Over 20 junior Club members were busy competing for their County at the SW Schools match at Ilton on Saturday

At Ilton, Harriers Lucy Baldwin, Isobel Glaisher & Oliver Fox all won their races and are now the SW Schools champions 2011! For the Harriers at Brecon, it may be that the senior men have done enough to remain top of Division One!

Results from SW Schools:

http://www.somersetschoolsathletics.org.uk/page73.html

Harriers strike gold again

By the car park attendant

Report of the SW Schools Championships, Ilton, Feb 12^th 2011

What a great achievement by all of the Harrier juniors!

There were three outright winners from the strong Wells & Yeovil squad at the South West Schools XC Championships on Saturday where the cream of the Year 7 upwards pupils from across the region came together to compete on a new challenging course at Ilton Naval Air Station. These SW Championships were used as a test run for the hosting of the English national Schools Championships to be held in 12 months time by Somerset Schools Athletic Association. Harriers Lucy Baldwin, Isobel Glaisher and Oliver Fox are officially the top school runners in the region for their age groups and that’s some achievement.

There were 21 Harriers in total, and another 4 or 5 that train with the Harriers, competing as part of their County schools teams. Just to get to this level is fantastic - so well done to all that took part on a course which was a combination of open flat fields and twisting, undulating inclines through woodland. The weather was fantastic so please can we ensure that the sunshine is on order again this time next year when all of the English Counties will descend on this part of the world?

For the Minor Girls (Year 7) Lucy Baldwin once again showed both her ability and racing wisdom when she paced it to perfection to win the race from two chasing Avon Schools athletes. Lucy gradually reeled her opponents down and only took the lead half way into the race before pulling away in the finishing straight. Lucy trains consistently with our Monday group at the Millfield track, and gets stronger every week. Also competing well in this race was Amy Darcy in 18^th place out of the 63 competitors. Amy has managed to turn out at virtually all of the Harrier events this year and trains with Annette’s squad in Yeovil.

For the Junior Girls (Year 8&9) there was an equally impressive run by Isobel Glaisher, running here for Dorset Schools.  What is more remarkable in some ways is that Isobel is in Year 8 and she was over 20 seconds ahead of the 2^nd placed athlete at the end. Jemma Jones was 17^th, Abi Gibbons 30^th, Amy Cavendar 45^th and Rebecca Bowles 67^th for some great finishing. Abi & Amy train with our Monday junior group whilst Amy Cooper who trains with our Tuesday group at Millfield was 14^th

For the Inter Girls, Emily Smith was 4^th, (1^st from Somerset Schools) followed home by Lilly Hawkins in 30^th and Esme Sheridan in 61^st who came in to the team late on Thursday evening. Both Emily & Esme have recently been first junior girl home at our monthly Street 5k races. Lizzie Hart and Jess Potter were our only Harrier members in the senior girls event with Lizzie home in a commendable 8^th place and Jess 35^th.

For the Junior boys, Oliver Fox swept home for victory to be crowned SW Schools Champion and he had team-mate Charlie Martin next in for Somerset in 9^th place looking good also. Sam Sommerville was home in 14^th, despite being a year younger (Year 8). In the Inter boys, Matt Dickinson had a solid race for 10^th (1^st Somerset) as he tries to recover his form of last year. Sam Bedford was 31^st, Phillip Bridge 41^st and Curtis Stevens 51^st. Then came the Senor boys where George Harris was first for Somerset in19th place and Cameron Rafferty in 56^th. For the minor Boys, James Bridge was a great 27^th

Many thanks to all the Harrier parents who were car park attendants on the day!

Meanwhile on the same day, at the Gwent XC League match at Brecon, a much depleted squad of juniors and a resilient team of senior men and women competed in the 3^rd of this season’s 4 fixtures against the best of the South Wales teams and teams drawn from Bristol and Bath. Top marks to the senior men who assembled enough fire power to not only win the team event on the day but to stretch their overall lead in Division one. (see separate report)

For the Harrier juniors at Brecon it was great to see Minor boy Chris Ellis, and three of the u13 boys squad, including Johnny Ellis and Luke Prior, and u17 Sam Harding all making the trip for great runs. We await final positions.