Inspired by the Olympics? Report from the Yeovil Games on Aug 17^th

One of the Harrier’s Cross Country team members is taking part on Thursday (August 21^st) at the Beijing Olympics and we wish him well as he competes for Team GB in the Modern Pentathlon. Sam Weale will start that morning with the fencing, shooting and swimming, and in the afternoon (our time) will be competing in the horse-riding and running parts of the event. The cross-country race will be over 3km and starts at 1pm British Time. Sam’s strongest discipline is his running and he has been a valuable member of the Harrier Cross country team this past winter when he was back training and running with us. He has been ranked in the top ten at the Pentathlon World Cup events this year but unfortunately Sam has been carrying an injury recently and we hope he achieves his potential when he competes today.

Inspired perhaps by the Olympic feats of the past few weeks, Junior and senior Harriers have been out in force at track and field, road and multi-terrain races lately. For the juniors there was a good contingent of the Harrier’s Monday training group competing at the Yeovil Games on Sunday. U’13 girl Roo Black managed three second places in her different events. She started with a 4.21m long jump, then had a 1.35m high jump and finished off with a 31.18 200m time. All three performances weren’t far down on her season’s best so a good effort all round. Team mate Emily Smith ran a 13.86 for the 70m Hurdlers and then went on to run strongly for a good 2.38.96 for her 800m, running alongside her team-mate from the combined Yeovil & Wells track team, Jemma Jones, who went on to pull clear and finish in 2.34. New member Ellie Kirwan also made her debut and ran well for 2.43.06 which also brings her into the regional power of ten rankings.

For the boys, U’13 Oliver Fox improved on his personal best in the 800m with a strong run for 2.30.42 to finish in 3^rd place behind team mate Matthew Cole, 2.23, Charlie Martin made his debut for the combined Yeovil and Wells team with a good run in the 200m in a time of 32.61 and then ran a strong 2.48.43 for the 800m. In the 200m he finished just ahead of Jamie Dunlop who recorded 32.72, after earlier running 15.98 for the 75m Hurdles and 15.43 for the 100m. Meanwhile Jordan Boobyer competed in the Shot but didn’t manage to overhaul his own personal best on the day. (distance to follow).