Dickinson in National Final & Parker also achieves a personal best (Late Aug 2010)
Wells Harrier Matthew Dickinson finished an excellent 7th at the England Athletics u15 Championships recently at Bedford when he recorded a new personal best of 9.36 for the 3000m track race. Matthew has steadily improved throughout the year and has been recording personal bests every month across the middle distances under the coaching programme devised by Wells City Harrier coaches.
Finishing 7th in a national championships is the icing on the cake for the Year 9 pupil who has switched to athletics after previously been a solid rugby player. This month he has also recorded a new personal best over 800m with a gutsy 2.13 clocking at the BMC meet at Exeter Arena a and he is currently also ranked 11th nationally for his road 5km time of 16.52 as recorded at the July edition of the Yeovilton race. Matthew trains hard on a Tuesday evening with the Harrier’s middle distance squad and is now getting ready to be part of a strong Harrier team at the forthcoming Southern road relays when the team has every hope of a high finish.
Also running well this past week has been one of the club’s junior internationals, Laura Parker. She achieved a new personal best when winning the 3000m steeplechase event in 10.20 at the BMC Nike Grand Prix at Cardiff to go to 4th on the national rankings for u23 athletes and 8th overall, including senior athletes. Laura was very pleased with this performance and follows on from her achieving personal bests over 1500m and 3000 m this season. Laura will be part of the Harrier’s senior women’s team to compete at the southern road relays to be held at Aldershot later this month.
As both the youngsters and seniors turn their attention to the road relays, the Harriers coaching programme also starts to reflect the need to prepare some athletes for longer distances and to get ready for the cross-country season that starts soon. The Harrier’s sponsored Secondary Schools League for Years 7-9 commences at Millfield School on Tuesday Sept 21st and all school pupils of these years are invited to compete. The races start at 4.30pm adjacent to the Millfield swimming pool.