Hercules Wimbledon Athletic Club will be back to full strength for the second of this season’s 2XU Surrey men’s cross country league meetings.

Three of the club’s top cross-country runners, who missed the opening match on Wimbledon Common last month, will be racing in Richmond Park this weekend.

The returning trio are Fred Slemeck, who triumphed in the East Surrey League meeting at Croydon on the opening day of the 2XU season, James Davis, who was making his half-marathon debut, and Liam White, who could not make the trip from Bristol where he is at university.

The trio hope to finish in the top 50.

Slemeck warmed up by taking the runners-up spot out of more than 900 finishers in the Bushy Park 5km parkrun on Saturday in 16 minutes, 24 seconds.

Slemeck, who was competing in the event for the first time, just managed to fend off Olympic women’s 10,000m finalist Julia Bleasdale, who was six seconds behind the Hercules Wimbledon runner.

Meanwhile, Davis finished third out of more than 100 runners in the Emer Casey 10km road race in Brockwell Park in 33:19.

The Surrey League races start and finish near the Pembroke Lodge car park close to Richmond Gate. The young athletes, racing over 2.5 miles, start at 2.30pm on Saturday, with the senior men’s five-mile contest starting at 3pm.

Elsewhere, eight Wimbledon Hercules youngsters helped St Mary’s School, Putney, win the Putney Schools cross-country championships on Wimbledon Common.

Elliot Mier was the individual winner with his twin brother Harris taking runners-up spot.

The other six Hercules Wimbledon runners were Alex Thomsett, Oscar Wainman, Euan White, Ciara Kennedy, Audrey Coats and Rebekah Riches.

And Clare Grima led the women home for Hercules Wimbledon AC at the Wimbledon Common parkrun in 19 minutes, 53 seconds.