Harrier members Emily Smith won silver and Sophie Hamilton bronze when they competed at the prestigious English schools Track & Field Championships at Alexander Stadium recently. They were part of a successful Somerset schools team that once again punched above its weight in many events.

For Emily this was her last appearance in the traditional red vest of the Somerset schools team after a long association. Emily started training with the Harriers at the Monday evening sessions some 10 years ago when she was aged 8 and has always shown good enthusiasm and form for many athletic events. She won gold for Somerset Schools when competing on a really tough muddy cross-country course at the English School XC Championships back in March 2010 – a national champion!

At this year’s track and field championships she was competing in the Senior girls 1500m Steeplechase and was a little below par with a sore throat and high temperature in the week before the event. On the day she ran a personal best time of 4.58.22 and finished a stride behind the gold medallist, and team-mate from Somerset, Holly Brown who also recorded a fantastic personal best. Emily has now finished her education at Wells Cathedral school and we’re sure she’ll continue to achieve a lot in her athletics even though as she goes away to study we’ll probably see less of her in a Harrier vest.

Sophie Hamilton is a new Harrier member having joined us in the past 6 months. She is a student at Hazelgrove and has been joining in with the Tuesday sessions along with Emily and the other great group of talented juniors who have made the progression from the Monday training group. Sophie ran in the Junior girls 1500m race at Alexander Stadium and despite being a ‘year young’ (in school year 8 when most of the other athletes were year 9) she ran 4.39 in her heat on the Friday and then 4.38 to claim 3^rd place and bronze medal on the Saturday. That’s some achievement.

Also competing hard at the English Schools was Sam Sommerville, well known to us as part of the Harrier’s cross-country team who achieved a 4^th place finish in a tight contest in the Inter Boys (school years 10 & 11) 1500m Steeplechase. Despite running a new personal best of 4.23 he just missed out on the medals. Other Yeovil based athletes who we know from the joint track and field team competing at the Championships included Brett Harrison in the inter boys 200m sprints; Matthew Trickey in the inter boys shot; and Jordan Davies, who was 4^th in the senior boys shot, but is a year young. Well done all.