Round up for the week on May 23rd 2007

It was another busy weekend for the Harriers with members out competing at a range of events in order to achieve good performances or to raise funds for good causes. On the Saturday night a quartet of Harrier women took part in the 10^th anniversary MoonWalk along with 15,000 other women to raise money for research into Breast Cancer. The event takes place in London. Pat Challis, Angela Thomas, Hilary Woods and Carol Buckland walked the 26.2 miles course through the night, supported by thousands of others. The total fundraising target of the event is £7 million, and Pat, Ange, Hilary and Carol thank their supporters for contributing to their collections. All competed in between 5 and half hours and a little over six hours.

Meanwhile on the track, the Harriers had members competing in both the Southern Men’s League One match at Yeovil on the Saturday and the National Young Athletes League at Swansea on the Sunday. Final times and performances are now awaited. Also on the Sunday was the 100km Wessex Ridgeway Cross Country Relay Race with two teams of Harriers entered in the event that takes competitors from Tollard Royal near Shaftesbury to Uplyme on the Dorset coast. The two Wells Harriers teams finished in 11hours and 24 minutes with both sets of team members running together to make it a sociable as well as a challenging day out. Each team consisted of 6 members with each having to navigate their way across the undulating Dorset and Devon countryside. Many of the senior Harriers were using the event as training for the 105 mile Cotswold Relay at the end of June.

Monday saw the second of the Harrier’s monthly junior competition evenings at the Millfield track. The event followed on straight after the Mendip Schools Championships with a number of Harriers taking part with their various schools in the afternoon event. At the competition evening there were some excellent performances. In the 100m races, best of the Year 6 sprinters was Emily Smith with a nippy15.81, chased home by Brett Cotterill with 16.26. For the Year 7s it was Henry Brown who stormed home in 13.51, with Harry Reindy, second, with 14.17, and Will Norris in 3^rd with 14.71, never quite recovering from a very slow start. The Year 8s winner was Tom Singer in 13.36. Tom was competing the day after racing at the Swansea event. For the girls Leah Bowhay ran a solid 14.82.

In the 60m races Harry Jupp won the Year 5 event in 8.81 whilst Abi Gibbons won for the girls in 9.24, just ahead of Savannah Blower, 9.57. Chloe Martin won the Year3/4 race in 9.5, with Charlie Jupp not far behind. Both Harry and Abi made it a double victory with their 300m race wins in 56.7 and 59.8 respectively, both improving on their times from last month. In the 800m race for Year 6 and above, Will Norris showed why he is the U’13 County silver medallist with a good front running performance in a steady 2.40, whilst Emily Smith also showed that her recent County bronze at the same distance was no flash in the pan with her time of 2.48, just ahead of Curtis Stevens, less than a second behind.

The javelin competition was won by Isaac Whitcombe with 20.94, with Isaac Curtis not far behind with 15.67. For many of the juniors it was the first time this season that they’d had a go with the javelin. Henry Brown was pick of the long jumpers with 4.31m, but Will Norris also proved he has a good leap with his 3.85m, just ahead of Harry Reindy, 3.80m. Year 6 Roo Black went out to 3.65m to be the best of the girls on the night. For the u’11s, Abi Gibbons proved that she is an all round athlete by being the only one to go out to 3.00m dead. Harry Jupp was close with 2.88m. In the Year 4 group, Rosa Simms-Preston also jumped well with 2.75m.

The next competition evening for Harriers and guest is on Monday June 18^th 6pm-7.30pm which will include tug of war as well as the usual track and field events.

Many of the Harriers are busy organising this coming Sunday’s Wells Fun Run, starting at 10.30am, from outside the Town Hall. Competitors are reminded to enter early so as to prevent any race delay. Good luck to all that take part in the junior races, the fun-run over 3 miles or the measured 10km race.