Harriers out in force at the County Championships

There was a whole host of good performances by Wells Harriers of all ages at the Annual County Athletic Association’s Championships held at Yeovil track on Saturday 14th May. Damp and cool conditions were not conducive to fast times, good jumps or long throws at this stage in the season. A number of Harriers once again also officiated at the event, along with colleagues from Clubs and schools across the County. The packed programme started at 10.15am and finished at 6.45pm.

Club members collected a total of 7 Gold medals. Winning performances from Harriers came from Laura Parker in the U’17 Women’s 1500m final, from Club coach Laura Whitehead in the U’20s 400m & 800m, from U’20 Tom Hockedy in the 400m, Karen Buckley in the Senior Women’s 3,000m, and from veteran Angus Henderson in the Senior Men’s 800m & 1500m. U’13 boy Callum Batten achieved a silver medal in the 1500m whilst Ann Taswell won silver in the Women’s 3,000m and Tom Bush was silver medalist in the Men’s 1500m. A number of Club members competed for their schools, whilst others helped the combined Yeovil/Wells team to overall top place on the medals table.

A number of the junior Harriers from the regular Monday training group competed for the first time at these prestigious Championships and they can all feel pleased with their performances. Glastonbury’s Callum Batten was 2nd in the U’13s1500m in a time of 5.24.20 — a new personal best (pb). Shepton Mallet’s Liam Black ran well in both the 100m & 800m for the U’13 boys, finishing in 2.50.30 in the 800m. Both of Liam’s times were pbs and it is clear that he can improve further as the season progresses.

Street’s Louis Curtis was close behind Liam as he ran an excellent 2.54.00 in the 800m race, and this is also a pb by over 8 seconds. Likewise, Street’s Joshua Leavey-Gillespie sliced over 14 seconds off his previous pb, in the U’15 boys 800m with his time of 2.31.00. This was good enough for 7th overall, out of 16, and he then also competed well at 400m with 66.60. Meanwhile Joshua’s School mate Chris Wadey, who attends the Harrier’s Tuesday training group, was 7th in a packed U’15 boys 1500m race with 5.01.90 (pb). Just ahead of Chris was Alex Wiltshire in 5th place with a good 4.55.00.

Tom Hockedy again showed his sprinting qualities with his victory in the U’20 men’s 400m in a time of 49.35. This comes off the back of a heavy winter of rugby training which led to selection for a recent junior England Rugby team tour.

In the U’13 girls 800m Glastonbury’s Lucy Etherington ran well for 3.07.80. Brewham’s Justine Bowers jumped 3.56m in the Long jump and was 6th overall in the 800m with a time of 2.41.90 for the U’15 girls. In the U’17 women Laura Parker ran an excellent tactical race to finish first in the 1500m with a time of 5.03.50. In the same age group Sophie Etherington was 3rd in the Shot Putt with a 6.66m distance. Harrier Coach Laura Whitehead was 1st in both the U’20 women’s 400m (62.95) and 800m (2.28.60). Laura was also pleased in some respects to see that she still holds the Championship best performance as a U’13 800m runner from back in 1999.

Amongst the Seniors, there was a closely fought tactical race between two Harriers in the Men’s 1500m with the last lap getting steadily faster and Angus Henderson just crossing the line ahead of young gun Tom Bush. Angus’s 4.21.80 compared to Tom’s 4.22.10. Angus had earlier gained his first gold medal with 2.05.90 in the 800m. In the Women’s 3,000m Harrier’s again took a 1-2 with Karen Buckley winning in 10.36 and former international Ann Taswell in 11.08.

Fixtures:

Sunday May 22nd Brookside School Run, Street; Wessex Ridgeway Relay; Sunday May 29th Wells Fun Runs (10.30am) from Wells Town Hall; South West Athletic League Div One Fixture, Exeter — combined team with Yeovil Olympiads. Sunday June 5th Crewkerne 9 & junior runs (10.00am) — 5th round in the Somerset Race Series.