. I thought I’d wake up with a sore head on Monday from all the drinks people were buying me at the post-race party at the finish line, but I was fine.”

Meanwhile, on what was a great weekend for Hercules Wimbledon’s women’s runners, the club filled the top three women’s places in the Wimbledon Common park run on Saturday with Lisa Thomas taking the honours and celebrating her 50th birthday by setting a Hercules Wimbledon club record of 20 minutes 17 seconds.

She was only three seconds outside her best time this year in posting her fifth parkrun women’s win of 2015.  It was also the top age-graded performance. 

Making it a Hercules Wimbledon top three were Gina Galbraith (20:32) and Medena Knespl (20:46). Best of the 21 Hercules Wimbledon runners in action on Saturday was Adam Harwood who finished fifth out of 343 runners in 18:27 with 13-year-old Henry Silverstein, one of the youngest runners in the event, seventh in 18:55.

Another Hercules Wimbledon teenager, Sam Barker, also 13, chopped 41 seconds off his previous best in posting a personal best 19:08 in 10th place just ahead of club mate Simon Bodle (19:20), the top veteran over 50 finisher.

Charles Hampden-Smith was second over 50 finisher taking 17th place in 20:02 and just beating fellow over 50 veteran Adam Fenton to the line by line second.

A second Hercules Wimbledon parkrun winner was Chris Ore who took the honours at Burgess Park in 16:58, slicing six seconds off his previous best set a fortnight earlier as he beat the 17 minute barrier for the first time.

Meanwhile, Rob Tuer was just 10 seconds behind the winner in finishing third in the Bishop’s Park event in 16:49.

Hercules Wimbledon’s Anna Garnier won the women’s over 60 title in the European Veterans cross country championships in Torun, Poland, on Friday, covering the 5km in 18:17 to win by more than one-and-a-half minutes.

Also in Europe, Matthew Sharp finished 41st out of 5860 runners in the Stamlilano half-marathon in Milan, Italy, on Sunday.

This weekend a contingent of Hercules Wimbledon runners are off to the Isle of Man to take part in the island’s annual Easter running festival starting on Good Friday and ending on Easter Monday.