Wells Harriers win at Burnham Races whilst Hennessy wins Jersey Marathon again and another 6 contest the Loch Ness Marathon

There were a number of excellent Wells Harrier performances at Sunday’s Burnham on Sea Half marathon and Junior Fun Run. Following on from the success at the South of England Road relays the previous week where the Harriers finished top club in the south-west, the club once again had strength in depth from u11s through to V50s at Burnham.

In the junior fun run held around the sports fields at the BASC grounds, the Harriers had 1, 2, 3 positions and a further junior in the top ten to finish. Over a looped course of over a mile, 13 year old Kayley Kennedy showed her strength to pull clear from the field after an initial tussle with local athlete Charlotte Rogers. Kayley finished in 6.33. She was then followed in by two of the Harrier’s strong emerging 10 year old athletes Luke Prior and Danny Kennedy.

Luke paced his sprint to the line to perfection getting ahead of Danny only in the final 200m and not letting up, with Luke timed at 6.53 and Danny at 6.55. All three of these will be competing in races at Bridgend this coming Sunday as the combined wells & Yeovil team compete in the tough Gwent XC League. In 10^th place in the junior fun run was another great talent with 8 year old Victoria Prior running an excellent race in 8.37.

In the seniors event over the standard 13.1 mile half-marathon distance on the road, Alice Hector ran a storming run for 1^st place amongst the women in a time of 86.15, some 90 seconds ahead of her nearest rival. This is despite the fact that Alice last competed only 3 weeks ago at the Sherborne Ironman Triathlon where she finished 6^th woman over the entire distance. She complained of her legs feeling a little tired afterwards.

For the men, plaudits go this week to the Club’s top V40 athlete, Jon James, who is in the top ten nationally for the age group over the shorter distances. Here he ran a steady 76.15 for 6^th place overall as he finishes off his preparations for the Dublin Marathon at the end of the month. His target time at Dublin must be close to 2.32 on this basis.

Next in for the Harriers was Les Lock 4^th V50 and 19^th overall with his 82.33. Then came Alan Hunter with a solid 93.15 for 55^th place: Nick Edwards 1.46.34 for 131^st; Martin Collins 1.58.47 for 159^th; Ed Willingham 1.52.11 175^th and John Turley in 2.05.42 for 205^th . 237 athletes contested the main event which once again was well organised by Burnham Harriers.

Meanwhile further afield the Club showed its strength in depth amongst the senior athletes with one of its Team GB internationals Andrew Hennessy going back to Jersey to win the Jersey Marathon for the 2^nd year on the trot. This time he broke his personal best and set a new course record despite atrocious weather conditions with an excellent 2.29.05, almost 6 minutes ahead of his nearest rival. Andrew now intends to rest for a few weeks before he takes his place alongside Jon James and 4 others in the Harrier team that contests the National Road Relays in Birmingham.

Not to be outdone another contingent of 6 Harriers went to the Loch Ness Marathon to tackle the 26.2 mile course along with 1400 other runners. First in to the finish on the track at Inverness for the team was John Russell with a 3.34 for 253^rd place. Ben Cane was not far behind with 3.37, and John Reynolds and Ian Carpenter a minute back on that both with 3.38. Allan Jamieson was just outside the magical 4 hour mark with his 4.03. Judy Baynes ran an excellent 5.55 to complete the team.

All keen runners are reminded that the Shepton Mallet 5k, 10k and junior fun runs take place at the West Shepton Playing fields on Sunday Oct 19^th. Entry forms on the club website.