The 202nd running of the Street 5k saw one of the Harrier Hon Life Members, Amber Gascoigne, back to win the women’s race whilst the Club’s current top athlete on Power of 10, u17 Tom Webb, won for the men.
Many runners from far and near achieved excellent times, some personal bests, in the relatively good conditions. There was a new course record for the girls in the accompanying 1k junior’s race when Ruby Shaw from our Monday Harrier training group swept home in 3.30. (Junior race start above under the watchful eye of Race Director Stephen Nicholls)
This web report also touches on some excellent performances this past weekend over all the usual surfaces – indoors, where we had Harriers contesting the English Track Championships; Cross-Country, with a number of juniors & senior men making their way to Port Talbot for Race 4 in the tough Gwent XC League, which turned out to be a bit of a mud-fest by all accounts; and multi-terrain as one of our real endurance athletes had a go at a 50 mile race along the SW Coastal Path down in Cornwall.
Street 5k - edition number 202 - Wednesday 14th February
Amber Gascoigne was the first Wells City Harrier member to gain selection for TeamGB back in 1998 when selected to compete in GB juniors team at the World Cross Country Championships at Marrakech. She thus became our very first Hon Life Member and subsequently another 9 Harrier members have gone on to emulate her. You can read about her below in our history section. Great to see her back here, along with Andy Fooks.
Now a F35 member of Team Bath she occasionally comes back to give the Street race a blast, usually at half-terms! Here she ran a nippy 17.12, which actually isn't that far short of her best ever on this course (she was only some 28 seconds or so quicker on this course, over 25 years ago - 16.44 in Feb 1998)
2nd for the women was Harrier u20 Sophie Nicholls, gradually coming back to form, with her 17.36. 3rd was F45 Gill Pearson (Running For Time) in 19.12.
For the men, u17 Tom Webb won again - yet another victory in the current Series - in 15.28. Tom had 4 great laps and a final one where his running line wasn’t perfect, perhaps because of a moving car? Bristol & West’s David Awde was 2nd in 16.00 and the Harrier’s Matt Lusby got well away from Wayne Loveridge on the last lap to win the battle for 3rd place. 16.09 and 16.24.
Winners on the night
1st overall male & 1st junior male – Tom Webb (Wells City Harriers) 15.28
1st senior – David Awde (Bristol & West) 16.00
1st V40 – Andy Fooks (Team Bath) 16.53
1st V50 – Damien Pick (Wells City Harriers) 19.23
1st V60 – Graham Goldsmid (Wells City Harriers) 19.31
1st V70 – Chris Clark (Wells City Harriers) 29.45
1st V80 Len Horlock (Burnham Harriers) 29.37
1st overall female & 1st F35 – Amber Gascoigne (Team Bath) 17.21
1st Junior - Sophie Nicholls (Wells City Harriers) 17.36
1st senior – Phoebe Aspinall (Team Bath/Wells City Harriers) 19.28 (pb)
1st F45 – Gill Pearson (Running For Time) 19.12
1st F55 – Carol Buckland (Wells City Harriers) 23.43
1st F65 – Kim Clark (Wells City Harriers) 27.40
Age graded top runners this edition: for the men Tom Webb with 88.0% and for the women Amber Gascoigne with 89.6%.
Street 5k Results February 2024 here
(please contact race Director if any amendments - spelling etc - required This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
In the accompanying junior races, the Harrier’s Monday training group had a clean sweep of winners. Making her debut at the races and breaking the girls 1k record was Ruby Shaw in 3.30 (10 seconds quicker than fellow junior Harrier Lucy Baldwin from 2009) with Rowan Kelly winning for the boys yet again in 3.36 (pb) - again very close to the boys course record of 3.28 (& because of his age, Rowan has potentially a few more years in which to break that!). Some juniors from our Monday Harrier training group after the 1k race are seen above - well done all!
In the 2k race, Oskar Beck came within 2 seconds of his own course record when he also won for the 5th time this Series. Elspeth Perkins made it 4 wins out of 5 for the girls in the 2k race.
