21^st Street series finishes with great racing

There were some great performances by juniors and seniors at the last of this year’s Street road races held on Wednesday March 10th. Wells City Harriers celebrated 21 years of organising the monthly races, and the 126th edition saw almost 80 runners in the 5km event and a talented group of youngsters in the 1km and 2km races. All those that completed 5 of the 6 main races received a special Street 5k T -shirt; all juniors that completed 5 races received their own black T shirt.

The winner on the night was Harrier Eddie Richard making a comeback to running after various injuries and pacing it well to finish in 16.57. There was another personal best for leading junior Kieran Young, of Bristol & West, in overall 2^nd place with his 16.59, and he was then followed by a trio of other juniors all from the host club: Matthew Dickinson, Cameron Rafferty and Oliver Fox all within 2 seconds of each other. First woman home was Honiton’s Jill Harrison in a nippy 19.41. There was also some good times recorded further down the field. How do Martin Lascelles and Linda Lascelles run such good times after competing at the Grizzly the previous Sunday? Pete Jakeman’s V60 time of 20.08 was an excellent par for the course for him. Harrier Sam Harding’s time was a considerable personal best in 20.11. There was also, again, some great times by juniors from Downside school.

In the accompanying junior races, Junior Harrier Luke Prior made it 6 wins out of 6 in the Series with his 7.19 in the 2km race with team-mate Abigail Gibbons 1^st girl, and 2^nd overall in 7.44. In the 1km race, Mendip AC’s Alex Williams held off the challenge of Lucy Baldwin to win in a time of 3.41.

The overall Series winner, based on the best 5 performances from the 6 races held over the October to March period was top V50 runner Dickie Wythe of the Harriers with junior team-mate Oliver Fox, only aged 13, in 2^nd place overall, and Steven Smyth of Wells Cathedral School 3^rd overall. Top woman was again Linda Lascelles of Yeovil Town RR, ahead of junior Hermione Toomey of Andover AC, and Harrier junior Esme Sheridan in 3^rdplace overall. It’s also interesting to review the Series positions across the races and see how many have steadily improved across the 6 races.

Other Series award winners and now proud owners of Series engraved glasses are:

F35 Joanne Mason

F45 Linda Lascelles (& overall winner)

F55 Flora Brooke

Junior girl Hermione Toomey

Senior Woman Emma Wiltshire

M40 Andrew Baldwin

M50 Dickie Wythe (& overall winner)

M60 Pete Jakeman

Junior boy Oliver Fox

Senior Man Steven Smythe

Overall junior race winners were Luke Prior ahead of James Williams and Abigail Gibbons in the 2km race. For the 1km race Series Lucy Baldwin headed Alex Williams and Amy Baldwin. The junior races were kindly sponsored by Prior Gardening Services and the Burnham on Sea Swim and Sports Academy. Thank you.

Many thanks to all the Harrier race officials for turning out every month – without them we wouldn’t have proper races. We’ll see you all again in October for the 22^nd season. Meanwhile keep on training and have a go at the Yeovilton 5k races, organised by YTRR, and accompanying junior races, organised by parents with Harrier help.