New Membership year starts at the Harriers & new Couch to 5k group starts soon!
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- Written by Paul Chadwick
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(Above - training on these light evenings always feels better! - last Tuesday at the track - photo by Paul)
All members should have received an email announcing the start of the new membership year and what amount they need to pay to retain membership of the Harriers.
This past year has seen over 200 members aged 8 to almost 80 take out Harrier membership, with quite often a total of 100 or more training at one or more of the Club’s three training sessions every week.
A reminder about what you are signing up to with your membership appears on the dedicated webpage with the benefits of Club Membership and England Athletics registration spelt out.
Also in this webposting is news of the latest Couch to 5k group starting up on 19th April. Read on for details of that and other reports of competition opportunities coming up.
Read more: New Membership year starts at the Harriers & new Couch to 5k group starts soon!
Last of the Cross country races and we move towards Track & Field & more road/off-road racing
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- Written by Paul Chadwick
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(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..).
Alex & Gill win Street 5k Series; great turn out at race No 197, despite the weather!
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- Written by Paul Chadwick
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When the going gets tough… the tough get going! So it was a bit of a snowy and wet day but actually conditions for running at Street 5k edition No 197 were not that bad, and this was amply demonstrated by the winner Alex Coombs (Wells City Harriers) running close to his pb with his 16.04 whilst 2nd home Laurence Martindale (Millfield) actually did run a 5k personal best when finishing on Alex’s shoulder (16.05).
North Somerset AC’s Elie Wallace was back where she left off last season, winning this time in 16.27, a shade down on her time in Jan 2022. This Street race was her first race since she competed over 3000m at the UK National Indoor Championships a few weeks ago. In 2nd place this time was F45 Gill Pearson of Running For Time who ran a steady 19.16.
In the junior races, Charlie Franchomme and Florence Perkins were 1st boy and girl in the 1k race; whilst in the 2k race Oskar Beck and Elspeth Perkins won their race. All are from the Harrier’s Monday training group.
SERIES 2022/23 – 33rd YEAR outright winners were:
5k: Alex Coombs & Gill Pearson
2k: Jack Barker & Elspeth Perkins
1k: Charlie Franchomme & Winnie Hummerstone
Read on for reporting, results links & more photos
Read more: Alex & Gill win Street 5k Series; great turn out at race No 197, despite the weather!
Victory at the Gwent XC League for senior men and individual honours for Tom, Christian & Jon plus training update
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- Written by Paul Chadwick
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This week there’s excellent news about some great performances at the 5th and final fixture in this seasons’ Gwent Cross-country League:
- The Men’s senior team (below) once again gained promotion to Division one of this tough League by winning this final fixture with the first 5 Harriers home all in the top 12 finishers.
- U15 Tom Webb (above) has excelled throughout the season and finished off winning the race yet again – his 4th victory out of 4 contested to become overall Gwent XC League u15 Champion.
- Other individual League victories were achieved by the Harrier Deputy Chairman Christian Green winning the v35 League title and Senior Coach Jon James winning the v55 League title
Read on for the details of the racing at Pontypool.
This report also gives an update on the Harriers Training sessions, a call for more coaches, and a reminder about this Wednesday’s Street 5k and junior races (don’t forget your race number). Entries on the night for all three distances up until 7.15pm. Also news about Harrier memberships; the next Harrier committee meeting on 19th April; and a reminder to all members, or parents of junior Harriers to make sure they volunteer to help in some shape or form this coming year.
Win for Zak Hurrell at Babcary!
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- Written by Andrew Deamer
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Fantastic weather and turn out for the 26th running of the Babcary road race, which was the second race in this year’s Somerset Series.