Hercules Wimbledon's new signing Estelle Viljoen has certainly made her mark in her first eight days with the club, Pete Mulholland reports.

The first race covered by Viljoen, who hails from South Africa, was the early morning Sri Chinmoy half-marathon held in Battersea Park where after leading for 12 of the 13 one mile laps she was overtaken by Jayne Lawrence in the closing stages but had the satisfaction of setting a personal best in a shade over 84 minutes.

Less than a week later Viljoen was in action at the Stragglers Wedding Day 7km held in Bushy Park and in a much higher standard race got among the prizes as she placed third behind the defending race title holder Maria Bradley and the experienced Anna Solly.

Just two days later Viljoen competed in the 26.2 club Hook Arena 10km road race in which the class of opposition was signalled by the appearance of Caterina McKiernan, winner of the Flora London Marathon.

With McKiernan's winning time of 33m 16s rewrote the course record as Maria Bradley settled for second, ahead of UK international Mel Ellis. Viljoen settled for sixth but set a fast 37m 40s, which subject to confirmation could prove to be a new Hercules Wimbledon club record.

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