Young athletes from all over the globe will be heading to Hercules Wimbledon to showcase their Olympic potential.
Jamie Elliott
Young athletes aiming to compete in the Olympics will be heading to Hercules Wimbledon’s Young Athletes open meeting on Sunday April 7.
The event that will take place at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, which will be staging one of the largest young athletes meetings for the 32nd time.
The meeting is hosted every April and is often considered to be a valuable route into the Olympics for ambitious youngsters.
A valuable stepping stone
The idea of the event was started by Ron Down, father to a talented Hercules Wimbledon youngster, before it bloomed into a large scale sporting event after a flood of entries upon creation.
In the past, the winners at Hercules Wimbledon have gone on to compete at Olympic level after breaking records at the Under 18 competitions.
Dave Clarke, one of the great long distance runners for Britain, holds one of the best track times at Hercules Wimbledon in 1982.
As well as this, Olympic sprinter and current British record holder of the 100 metres, Montell Douglas is a former competitor and still holds the U17 100 and 200 metre records.
Diversity is tradition
However the event is not solely for British competitors and often frequents young athletes from around the world. The tradition of the open meeting will often see it host teams from Belgium, Cuba, Czech Republic, France, Malta, Nicaragua, Norway, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
The athletics events are due to start with the U13 girls 1500m at 11am on Sunday and will feature several events throughout the day until the men’s U20 200m at 5pm.
For further information on the event, including directions, events and scheduling can be found at the Hercules Wimbledon’s website at http://www.herculeswimbledonac.org.uk/YA-Open.html.
Grace Henley 
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