Our thanks as ever to the intrepid Harrier volunteers who turn out every month to marshal, record finishers, and process the results.
Junior Race Results - February 2024
England Athletics OPEN U20/U17/U15 Indoor Championships
The England Athletics OPEN U20/U17/U15 Indoor Championships were held in Sheffield on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th February.
Harriers Iris Courtney (u20) and Tom Webb (u17) took the long journey to Sheffield for the English National Championships.
Both set PBs in their 1500m finals and 2nd place was a great achievement for them both. Tom and Iris now move onto schools XC and u20 England road champs.
Iris Courtney on the podium and Tom Webb in action.
Gwent XC League - fixture 4 - Port Talbot Saturday 10th February
There was a reasonable turn out of juniors and seniors at this fixture and by all acounts it was a real mud-bath. A report of how the Senior men/women fared will be posted when received but i do know from our Monday junior group there was some great running and results:
u11 Race: 57th Milo Cook & 66th Alfie Beck (94 ran) ;
u13 Race: 3rd Oskar Beck; 50th Dominic Cook (64 ran) - Oskar now appears to have won the Gwent League u13s given his efforts across all of the fixtures, where he has been 1st, 1st, 1st and 3rd and cannot now be headed.
u17 women: 6th Amelie Cook ; 17th Mikaela Harnett (24 ran)
The Wessex XC League prize presentations were made at the Harrier's Monday session this week when u11 Ruby Shaw and u17 Amelie Cook were given their vouchers from the League, and a TeamGB towel from Monday coaches, in recognition of their winning their age groups over the 3 races in the League.
Arc of Attrition - Arc 50
On Sunday 27th January, Craig Foley ran the Arc of Attrition 50 Miles on the South West Coast path.
The Arc 50 route (orange)
Craig reports: "Two weeks ago I took part in the Arc of Attrition ‘Arc 50’, a 50 mile ultra-marathon along the South West Coast Path in Cornwall, starting at the Minack Theatre in Porth Curno on the southern coast, travelling via Lands End and St Ives to the finish at Porthtowan on the north coast.
Conditions on the day were pretty much perfect: mostly dry with just a little rain over the final 3 hours or so, unseasonably warm with just a mild breeze. I completed the race in just over 13 hours, finishing 108th out of 291 starters.
The course itself was a mix of runable earth and gravel path, a little tarmac, and soft sand with a total elevation of 2750 metres. The toughest section of the course was the 13 miles or so between Pendeen and St Ives where runners had to self-navigate over boulders and through bogs which saw progress drop to around 2 to 3 miles an hour in places for all.
The event was superbly organised by Mudcrew Events and also features a 100 mile option. Thanks as always to the many volunteers and supporters out on the course."
Craig Foley in action (photo credit Mudcrew Events)
Avon and Somerset Police Road Safety Talk
We were visited by PC Dan Williams on one of our Tuesday evening training sessions, who talked to us about being safe whilst out road running during the dark winter months. He gave each of the Harriers a reflective keyring to wear whilst out on the roads. See the Mendip Neighbourhood Policing’s Facebook post here.
Their message reads:
Please remember to wear bright clothing when near our roads.
Be Bright,
Be Seen,
Be Safe!
PC Williams and the Tuesday evening Harriers
Harrier History bit - this article from Feb 1999 about Amber Gascoigne as it appeared in a regional Athletics publication back then. Great to see that she's still running well!
NOTE: NEW MEMBERSHIP YEAR starts 1st April - renewal e-mails wil be sent at beginning of April. EA registration fee will be increasing to £19 pa.
Items for the Harrier website? News as word docs (Ariel 12 point) and photos as jpegs help as otherwise the technical issues become difficult! Send by Monday 8pm if at all possible for that week's posting - a summary goes to the local newspaper too.
For the next few weeks at least send to Harrier Secretary Alex Coombs This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or use This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.