Tickner scorches around Street

Harrier Ben Tickner defied the cold evening air to scorch around five laps of Street town centre last Wednesday to win the monthly 5km race in 14.45. Ben was some 30 seconds ahead of second placed Tim Wallis of Bristol and West. The Harriers also provided the winning woman athlete with junior Nicola Morgan again triumphing here in 18.22, some 20 seconds quicker than her debut 5km win of October.

94 runners toed the start line for the race, which was incidentally the 110^th edition of the monthly race since the Harriers started the event back in 1989. Andrew Deamer and Steve Masters again resumed battle with Andrew reversing his defeat to Steve in the previous Sunday’s XC. Andrew was 6^th in 17.23 and Steve 1 place and 2 seconds behind. Dave Stanfield was next home in 11th place in 18.10. Harriers also picked up various age awards with Bob Martin being first V60 in 20.15 and Angela Thomas first F55 in 23.39 as she used the race as a warm up before her appearance for Wales in the Home International XC.

Graham Goldsmid paced his run to perfection to finish in18th place in 18.46, just ahead of Rod Appleby, 21^st in 18.57, and then there were two Harriers crossing the line virtually together in 19.00 dead. Junior Cameron Rafferty sliced a huge margin off his personal best with his clocking, and was less than a stride ahead of one of the Harrier’s marathon men Paul Knight who is now putting his training to good effect with this nippy time.

Other Harrier positions and times:

29 Paul Chadwick 19.35; 36 Stephen Higgs 20.36; 41 Mike Scadding 20.56; 42 Gary Tubridy 20.59; 47 Nick Edwards 21.42; 48 Adrian Scadding 21.43; 53 Kyra Hawkins 22. 31; 62. John Sutton 23. 33: 67 Cath Goldsmid 23.58; 68 Marion Colman 23.59; 72 Clive Gibbons 24.49; 79 Debbie Keeble 26.29; 84 Kimm Sadd 27.08; 91 Clare Martin 29.06; 93 Annette Hennessy 30.59; 94 Lorraine Royal 33.15.

Whilst most Harriers had the weekend off for a change, a small number competed at the British Milers Club XC event at Bristol. The ‘Mike Sully’ event saw races in all age groups. In the u’11 girls race competing for Mendip District schools Abigail Gibbons ran well for 5^th place whilst in the u’13 boys James Todd was 14^th. Amongst the seniors, Karen Buckley was 16^th and Sam Weale made his XC debut for the season with 33^rd place.

Meanwhile at the Cornwall Marathon, Neil Jones ran his 51^st marathon in a time of 4.02 for 126^th place, whilst Nick Edwards wasn’t far behind with his 4.08 for 134^th.