Harrier’s Anna Hughes wins at February’s Street Race
The 107th version of the Harrier’s Street 5km race series last Wednesday saw another good turn out of athletes from across Somerset and further afield. First woman home was Harrier Anna Hughes in 18.37. Anna is now back in full training following a recent injury. First home for the men once again was Justin Emery of Clevedon AC in a time of 15.59 with first Harrier Dickie Wythe home in 7th place overall in 17.03 followed in quick succession by Andrew Deamer a stride or two behind in 17.14 and junior Tom Lock in 17.23.
Other Harrier prize winners in age categories were Marion Colman in 22.47 and Colin Money in 22.54.Pete Darton was 11th in 17.30 and looks in good shape on this form to go under 3 hours at April’s London Marathon. Pete is currently running 60 miles a week in training and clocking up a number of races en route to the big day.
Further Harrier’s at Street 5km:
12th Les Lock 17.42; 15th Dave Stanfield 18.05; 35th Gary Tubridy 20.11; 36th Alan Hunter 20.20; 43rd Mike Scadding 21.03; 51st Nick Edwards 22.08; 59th John Sutton 23.25; 61st Clive Gibbons 23.41; 70th Terry Exell 27.12; 72nd Annette Hennessy 28.41; 73rd Adam Hawkins 29.07; 75th Lorraine Royle 33.05; 76th Maureen Andrews 33.26
In the accompanying junior races there was another good turn out of Harriers with Vera Assis winning for the girls in the 2km race in a time of 7.49. 2nd overall for the boys was Austin Thorne in 7.20, following on his previous good run at the Wessex XC fixture some 3 days earlier. Kimberley Bartlett with 8.51, Elisabet Assis with 9.10 and Marcus Gibbons with 9.32 also ran well in this race. In the 1km race Curtis Steven was 1st in 3.33, with Haiden Watts 2nd in 3.50, and Abigail Gibbons running through for 1st girl home in 4.06.
In the overall Series standings, the men’s field is led by Nick Hides of Clevedon AC in an seemingly unassailable lead with a phalanx of Harriers chasing in 2nd, 3rd and 4th place amongst the men. Andrew Deamer is just head of Dickie Wythe, with junior Tom Lock just back in 4th place. For the women, Yeovil Town’s Linda Cummins is ahead which reflects a great come-back from serious injury just 18 months ago and Marion Colman is highest placed Harrier in 4th place overall. The final race in this year’s series is on March 14th, 7.30pm start.
Eagle-eyed Television viewers will have seen the Harriers vest on BBC’s indoor athletics coverage at the weekend when Ben Tickner competed at the Birmingham Norwich Union Grand Prix in the ‘Devil Take the Hindmost’ Mile match. The race was unusual in that the last runner on each lap of the 200m circuit was pulled out of the race. Ben missed out in the mad scramble early on and had to watch as Mo Farah ran home in a nippy time of 4.00.46, but it was good experience. Ben is one of the strong Harrier’s squad now preparing for the Club’s tilt at the National XC Championships next month.
In the Wessex XC League it is now confirmed that the recent Salisbury fixture resulted in wins for the following teams: u’13 boys, u’15 boys, senior women, veteran men, and 2nd places for the u’13 girls, u’15 girls and senior men. These results should be sufficient for the Harriers to come away from the final fixture on March 18th with a number of team trophies, as well as several individual awards.
Meanwhile Harriers are gearing up once again to support and help promote two of the local races that have appeared on the calendar for many years. This Sunday, 25th, at 11.00am sees the Babcary 7.5mile road race, and accompanying children’s races, with all funds raised for the upkeep of the local playing field facilities. The Following Sunday, March 4th at 11.30am, sees the traditional 7m multi-terrain race at Butleigh for a similar cause. Entry forms on the Harrier website.