Podium 5K, Gwent League, Wessex League and Enter the Street 5K

Details: Written by: Alexander Coombs; Created: 12 November 2024; Last Updated: 17 November 2024; Hits: 510

Our junior runners at the Wessex League XC, Bryanston School

This week we have a round-up of the cross-country fixtures that have taken place in the past few weeks. Elise Thorner has also been in action, getting a big PB in the 5K and don’t forget to enter November’s Street 5K.

Podium 5K

[Report by Al Thorner]

Wells City Harriers Junior GB international Elise Thorner opened up her professional track and field career in the Podium 5k road race at Barrowford, Lancashire on Saturday 9th November. Elise completed her post graduate certificate in sports management at the University of Florida ending a five year trip to America as a sports scholar in the summer. She has now returned to the UK having gained a professional contract with sportswear company New Balance, based in Manchester under the coaching guidance of GB international medallist Helen Clitheroe.

Elise in action.

Elise finished an impressive 3rd place in the 5k road race in 15 mins 41 seconds, taking 47 seconds off of her best track time for the distance and nearly 3 mins off of her previous best on the road. She next competes in the Liverpool cross challenge cross country races on Saturday 3rd November which is a qualifying race for the forthcoming European XC Championships.

Elise on the Podium, finishing 3rd in a PB time of 15:41

Gwent League XC - Llandaff Fields, Cardiff

[Report by Jon James]

The second fixture of the Gwent cross-country league was held last Saturday in Llandaff Fields in Cardiff – still, dry conditions and therefore those looking for mud underfoot were disappointed! The fixture continues to host the UK cross-challenge event and a world series event which brings in some African runners from countries such as Kenya, Uganda, and Burundi – the pace at the front of the senior men’s and women’s races was therefore extremely hot, and everyone gets dragged along with it!

The following results only include runners that are part of the Gwent League. They do not include runners who raced as part of the cross challenge. We had WCH representatives in nearly all age groups, and first off was Heath Hughes-Davies in the boys U11 race – he’s just turned nine, so just old enough to compete now, and in his first Gwent League fixture did well to finish 26th when probably being the youngest in the field. Harriet Scott is representing the club as one of our YOAC athletes, and she came 16th in the U13 girls race, making good progress from the 19th position that she finished in the first fixture in a smaller field.

Oskar Beck ran really well, being awarded second place in the boys U15 race, but actually had the same time as the winner – compensation though was that he finished ahead of the athlete that beat him in the first fixture, and he is now first equal in the series standings. It was good to have three girls competing in the U17 race and hence they finished as 6th team on the day – well done to Daisy Abernethy (6th), Evie Horsfall (10th), and Isobel Stacey (18th). It was then really pleasing to see two long standing WCH members, Iris Courtney and Hannah Blundy, both now at university, run so well in the women’s U20 race – Iris coming 2nd and Hannah 3rd.

Louisa Saunders was our sole representative in the senior women’s race and continues to thrive at cross-country – she finished 80th in a large field of 396, and is getting better each fixture. The senior men’s team performed well, finishing 6th in division 1, and now lie in 5th place overall. First home was Chris Green, who worked his way sensibly through the field, finishing in 29th position in a time of 31.28 for the 9.6K course. Next was Mark Duffet – making a really commendable effort to represent the club in travelling a long way to Cardiff and having run a marathon 2 weeks ago. That rather caught up with him on the 3rd lap, but he hung onto finish 39th – he was then closely followed by Alex Coombs (44th), Matt Lusby (54th) and out final scorer for the team Adam Gibson (60th) – all ran well, though one wonders what Adam might have done if he’d not run a fast parkrun in the morning! It was great that we had another 5 runners making up a B team (finishing in the B team division) – some of whom, Harry Allen (227th) and Alex Williams (237th) were making their senior Gwent League debuts, and it was good to see them running well and enjoying the experience! Dan Maydew, another athlete who travelled a long way to compete for us, came 96th, Stuart Nash – now in the M45 age group and back running well, finished in 199th place, closely followed by a Gwent League Stalwart – Laurence Badman (215th). Next in, with the star WCH performance of the day, came

Andrew Deamer (240th) – coming 3rd in the M55 age group! Valuable contributions also came from Jonathan Williams (332nd) and Mark Pople (530th) – the latter showing the progress that he has made by running 5 minutes quicker than last year.

