The u15 girls team finished 6th; the u17 mens team was 12th ; and the Senior mens team 31st at the prestigious English Road Relay Championships at Sutton Park, Birmingham, this past weekend. Well done to all the Harriers!
Jon James reports on Saturday’s action at Sutton Park with the senior men:
"Having qualified via the regional six stage road relays held at Aldershot two weeks ago, Wells sent a senior men’s team to take part in the national road relay championships, held as ever at Sutton Park in Birmingham. The relay consisted of 6 legs of an undulating circuit of the park, made slightly trickier by a blustery wind, though the heavy rain of the morning had cleared. 80 club teams from every corner of Britain toed the start line and Jack Bancroft, though not running at his best, still posted a respectable 19.14 time for the 5.9k lap, leaving the team in 61st position.
Matthew Dickinson was suffering the effects of a cold and the team appreciated him running on the second leg; he still returned a solid 19.24. Nathan Young has been in fine form of late and he again showed that here storming past 23 people on the 3rd leg with a time of 18.21. With the team now in 38th at the half way stage Jon James, despite giving away 30 years in age to many in the team, produced a solid run of 19.11 and gained two places. Kieran Young gained a further two places, showing good fighting spirit in returning 19.37 for 5th leg. Despite having had a break and starting recently at Loughborough University, Harry Lane ran a great last leg, moving the team up a further 3 places and clocking 18.56. The final position of 31st gave encouragement for the future given that 3 of this team are in the U20 age group."
Al Thorner was team managing the u15 girls on Sunday. The team had finished 3rd at the Southern Relays just 2 weeks earlier:
“Fantastic 6th place in beautiful Autumn conditions for the U15 girls team of Caitlin Carnegie, Elise Thorner and Sophie Hamilton on Sunday.
For the 3,86km hilly circuit, Caitlin ran 14mins 48 secs to bring the team back in 21st position. Elise ran 14 mins 20 seconds (3rd fastest on her leg and 18th fastest on the day) to bring us through to 8th position and Sophie ran 14mins 04 seconds (3rd fastest on her leg and 8th fastest on the day) to finish in 6th place overall.
Wells Harriers were seriously punching above our weight again with Herne Hill Harriers, Aldershot Farnham & District, Thames Valley Harriers, Bracknell AC, Team Bath AC, Liverpool Harriers and Cardiff AC all behind us to name but a few. “
In the u17 men’s race the team of Luke Prior, Felix Rusby and Sam Sommerville achieved a very creditable 12th place finish. Running the 3.86km circuit in 12.33 Luke handed on to Felix in 25th place. Felix ran a 13.01 to bring us up to 22nd and then Sam stormed through the field to gain 10 places up to 12th place in a time of 12.25, for 6th fastest of the leg.
Also competing this past Sunday over the classic marathon distance of 26.2 miles was Rex Whitcombe at the Chester Marathon. Rex achieved a lifetime personal best with his time of 3.28.53 running at a steady 8 minute mile pace and following the 3.30 pace-maker.
Meanwhile at the Burnham Half Marathon, Race 14 in the Somerset Race Series sponsored by M5 Glass, 11 Harriers were racing on another hot day and Mike Rusca reports that " Nathan Young on his first attempt at a half marathon won the race in an impressive time of 1.11.59 beating the rest of the field by nearly 5 minutes. This was especially good given that he’d run the quickest time for the Harriers senior men’s team the previous day at Sutton Park. Next home for the Harriers running consistently well in 18th place was Justin Thomas in 1.28.59.
Other Harrier times and positions in brackets:. Mike Rusca (28) 1.31.44, Martin Bailey (39) 1.34.57, Alison Gadd 3rd Senior Female (46) 1.35.54, Tony Watts (47) 1.36.40, Andrew Piper (53) 1.38.40 pb, Mike Brown (55) 1.39.11, Rebecca Carver 1st Junior Female (70) 1.41.45, David Fussell (104) 1.49.57 & Elly Milln (114) 1.54.01."
Justin Thomas, Mike Rusca and Rebecca Carver have all now improved their standings in the Somerset Race Series as we move towards the final races.http://www.somersetseries.co.uk/
Neil Biss reports from the Harrier's "2nd" Cross-country League, Sunday's Wessex XC League...
