Wright medals at Southern Championships Sept 18^th& 19^th 2010

Pete Wright kept up the tradition of Wells City Harrier athletes medalling at the tough South of England Fell Running Championships this past weekend. The Championships were once again combined with the Isle of Wight Fell Running series with Club Chairman Paul Chadwick again presenting the SEAA medals to the Championship winners. Pete picked up the V60 bronze for his performances across the Series of 3 races in two days against runners from right across the southern counties, finishing in overall 49^th place in the field of 105 men. Paul Chadwick finished 44^th and 5^th V50, whilst Helen Rutter contested just the third of the races, a half-marathon, in a time that was 10 minutes quicker than last year.

Overall winner in the Fell running series was sub-2.15 marathon runner Huw Lobb who set records in all three races. Huw is perhaps best known for having won £25,000 a few years back when he won the Man v Horse 22 mile race in Mid-Wales

The first race on Saturday morning was 3 miles with 800 foot of climb and saw Paul finish in a time of 24.35 to Pete’s 25.39. Pete then turned the tables and put himself into medal contention in the Saturday afternoon race over 7 miles and 1500 foot of climb, finishing in 74.48, one place and 22 seconds ahead of Paul. The final race on the Sunday saw competitors cover 13 miles and a climb of 1500 foot and Pete judged his run to perfection to finish ahead of a V60 rival with his time of 1.53.40. Paul caught Pete at the top of the final descent and edged ahead to be timed at 1.52.18, whilst Helen’s steady run as part of her Mountain marathon training was clocked at 2.20 dead.

Also competing this past weekend, but a bit closer to home, were a large number of Harriers in the King Alfred’s Torment held over 7 hilly miles around the Stourhead estate. Pete Darton was first home for the Harriers in a nippy 49.50 for 15^th position followed by Harrier kit manager Jason Tuck in 54.05 (29^th) and the Harrier’s manager of the u15s Geoff Cole in 56.51(42^nd). Other Harrier results amongst the 173 competitors:

Gary Tubridy 57.57; Graham Goldsmid 62.02; Sam & Nathan Baker timed at a dead heat of 63.39; Simon Jones 64.42. First Harrier woman home was Cath Goldsmid in 68.22.

This coming weekend sees over 50 Harriers of all ages competing in the tough South of England Road relays at Aldershot. The Harriers have 11 teams entered and have high hopes of some good team finishes in keeping with their tradition of being a strong endurance running Club. A number of the Harriers internationals are included in the teams that will be competing.

Meanwhile all juniors that want to train to improve their cross-country running are invited to the Harrier’s Monday training sessions, for Years 4-10, or Tuesday evening sessions for Years 9 upwards, both held at Millfield track under floodlight. See the Harriers website for more detail.