What a talented lot they are! Harrier trained juniors from either the Yeovil or Wells based training groups competed at the South West Schools Championships this past Saturday whilst another squad of Harriers were out competing the day after at the latest in the Gwent League fixtures at Blaise Castle, Bristol. Top billing goes to Oliver Fox for his SW Schools victory on the Saturday and to Nathan Young for his excellent 3rd place on the Sunday. There were a number of other good top ten finishes by Harriers on the Saturday. We also report here on some recent road and off-road performances including Clare Prosser once again winning a tough event outright.

see right panel for more photos

pictures here thanks to Darren White

Wells City Harrier Oliver Fox won the Senior Boys South West Schools XC Championships when he ran away from his rivals at the event held last Saturday at Grittleton House, Chippenham. In doing so he led the Somerset schools team to victory against County teams from Avon, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucester and Wiltshire. Harrier team-mates Sam Somerville and Luke Prior were the Somerset schools 2^nd and 3^rd counters when they finished in 3^rd and 7^th places respectively. Both Sam and Luke are in the younger year group for the Seniors and will race again next year. Fellow Harriers Felix Rusby and Jamie Williams, also Year 12 students, were in 14^th and 29^th place. Most of these athletes train with the Harriers at their Tuesday evening sessions at Millfield.

For the senior girls, Charlotte Baker was the pick of the Harriers, finishing in 7^th place, with Megan Rusca in 24^th place – both in the younger year group. For the intermediate boys, school years 10 and 11, James Bridge was 4^th, Ben Lloyd 15^th and Oliver Dickinson 18^th. In the Inter girls Caitlin Carnegie was 6^th, Lucy Baldwin 38^th and Amy D’Arcy 57^th. Caitlin was part of the Somerset schools winning team. Dylan Dukes was the pick of the Harriers in the junior boy’s race with his 14^th place, and with Ollie Thorner in 32^nd and Chris Ellis in 41^st. Luke Macpherson was 51^st, and is also a year young so will go in the same age group next year.

Elise Thorner was part of the championship winning junior girls team for Somerset schools when she finished in 8^th, along with Harriet Fox in 12^th and with Elena Sidman in 20^th. Will Parry was 46^th in the minor boy’s race (for Year 7s) and Abbie White, Amy Northam and Jessica Hudson were 16^th, 19^th and 39^th respectively in the Minor girl’s race. That was some good racing by all of them. Well done to all.

Meanwhile on the Sunday the turn out for the Harriers at the 4^th of this seasons’ Gwent League Cross Country fixtures was well down, largely due to many of the juniors competing the day before. For the seniors however there was a good turnout of the men, with Nathan Young being the pick of the bunch with an excellent 3^rd place finish and with his younger brother Kieran also finishing well up in 6^th, out of a total field of 285 runners over a 10km course. Other harrier finishers: Jack Bancroft, 38^th; Jon James, 46^th; Tom Dukes, 71^st; Steve Masters 78^th;Alastir Lyndsey 86^th; Oli Frost, 94^th; Robbie Hawkins, 149^th ;Simon Arnold 176^th; and Geoff Cole 201^st. For the women Katrina Prior was 38^th.

In the novice races we did have some enthusiastic and talented juniors competing and Kai Snell finished in 12^th and Hannah Blundy in 16^th for the girls whilst Bradley Glover was a good 5^th. There may be some other junior performances from Gwent yet to be reported. Let us know if that is the case.

At recent road races we know that there was some good running by Harriers at the 2nd of the Somerset Race Series events for 2015. At the Humdinger Half marathon on a very hilly course Justin Thomas was a great 10th in 93.33, with Duncan Verel 86th in 1.56, and Michelle Blackmore 106th in 2.03. There were 147 finishers. The next race in the Series is the Harrier sponsored Babcary Road Race on Sunday February 22nd. Full details and entry forms on the Calendar entry or to the right. All details about the Series, sponsored by Yeovil Glass, at http://www.somersetseries.co.uk/

The previous week on February 1st, Martin Bailey ran 1.31 for 72nd in the Blackmore Vale half, which whilst nowhere near as tough at the Humdinger, still features a long mile with uphill gradient at the end. Simon Carr was 143rd with 1.41 as part of his marathon preparations; and Sam Baker was 202nd in 1.47. Tony Watts was 301st in 1.58. There was 424 finishers.

...& now perhaps saving the best for the end....Saturday January 24th saw the latest running of the ROK The Stones Marathon - a multi-terrain event on three different loops from Stanton Drew Village Hall requiring self-navigation. The overall winner - beating all other competitors was our one and only Harrier Marathon award winner of the past few years: Clare Prosser. This isn't the first time Clare has won a race outright. Clare finished the full 26.2 mile distance in 3.58 creating a new course record, and was 6 minutes ahead of the next competitor, who was the first man home. That's some running.