Wells City Harrier Ben Tickner blasted the large field away on Easter Monday at the Yeovil Easter Bunny 10km road race, and in so doing went to near the top of the national rankings for 2011.
There were 351 runners in the large field and times of many were affected by the heat. Some 20 junior and senior Harriers competed in either the main 10k race or in the junior 1 mile race.
Ben's time of 30.02 was some 2.30 ahead of the next runner in, and this time places him 7th on the national power of ten times to date. His time is his best since 2009 and just 30 seconds short of his personal best for this 10km distance. Ben was recently named as the Club’s Senior athlete of the year for his achievement over cross-country this past autumn and winter
Not too far behind in 4th was club-mate Pete Grist, once again returning to some form and posting a useful 32.53 here. With Tim Hawkins and Matthew Lewis also in before the 35 minutes were up, the team of 4 men swept to the team title by a large margin. The Harriers 2nd team consisting of Alastair Lindsay, 35.48, Clive Harwood, 38.52, Rick Dukes, 40.21, and Graham Goldsmid, 42.17, were 6th team home overall. Clive was also 1st V60 home and shows no sign of slowing down.
For the Harrier women, Tracey Halliday was first home in 14th place amongst the women with her time of 45.40, and then came junior Rebecca Carver stepping up to the distance with a useful 46.27, followed by Cath Goldsmid in 47th place for the women’s team to finish 4th overall.
Other times from the 10km race:
Simon Arnold 41.48, Gary Tubridy 45.17. Mary Harrington 57.12, Hayley Carver 59.00, Kay Franklin 67.32
In the accompanying juniors fun run held on the field over a course just short of a mile, Mike Biss was 1st boy home with a great 5.13. Haiden Watts was finished in 5.43, then came George Biss in 6.05 and 3rd girl home was Briony Keeble with her 6.52.
Wednesday April 13th also saw the first in this season’s monthly 5km road races at Yeovilton and Harriers again dominated much of the proceedings but were pipped for 1st place by Bristol & West’s Nathan Young who beat the Club’s top veteran Jon James by a second, 15.38, followed by Pete Grist in 3rd place with 15.42. There were many personal bests by Harriers at this race as racing conditions were good in the field of 150 runners on the one lap circuit.
Amongst the personal bests on the night over 5km were juniors Matthew Dickinson with 16.28 and Philip Bridge with 17.50. Also gaining pbs were senior Harriers Matthew Lewis who recorded a great 16.44 and Nick Roberts with 18.10. All times and positions are available on the Yeovil Club website at
Harriers of all ages 11 and upwards are reminded that the County Track & Field Championships are coming up on the weekend of May 14th/15th at Millfield track and they should let Paul Chadwick or Graham Goldsmid know if they wish to be entered no later than May 6th