Silver for Tickner at Southerns!
Wells City Harrier’s Ben Tickner earned the silver medal at the prestigious South of England Cross Country Championships on Saturday January 29th with a storming run on the 15km course at Parliament Hill, Hampstead Heath. In a field of almost 1000 competitors drawn from across the area from Norfolk to Cornwall, Ben produced his best ever performance at these Championships, improving on his 10th place finish of last year. His time of 48.40 across the mud and hills was just 17 seconds down on the winner Neilson Hall of Southend, who won for the second year in succession.
Rebecca at Southerns
Sam in sprint finish
Whilst Ben’s performance was the pick of the day for the senior Harriers competing there were also great runs by several of the strong squad of juniors that made the long trip. Pick of the juniors was Isobel Glaisher who was 6th out of the 209 finishers in the u15 girls’ race despite her being a year younger than many in the race. Her position was emulated by Sam Sommerville with his great 6th out of 224 in the u13 boy’s race. Isobel led home the u15 girls’ team, with Rebecca Carver not far behind in 31st then with Lilly Hawkins and Abi Gibbons finishing fast to ensure a 10th place overall for the girls’ team.
In the u15 boys race, with 262 finishers, Matt Dickinson and Oliver Fox both had excellent runs for 16th and 18th places. They were backed up by Matt Cole, Charlie Martin and Tom Swann for the team to finish 9th. In the u17 men’s race George Harris & Sam Harding worked hard for good positions, whilst in the u17 women’s race Siobhan Stewart was 56th out of the 125 finishers. Amy Darcy was the sole u13 girl that stepped up to the mark for the harriers and she didn’t disappoint with her 89th place out of 242 competitors to finish.
In the u13 boys’ race, Sommerville, who was the SW silver medallist earlier in the month, found himself competing in his first ever cross country race where there was stiff opposition from numerous other lads, as opposed to the local races where perhaps only one or two try to stay with him. He is still learning his skill and developing his strength and he will have taken much out of this race from the close order finishing in the home straight. Luke Prior was 64th and Michael Biss in 193rd also had a great run for the u13s.
For the women, Lizzie Hart was a good 20th in the u20 women’s race, whilst Anna Lewis was 80th and Mel Sibley 167th in the senior women’s race. Following Tickner in for the senior men was fellow TeamGB athlete Adrian Marriott in 29th, then Elliot Haimes, disappointed with his 79th here, and Jon Gilling in 144th. Other Harrier men competing well included Tim Hawkins, Nick Somerville, Jon Rowe, Simon Prior, Jason Tuck and Rex Whitcombe. It was left to the Club Chairman to be last man in for the Harriers this year.
The Harrier men’s team finished 15th overall, somewhat down on some previous efforts but given that they were missing two of their senior TeamGB athletes and one of their super-veterans not a bad effort overall. We wish Frank Tickner all the best in his battle to recover from his foot injury.
Many thanks to all the athletes, parents and team managers for making it a great day out – 40 tired athletes with tales to tell of just how steep that Parliament hill is!
We wish all the Harrier juniors well in their efforts at the Somerset Schools XC Championships on Saturday Feb 5th at Millfield, and for those juniors selected for their County we hope they have another good run at the SW Schools event being held at Ilton, near Ilminster the following week. The next Gwent League match is at Brecon on Feb 12th – contact team managers for details or if needing transport. Final best wishes and good luck to those Harriers competing at the British Universities Championships – “come on Laura”!
FULL RESULTS FROM PARLIAMENT HILL
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