The Wells City Harriers u15 boys team won Silver medals at the English Road Relays this past weekend. There were also great performances by the u13 boys, the u15 boys B team and the u17 men on Sunday, and the Senior men on Saturday. This is the highest achievement ever by any Harrier team at these prestigious national road relays.
A few smiles!
Harriers strike national silver
The Wells City Harriers u15 boys’ team beat all the other teams from across the country other than for the winning team from Trafford AC. This was the best national team performance by any Harrier team over the Club’s 30 year history but follows up a number of medal & top ten finishes at regional events in the past.
The u15 boys’ team of Oliver Fox, Charlie Martin and Sam Sommerville have been training hard over many years with the Harriers & Yeovil group to achieve such a high position and on the day they all completed the hilly 3.8km road course at Sutton Park, Birmingham, in great times. They were backed up by another trio of keen u15 boys making up the B team: Luke Prior, Mark Bailey & Jamie Williams.
On leg 1 for the A team was Sam Sommerville who handled the pressure of leg 1 really well to bring us in in 20th place in a competitive time of 13.18. Next was Charlie Martin on leg 2, returning after a few weeks of being under the weather and did not disappoint by bringing us back in 9th place in 13.18 the same time as Sam. Last up was seasoned anchorman Oliver Fox - so how many places could Oliver gain with 1/2 a mile to go? Oliver pulled us into the top 3 to finish in 2nd place in 12.31, a great time to give him 2nd fastest time of the day. The team finished 14 seconds clear of the 3rd placed team.Well done lads - highest position ever for a Wells team.
The u15 boys will have been inspired by the performance earlier in the day by the u13 boys: the trio of Oliver Dickinson, Alex Williams and James Bridge who finished in an excellent 6th place. After a strong showing at Southerns, the trio was hoping for a top 10 finish. On leg 1 was Oliver who ran a great leg to come in 4th place and 6th fastest time of the day in 13.55. On leg 2 was new member Alex Williams, who still has another year in this age group and was not intimidated by the fast start. He ran an excellent leg to bring us back in 6th in a time of 15.08, 12th fastest of his leg. Alex handed over to James Bridge who showed some mature running to make sure we stayed in the top 10 to finish 6th team in a time of 14.26 and 6th fastest of his stage. A great effort: 6th team at the Nationals. That will inspire them for future races!
In the u17 men’s race, last week’s Street 5k race winner, Sam Bedford led off for the team and clocked 12.57 with some level headed running before handing on to Curtis Stevens, who showed a lot of guts to hold on to 30th place in13.24, and setting up Matthew Dickinson to chase down 12 other teams and bring the team in for 17th place. Matthew’s time was the quickest of the three with 12.29. Top 20 is a good return and 2 of the boys/men can go again in this age group next year.
Sunday's junior teams were managed by Simon Prior with good support from parents of the youngsters. Simon comments:"A great performence by all the boys, this is the best team effort ever by a Wells team at a National relays, Everyone was an asset to Wells City. We can be proud of all these boys."
The Harrier’s senior men’s team of six competed on the Saturday at the same venue, over a longer circuit of 5.8km per leg. Despite fielding three of the Club’s TeamGB athletes they could only finish 26th this year – such was the standard. The two Tickner brothers clocked the fastest times for the team with Ben 17.08 and Frank 17.22. Ben’s time was amongst the ten fastest (9th) of all competitors on the day. It was good to see Andy Hennessy back racing again with the relay team – maintaining his longstanding commitment to the Club which has been honed over more than a dozen years or so. Here he ran 19.28. Jack Bancroft (19.20), Elliot Haimes (19.29), and Jon James (19.33) completed the team and this represented a better finish than the Southern road relays last month. Jon was competing despite suffering from a foot injury over recent months - showing grit and determination to help the team here.Well done all.
Full results here:
www.englishroadrunningassociation.co.uk
Photos courtesy of Doug & Kay Martin show the u15 boys, Charlie on leg 2 (twice) and Oliver in full flight