This article includes the Babcary Road Race report and results, PB racing by Iris Courtney at the Podium 5K, the senior race report from last week’s Port Talbot Gwent League fixture and a new Meet the Harrier interview.
A group of Harriers post-race at Babcary
Babcary Road Race
There was a good turnout at this year’s well organised Babcary Road Race. Plenty of Harriers took part on Sunday 25th February with a new course record being broken and many getting a course best over the 7.5 mile course. The second race in the 2024 Somerset Series attracted 126 people despite the recent torrential weather. There was a brief downpour just as the runners lined up to start, however this only lasted 5 minutes of the race, after which the runners were blessed with fairly good conditions.
First home, in a new course record of 38:41, was Harrier Luke Prior. Harriers Zak Hurrell (40:04) and Alexander Coombs (40:52) made it a WCH 1, 2, 3 with a substantial gap between them and the 4th finisher. The first female home was Weston Athletics Club’s Susan Duncan in a time of 50:54. Hannah Keating (Weston AC 52:27) and Rebecca Di-Luzio (53:00) were second and third females home.
Top three finishers, Alexander Coombs, Luke Prior and Zak Hurrell
Prizes were awarded to first finisher Luke Prior and the top 3 age graded males and females, along with prizes for local residents. The following were the top three based on age graded results.
Male
87.1% Martin Colwill (Vet 50+, 45:38, Bideford A AC)
84.9% Luke Prior (Senior, 38:41, Wells City Harriers)
83.3% Graham Goldsmid (Vet 60+, 49:50, Wells City Harriers)
Female
81.2% Hazel Hole (Vet 55+, 54:38)
79.6% Elizabeth Green (Vet 75+, 1:21:55)
79.3% Sue Nicholls (Vet 75+, 1:18:52, Burnham-on-Sea Harriers)
Luke Prior and Graham Goldsmid collecting their awards.
Other Harrier results included:
1st Luke Prior 38:41
2nd Zak Hurrell 40:04
3rd Alexander Coombs 40:52
11th Jonathon Williams 49:22
15th Graham Goldsmid 49:50
18th Nicolas Stevens 50:12
20th Sam Harvey 50:39
34th Joseph Nelson 53:12
35th Matthew Nelson 53:45
36th Rosie Park 53:47
38th Mike Bosley 54:10
39th Lousia Saunders 54:13
65th Carol Buckland 1:00:05
78th Andrew Pate 1:04:12
115th Karen Shears 1:18:26
Full results can be found here.
Age graded results can be found here.
More photos from the race can be found on our Instagram page here.
Podium 5k
On Friday 16th February under the lights, Iris Courtney took the long journey to Battersea for the Elite Women’s 5k race. The journey wasn’t a disappointment with 3rd U20 in a PB time of 16.53 breaking 17 minutes for the first time. This time takes Iris to 3rd u20 in the UK.
Iris said “It was well worth the journey. The atmosphere was electric but it was the hardest race I have ever done. It was fast and hectic from the start”.
Iris crossing the finish line in a PB time
Gwent League - Port Talbot Senior Report
Wells Senior Men Survive the mud to finish 5th at Port Talbot Gwent League Cross Country.
Senior men, Lousia Saunders and Sophie Nicholls
11 Senior men from Wells made the long journey down to Port Talbot to compete at Margam park in fixture 4 of this season's Gwent league.
331 runners took part in the senior men's race over a very muddy 8.9 km course.
First home for the Harriers in 8th place was V35 : Chris Green in 37.52
15th : V35 Matt Lusby in 39.07
22nd : Snr Male Zak Hurrell in 39.40
74th : Snr Male Adam Gibson in 43.30
89th : Snr Male Henry Sage in 44.14
114th : V55 Andrew Deamer in 46.01
132nd : V40 Stuart Nash in 47.09
172nd : V45 Jonathan Williams in 49.50
209th : V60 Graham Goldsmid in 51.59
224th : V55 Stephen Nicholls in 53.29
314th : V55 Mark Pople in 69.00
In the Senior Women's race, Wells Senior Female Louisa Saunders made her Gwent League debut with a great run over the 6.3km course to finish 83rd in a time of 38.08.
Louisa Saunders after her run
Wells Senior men finished 5th on the day and the V55 men finished 4th and lead their category with 1 fixture to go at Pontypool on Saturday 2nd March.
Well done to all who took part and please try to make the last fixture on 2nd March at Pontypool.
Meet the Harriers
The next edition of Meet the Harriers features former Harrier legend and Olympic torch bearer, Tony Williams.
Click here to read his interview.