Harriers here, there, and everywhere – round up for mid-August 2007

 

At the World Student Games, Frank Tickner of Bruton finished 7th in his heat of the 3,000m steeplechase in Bangkok on Saturday Aug 11th. Despite the heat and humidity Frank led the field through the first km in a steady 3.05, before finishing in 8.49 some 10 second behind the Kenyan heat winner, Kirui. He then had to wait to see if his time would be good enough for the final but the second heat was a quicker affair and Frank was naturally disappointed to go out. Frank’s personal best at the distance set this season is 8.31 and this race effectively sees the end of his major races for the season – one in which he has competed for Team GB at Munich. He now looks forward to the autumn road-relay and cross-country season.

 

Amongst the Junior Harriers u’13 girl Butleigh’s Roo Black continues to dominate the High jump performances. At the South west inter-counties match representing Somerset she jumped 1.39m for a new personal best, by 3 cm, and was still disappointed not to have gone clear at 1.42m. This latest performance will move her up a few places to 4th or 5th on the regional rankings. Meanwhile Ansford’s Jenny Moore won the Sturminster Newton Half Marathon in sweltering conditions in a time of 90.16 which is relatively slow for Jenny.

 

At the latest round of the Yeovilton 5km road race there was a 1-2-3 for the Harrier men as they swept the podium positions in the field of 150 runners. GB international Ben Tickner, brother of Frank, had to make do with Yeovilton rather than Bangkok and won in an excellent 15.26 just ahead of team mate Carl Morris, the winner of the June and July editions of this race, and with Peter Grist just back in 15.36 for the 3rd place. Also amongst the prize-winners was Anna Lewis in 2nd place for the women in a good time of 18.39, though she allowed hubby Matthew steal ahead of her to finish in 18.04.

 

Jon Gilling and Rob Parfitt completed the quintet of Harriers in the first ten home with their 16.23 and 17.01, whilst u’15 junior Cameron Rafferty recorded an excellent personal best of 20.04, and  Becky Lee returned to racing after a gap of 2 years with her time of 23.33.

 

Other results from August’s Yeovilton:

14 James Hardy 17.23, 15 Les Lock 17.26; 16 Les Lock 17.27; 46 Paul Chadwick 19.17; 61 Alastair Middleton 20.11; 62 Gary Tubridy 20.19; 83 Joseph Lewis 21.44; 88 Colin Money 22.00; 98 Carol Buckland 22.44;  109 Angela Thomas 23.46; 111 Jane Middleton 23.55; 119 Pat Challis 24.43; 137 Kay Franklin 28.18.

 

Alastair & Jane Middleton, of Wells, had just recovered from the Bath Triathlon in time to compete at the Yeovilton 5km. They covered a 750m swim, 20km on the bike and 5km run in the ‘sprint’ event at Bath. Jane finished in overall 120th place, 6th in her age category in a total time of 1 hr 55.05 with Alastair in an impressive 34th overall, also 6th V40, in a time of 1.33.09.

 

Well done to all!