Wells Harrier
Matthew Dickinson finished an
excellent 7th at the England Athletics u15 Championships recently at
Bedford when he recorded a new personal best of 9.36 for the 3000m track race. Matthew has steadily improved throughout the
year and has been recording personal bests every month across the middle
distances under the coaching programme devised by Wells City Harrier coaches. Finishing 7th in a national
championships is the icing on the cake for the Year 9 pupil who has switched to
athletics after previously been a solid rugby player. This month he has also recorded a new personal
best over 800m with a gutsy 2.13 clocking at the BMC meet at Exeter Arena a and
he is currently also ranked 11th nationally for his road 5km time of
16.52 as recorded at the July edition of the Yeovilton
race. Matthew trains hard on a Tuesday
evening with the Harrier’s middle distance squad and is now getting ready to be
part of a strong Harrier team at the forthcoming Southern road relays when the
team has every hope of a high finish.
Also running
well this past week has been one of the club’s junior internationals, Laura Parker. She achieved a new personal best when winning
the 3000m steeplechase event in 10.20 at the BMC Nike Grand Prix at Cardiff to
go to 4th on the national rankings for u23 athletes and 8th
overall, including senior athletes. Laura
was very pleased with this performance and follows on from her achieving
personal bests over 1500m and 3000 m this season. Laura will be part of the Harrier’s senior
women’s team to compete at the southern road relays to be held at Aldershot
later this month.
As both the
youngsters and seniors turn their attention to the road relays, the Harriers
coaching programme also starts to reflect the need to prepare some athletes for
longer distances and to get ready for the cross-country season that starts
soon. The Harrier’s sponsored Secondary
Schools League for Years 7-9 commences at Millfield
School on Tuesday Sept 21st and all school pupils of these years are
invited to compete. The races start at
4.30pm adjacent to the Millfield swimming pool. For more information about this fixture and
the other two in the League please see the Harrier’s website at www.wellscityharriers.org.uk
.
Youngsters of
any age from Year 4-11 are invited to train with the Harriers on Monday
evenings at the Millfield track 6.00pm-7.15pm, with
those in Years 8 upwards also having the option to train on Tuesday with the
endurance squads. Please contact Paul Chadwick on 01749 812420 for more
information about either session if you are interested in attending. The Monday sessions also continue to offer
other running, jumping and throwing activities during late summer/autumn
including sprints, long jump and shot put suitable for youngsters.