Oskar Beck in action

[Report from Matt Beck]

The Cardiff Cross challenge was held on Saturday in an overcast but mild Cardiff and the under 15 boy's race had entries from all over Britain so was a good opportunity for Oskar to compete against older boys from far and wide. The race started fast and Oskar was comfortable in the second pack behind the lead group- all of which were a year older and some had already run sub- 2 minutes for 800m. The second pack was spread out in the second half and Oskar put a big effort in and managed to overtake a couple of boys towards the end to finish in 12th place (2nd of the first year U15’s). As this race also included the second Gwent League fixture the stakes were higher. Oskar finished a split second behind first place to earn 2 points and go joint first place in the league standings with three races to go. His confidence is beginning to grow even more so the next race in Bristol will hopefully be a good one!

To watch the live stream of the races back, click here.

The next fixture is at Blaise Castle in Bristol on Saturday 30th November – Email Jon James (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) if you want to compete and are not yet registered with the Gwent League for this year’s series.

Team Wells City Harriers post races

Wessex League XC - at Bryanston School

[Report by David Hirst]

Bryanston School in Dorset hosted the second Wessex XC league event on Sunday 3 November. An interesting course, part of which hugged the river Stour, along with some reasonable weather meant an enjoyable day for the 26 Wells athletes who took part. Some really strong running lead to a large number of top 10 finishers in the junior categories. The third and final fixture will be at Canford School on Sunday 15 December. Enter here.

Junior runners in action

U11 Boys

6th Rowan Kelly 7:12

17th Milo Cook 7:55

U11 Girls

8th Zoe Frost 7:52

10th Elizabeth Doggrell 8:07

28th Indie Pomeroy 9:15

U13 Boys

10th Toby Hirst 12:40

U13 Girls

2nd Ruby Shaw 11:32

8th Harriet Scott 12:22

9th Freya Dencher 12:25

12th Island Hayes 12:36

21st Mia Pomeroy 13:49

U15 Boys

3rd Addie Butcher 13:12

4th Harry Dawson 13:19

6th Jamie Dawson 14:30

8th Will Packer 14:49

12th Dominic Cook 16:05

U15 Girls

8th Lily Nutland 16:14

9th Phoebe Phillips 16:36

10th Poppy Shaw 16:57

U17 Men

10th Jay Carey 17:39

U17 Women

2nd Ayala Chard 17:19

3rd Amelie Cook 17:28

Senior Male

14th David Hirst 33:38

19th Robbie Hawkins 34:19

22nd Laurence Badman 34:50

47th James Shaw 41:24

Street 5K - Race 2

The second race in the Street 5K series takes place on Wednesday 13th November 2024. You can enter online here. If you have missed the deadline for online entries, you can sign up on the evening. There are lots of prizes up for grabs. We also have cash prizes for a random age category, drawn on the evening. Last month, the senior men and women were awarded. Which category will be chosen in November?

Prize categories still to be drawn:

Male/Female Junior

Male 40/Female 35

Male 50/Female 45

Male 60+/Female 55+

Best Age Graded Male/Female

Partner Discount

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Kinisi Run Hub are offering all Wells City Harriers members a Kinisi Run Hub 10% club discount which can be used in-store and online. The code to use online is “wellscityharriers10” and in-store you just need to let us know they are club members at the checkout. You can find the discount code at the bottom of our club shop page.

News Reports

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this week’s report. If you’ve raced recently, please remember that we can only include your results if you send us a race report or photos to let us know about it. Send your race details and photos to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to be featured in the next report.

Dates For Your Diary

Here is a list of upcoming races, including WCH supported races, Somerset Series races, road relays, athletics league fixtures and other notable events. Contact club secretary Alexander Coombs if there is an event you would like adding. (SS = Somerset Series race)

November 2024

Wednesday 13th November 2024 - Street 5K (Race 2)

(SS) Sunday 24th November 2024 - Brent Knoll MT

Wednesday 27th November 2024- Club pub run (venue TBC)

Saturday 30th November 2024 - Gwent League XC (Race 3 - Blaise Castle, Bristol)

December 2024

Friday 6th December 2024 - Wells City Harriers Annual Christmas Meal (Wells Golf Club)

Sunday 8th December 2024 - Tri County XC Championships [Gloucestershire XC League Race 3] (Bath University)

Wednesday 11th December 2024 - Street 5K (Race 3)

Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th December 2024 - Indoor Combined Events Championships

Sunday 15th December 2024 - Telford 10K

Sunday 15th December 2024 - Wessex XC League (Race 3 - Canford School)