Wells City Harriers

(Above - two of the Harrier trained juniors from our Monday training group at the English Schools XC Championships wearing the red vest of Somerset Schools AA)

This web-posting carries the last of this season's Cross-country reports, whilst looking forward to the new Track & Field season, and updating all on what's happening at the road and off-road races.

 

 

We had a good number of Harrier members from our various training groups competing over the past two weekends at:

• The annual Inter-counties XC Championships - representing the joint Avon & Somerset AA team
• The annual English Schools XC Championships where good School year 8s and upwards get the chance to represent their County Schools Association. There were some great performances by all - in the English Schools two Harriers acheived top ten finishes: Tom Webb (8th) & Sophie Nicholls (10th). Sophie was also 7th the weekend before at the Inter-Counties.

 

Meanwhile senior Harrier athletes have been out competing this past weekend on the road at the Weymouth Half Marathon with Deputy Chairman Christian Green taking top billing for his outright victory.

 

Next month of course is one of the big fixtures on the road-running timetable - the London Marathon on 23rd April and we've got a little bit of an update on the two Harriers who gained the Club places at this year's edition. Remember, to be in with a chance for the Club places you have to have paid your Harrier Membership (due 1st April), be a member of England Athletics, and have been rejected in the main ballot when you entered as a Wells City Harrier! 

 

....& Finally, a note is in this posting about the imminent Track & Field season coming up

 

(Below: How about this location for your London Marathon training runs? read on..).

 

 

Harriers at Inter-Counties & English Schools - last of the cross-country fixtures

Hopefully everyone knows that to compete with and against the best you sometimes have to be prepared to travel, and these past few weeks have been no exception especially for some of the talented junior runners within the Club. They, and their parents, have been driving off early on a Saturday morning to take part in some big cross-country races.

 

By taking part in such events of course they hopefully develop some good racing knowledge no matter where they finish in the field. I’m always reminded by the fact that Paula Radcliffe finished 299^th in her first ever National XC Championships and look at where she ended up!

 

Inter-Counties XC Championships – 11^th March at Prestwood Hall, Loughborough

U13girls         Grace Baker 61st

U13boys        Oskar Beck 12^th; Leyton Finn 128^th

U15girls         Daisy Davies 136^th; Amelie Cook 174^th;

U15boys        Tom Webb 16^th

U17women   Sophie Nicholls 7^th ; Lucy Bickerton 79^th; Lucy Acott 175^th

Senior Men   Matt Lusby 213^th

Well done to all that pulled on the Avon & Somerset vest at the Inter Counties. Our thanks to A&S team coordinator John Deaton and those parents of juniors and the seniors who could support the team in some shape or form, especially Harrier parent Sarah Massey who was able to take the Club tent to help the County out!

 

English Schools XC Championships – 18^th March at Wollaton Park, Nottingham

In the prestigious English Schools XC Championships there were again some great runs by Harrier members, many of whom attend either our Club training sessions at Millfield track or at our partner Club's sessions at Yeovil track.

 

 

In the Junior Girls (School Year 8&9) Grace Baker from our Monday evening Harrier coached group had an excellent run for 74^th from amongst the 300+ competitors, especially given that she is from the younger, Year 8, school year. Daisy Abernethy & Vienna Townsend, from the Yeovil training group, were 161^st and 250^th. For the Junior boys, Leyton Finn from the Tuesday training group was 299^th, again a good run giving he also is a Year 8 pupil.

 

In the Inter Girls (school Year 10&11) Gemma Tolputt (Tuesday training group) was 77^th, Daisy Davies (from the Yeovil training group) 96^th, Amelie Cook (Monday training group) 188^th, and Macey Burge (Tuesday group), 222^nd. For the Inter Boys, Tom Webb had a great top-ten finish, in 9^th place, whilst Charlie Court was 135^th.

 

For the Senior Girls (school Year 12&13) Sophie Nicholls also achieved a top ten finish, in 10^th; Iris Courtney 32^nd  and with fellow Harriers Lucy Acott, Mackenzie O’Dea, and Thea Percy also running well for 193^rd 216^th and 270^th respectively. For the Senior Boys, Jack Harvey was 268^th.

 

(Note: this report may be incomplete as I only receive direct information about some of the Harriers – for the rest I base it on my best knowledge - please help any future compiler of Harrier reports by sending in full details…)

 

Well done all!

 

Weymouth Half Marathon - 19th March 2023

Apparently this race started at 8am so it was an early start...

Report by Graham 

• Chris Green won in 1.10.36 (& that's a great podium photo above)
• Jon James 6th in 1.14.47 - First v55 
• Stuart Nash with new pb in 1.24.03
• Adam Sutton in 1.27.08
• Graham Goldsmid in 1.31.12 - First v60
• Martin Bailey in 1.45.11

 

LONDON CALLING...

TRAINING UPDATE - For some strange reason beyond my ability I've been unable to post to the Training tab for a little while... so in case you were wondering where it was , here is the March & April training schedule for Tuesday nights. (I did include it in an earlier report but you might have missed that!)

 

TRACK & FIELD UPDATE - the fixure list is now available on our partner Club's website. For our juniors in particular (but also seniors) the Spring Open over the Easter weekend is a good starting point and entries are due to open very soon for the Somerset County Champion ships on the weekend of 13th/14th May.

For links to these two events please see the Team tab on this website.

First South West League match is Sunday 30th April... click here for more detail of the League and other opportunities for Track & Field with the joint team

Yeovil Olympiads Athletic Club - Home

 

NEW MEMBERSHIP YEAR starts 1st April If you were a paid up member in 2022/23 then you will get an automatic invite to renew your membership online in the first week of April. Juniors age 11 and above should include England Athletics membership in order to be able to compete. If your membership lapsed in 2022/23 then please contact me to be re-instated into the database. You can check what you're signing up to by looking at the Membership tab on this website.

 

Local Road and off-road Races Coming Up

We like to promote races organised by the various Clubs in the vicinity. Take a look at the Somerset Series website for all the race links across the calendar. Remember that some of these races get full before race day....

Sunday 2nd April      Penselwood 10k road race (& junior races)          (enter via Run Britain)

Easter Monday 10th April Shapwick Bunny Hop 7.5m MT (& junior races) (enter via fullonsport) 

Easter Monday 10th April    Yeovilton Easter Bunny 10k road (enter via fullonsport)

Wednesday 12th  April (and every 2nd Wednesday April-September) Yeovilton 5k road races - start at 7.15pm (enter via fullonsport)

Sunday 16th April     Butleigh 10k MT (enter via Run Britain) supported by Wells City Harriers

 

Reporting volunteer?

Is there any Harrier volunteer who would like to help/take on from time to time the reporting of Harrier races/performances for the website & newspaper? Entails requesting/calling for reports & good photos by the Monday night (8pm) for collating & editing by the following day. I'm not around some weeks/months so there may be some gaps in reports unless someone volunteers....