Harris and Parker lead the way for Harriers

Almost 50 Harriers toed the start line at Sunday’s South-West Cross Country Championships at Bicton College, Devon. Up against athletes from Gloucestershire to Cornwall there were some impressive performances with top billing going to U’13 boy George Harris in his first season in the sport who came through the large field to win the gold medal. Another medal winning performance came from U’17 woman Laura Parker, 3^rd in her race. 30 of the Harriers were selected to compete for Somerset as part of the inter-counties match.

Conditions were wet and blustery with mud on some parts of the course alternating with stamina sapping hills. Other top ten performances came from the U’15 boys Charlie MacLean and Ben Venus, 4^th and 8^th respectively, and from Leighanna Chappell, 10^th in the u’15 girls, and Karen Buckley 4^th in the senior women’s race.

Proceedings got underway on the day with a U’11 fun run completely dominated by a new crop of enthusiastic Harriers coming through. Matthew Cole won the 1km race, just ahead of Shepton’s Naomi Marable, 1^st girl, and followed closely behind by Philip Bridge, 3^rd, and Matthew Trickey, 4^th. Then in the U’13 girls race over 2.7km Emily Smith of Pennard made her Harrier debut and despite only getting home at 2.00am that morning from a skiing holiday, and losing one of her spike shoes within 20m of the start, finished an excellent 14^th in the field of almost 100 athletes. Lauren Willow was next home in 21^st, and Jessica Wood 34^th to close the ‘A’ team. Good support was provided by an off-colour Vera Assis, 70^th , Hannah Warman, 79^th , and Elisabet Assis in 85^th for the Harrier ‘B’ Team.

The U’13 boy’s race was a revelation as it clearly showed how far George Harris has developed his racing skills over a short 4 month period since first being picked as part of the Harrier’s team at the Southern Counties and National Road Relays in the autumn. George paced his race to perfection, only taking the lead in the final 50m of the race. Next home in the large field was a good packing of Harriers: Cameron Rafferty, 40^th, Lewis Lynham, 46^th, Tristen Goldsmid, 51^st, Reuben Whitcombe, 58^th, Callum Batten, 61^st, and Austen Thorne, 62^nd.

In the U’15 girls race over 3.6km Leighanna Chappel was as competitive as ever with her 10^th position, with Natalie Parker having a good race for 24^th and April Walford running solidly for 47^th. The U’15 boys race saw the Harriers field a strong quartet with Charlie MacLean well pleased with his 4^th place, just ahead of Ben Venus in 6^th, and Alex Wiltshire closing for the team in 21^st despite his suffering a cold and sore-throat all week. Tom Thick finished a game 63^rd despite struggling with an injury. Laura Parker ran an excellent race for 3^rd in the u’17 women, and Tom Lock a solid 37^th in the u’17 men’s race.

In the senior races a number of the Harrier’s top athletes were missing from both the women’s and particularly the men’s race with none of the Club’s England or GB senior internationals starting here. Karen Buckley, however, showed no lack of ability and endeavour to finish 4^th in the 100 strong women’s race over 4.4km, and was well supported by Jenny Moore, 15^th. Sam Backwell just got ahead of Nicky Lynham for them to finish 44^th and 45^th respectively, and Cath Goldsmid and Debbie Keeble provided good back up with their 77^th and 86^th positions.

In the absence of the internationals it was the turn of Pete Grist, Sam Weale and Andrew Deamer to take the plaudits for the men’s team competing over 7.7km. Pete’s 17^th place ensured that he laid the ghost of his previous appearance on this course when he collapsed in the 2006 Southern XC Championships. Sam’s 31^st place was on the back of relatively little training for the member of the GB Pentathlon team. Andrew’s 54^th place was achieved with a well judged run which saw him steadily come through the field. Top Club V50 man, Dickie Wythe was next man home for the Harrier team in 69^th place. Other Harrier finishing positions were: 75^th Les Lock, 87^th Graham Goldsmid, 93^rd Dave Stanfield, 102^nd Stuart Marsh, 108^th Paul Chadwick, 109^th Pete Wright, 114^th Ian Liversidge, 122^nd Geoff Cole,129^th Nick Edwards, and 137th Colin Money.

We now wait to see how all of these positions translate into Wessex XC League positions as this race also counted as the 4^th of the season’s fixtures for the eligible teams. After the first three fixtures to date we know that  Wells Harriers teams are leading the senior women’s category and the u’13 boys, u’15 boys and veteran men. Harrier teams are also in 3^rd place in the u’13 girls and senior men’s category. Individuals leading various categories after 3 races include George Harris, Laura Parker, Karen Buckley, Tina Backwell, Andrew Deamer and Steve Masters with a host of others in top 3 positions.