Harriers Lead the Way

Wells Senior Mens team started the new cross country season with flying colours at Bridgend last weekend and finished the day as joint leaders of Division 1 with Les Croupiers Running Club, a fantastic result in this highly contested league.

The combined Wells and Yeovil team competing against 304 runners and 56 teams making the long journey to South Wales were well rewarded, with team manager Jon Gilling commenting that compared with last year's 20th postion this was indeed a special result. There were many outstanding performances with Jon James 7th overall ( 1st V40 ) covering the fast and flat course in 32.39 in a hard fought finish just seconds separating the top 10 finishers. Sharp end performances saw a close battle between Eliot Hamies and Adrian Marriott both scoring highly in 13th and 14th places, Jon Gilling also produced a great result in 35th position as did Jack Bancroft 54th despite struggling over laps 2 and 3 finished with apersonal best.

Next up were Simon Prior and John Rowe taking 95th and 155th places noticeably Simon improving from last years run by some 63 positions with John's strong finish securing one of Wells and Yeovils combined team best ever results. Additional team members included a close group comprising of Dave Stanfield 184th, Simon Arnold 191st and Rex Whitcombe also recording improved finishes from last year, such was the support that Wells and Yeovil "B" were 49th team.

In the Senior Women Anna Lewis had a fantastic race to finish in 15th place with Katrina Prior 48th and Debbie Keeble 155th, though they didn't have a full team on the day.

The junior results were not available at the time of reporting, full results can be found on www.wellscityharriers.org.uk or www.gwent-league.org.uk

The next XC date is the 14th November at Bath University so a strong team presence will be needed to maintain a top of league position.