“8 Harriers made the trip to the ‘Sunny’ XC fixture at Avon Heath Country park - one of the new venues in the Wessex league XC this season. The course was everything you would expect from a XC course with rolling terrain with frequent turns but trail shoes were the order of the day as the course was on gravel and sandy paths.
The first race of the day starts off with the SM, SW,U20F, U20M,U17M &F all starting together, although running different distances. Taking top honours and coming home in 1st place in the SW was Deborah Glover 22.27. For the Senior men, Neil Biss finished in 8th place 37.10. Michael Biss ran a very good race in the U17M to finish in 2nd place 20.23 whilst Natasha Jones ran extremely well also to gain a top 10 finish in 7th place 24.39.
Next was the turn of the U11B and U11G and there seemed to be so many as the start line did get a little bit pushy as all the eager junior’s jostled for a good position. Not fazed by all of this Kai Snell had a fantastic race finishing 4th in 8.22 in the U11G. Bradley Glover on his first XC I believe for the Harriers had a very strong run to finish in 17th place 8.35 in the U11B
The last race of the day was for the U15B where Kameron Ridler, wearing the Wells vest for the first time, only narrowly missed out on second place to come in 3rd 14.05, followed by George Biss with his strong second lap in 13th place 18.35. Well done to all that ran, the next fixture is at Sunday 2nd November at Canford Heath Youth Centre.”
Next up is the Gwent XC League – all the venues and most of the dates across the season are now confirmed and are on the Harrier calendar. Timetable & map of course for Bridgend is on the League website at
http://www.gwent-league.org.uk/
The following have volunteered to team-manage next Sunday Oct 12th at Bridgend. Please contact them direct asap. There is no team selection for this event – all Harriers (& Yeovil members) are invited to compete.
Team Manager
U13b Gill Macpherson
U13g Darren White
U15b & g Al Thorner (& 1 other tbc)
U17m Simon Prior
U17g tbc – can you volunteer? Let Paul know
SW Katrina Prior
SM Simon Prior
Novices (Year 5 & 6 at school) can also compete
Simon will be taking the tent and will need helpers to put it up.
A REMINDER ABOUT HOW THE GWENT LEAGUE WORKS
- Before the race let your team manager know you are coming – email them now
- Please get there an hour before your race and find the Royal Blue Harrier tent
- Team managers will complete an entry form with all team names & dates of birth on
- Pay the team manager your entry fee on the day - £1 for juniors; £4 for u20s and senior men/women. You don’t wear a race number.
- Warm up 20 minutes before your race; enjoy your race; and when finishing collect your finishing position disc and give it back to your team manager – they will make a note on the team results envelope.
TRANSPORT
Geoff Cole has organised a minibus from Yeovil – first offer for Yeovil athletes/supporters (at least 1 other parent should go with Geoff). It departs Yeovil at 8.45am and calls at Millfield school layby at 9.15am IF REQUIRED. Contact Geoff to check on space availability asap and by Wednesday at the latest
VESTs
If required, make sure you have ordered them from Harrier kit managers and can collect them/or have arranged for them to be there before the day. Contact details on Harrier website. £10 per vest.
ENCOURAGE YOUR TEAM MATES
It’s always good to support any team mates in the race before or after your race.
CHAMPIONSHIP DEADLINES – will come round quicker than we think –
- Somerset County AA Championship at University of Bath on Sunday December 14th (Dorset Championships will be on a different date at a different venue)
- South west XC Championships at Killerton Park, near Exeter on Sunday January 5th (this is a great hilly course in national trust grounds – over 50 harriers competed last year; there is also a NT tea room!)
- Southern XC Championships at Stanmer park, Brighton on Saturday January 25th (we had a great time there when we last went in 2012 – Ben Tickner won Gold!)
Dec 1st is a good target date for you to confirm if you want to be entered for any or all of these Championships –let team managers know, and later this month Nick Heath who is dealing with these team entries for the Club will circulate contact details..
WHAT ELSE IS COMING UP?
STREET 5k races this Wednesday October 8th, including 1k & 2k races for school years 5&6 (1k) & Years 7 & 8 (2k) see website itenm on Street to the right for all details.