Harriers at National XC Relays – Nov 6th 2010
Wells City Harriers took two Senior Men’s teams to compete at the national cross-country relays at Mansfield on Saturday. The annual championships attract entries from all of England’s top clubs and 140 plus teams toed the start line on the sunny, autumn afternoon.
One of the Harrier’s internationals, Ben Tickner A team got the Club’s A team off to a great start and was leading the field after 800m of this twisty, undulating woodland course. At the end of the first 2.5 k lap Ben was beginning to feel the strain of the fast pace that he had set and by the end of the second lap he had faded slightly to finish a still creditable 7th in 15min21sec. Simon Prior for the B team had taken a more cautious approach and looked more comfortable as he finished in 19min20sec bringing the B team home in 130th place.
Jack Bancroft for the A team then found himself right up at the front of the race surrounded by seasoned internationals and although he hung in well for the first of his two laps the pace began to tell as he faded back to 33rd by the end of his leg (time 17min 11sec). Elliot Haimes for the B team moved smoothly through the backmarkers to bring the team up to 93rd in a swift 16min 59sec.
The third leg saw the emergence of Wells’ star athlete Frank Tickner - twice British Cross Country Champion and returning to something like his old form after two years of injury. Frank looked majestic as he carved through the field to bring Wells back up into the reckoning with the second fastest individual time of the day 15min 01sec. The B team also continued to move forward as Alex Wiltshire (now a Loughborough Uni Student} ran a creditable 17min 49 to bring them back to 81st.
The final leg saw British marathon international Adrian Marriot ( again returning from injury) attempt to maintain Wells excellent position near the front of the field. Breathing heavily for the whole 3.2miles, it was obvious that he was finding the pace of this relatively short race hard. Nevertheless, he hung in well and brought the team home in 16th place recording 16min25sec for his leg. Pete Grist for the B team continued their forward momentum and ran an excellent 17min06sec to finish the B team in 67th place.
We now look forward to the European Cross-country trials in three weeks time, hoping that either Ben or Frank will be in good enough shape to make the British team. Before that however we have the second Gwent League which is being held at Bath University this coming Sunday, where all the above named runners plan to compete and consolidate the Club’s winning start to the XC League season achieved at the October race held in Bridgend.
There will also be over 30 junior Harriers from ages 9-20 competing on Sunday at Bath in the various age groups. U13s Sam Somerville and Luke Prior will be seeing if they can improve on their 2nd and 3rd place finishes from last month. U15s Rebecca Carver, Abi Gibbons and Jemma Jones will all look for top ten finishes again; as will u15 Oliver Fox for the boys. We wish them all well. Juniors aged 8-15 are reminded that cross-country squad training continues on a Monday and Tuesday evening at Millfield track under the guidance of the Harriers coaches. See website for details.
As if Saturday’s effort wasn’t enough, Pete Grist then went on to finish 2nd in the Dorset Stickler race held over 10 hilly miles on the Sunday with a time of 67.44. Also competing there were Alasdair Bell, 201st in 1.37 and Cath Godsmid, 234th in 1.42. Meanwhile at the hilly Ilminster 10k road race the Club had the following results: 27th Chris Williams 40.58; 29th Cameron Rafferty 41.14;43rd Reuben Whitcombe 43.05; 50th Rex Whitcombe 43.35;
Good luck to one of the Club’s senior coaches, Jon James, who represents England on Saturday Nov 13th at the Home countries cross-country match in Dublin against teams from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the host Irish nation.. This is the second year in succession that Jon has been selected for the prestigious event.
Paul Chadwick
Full results are available at http://www.englishcrosscountry.co.uk/images/pdf/relays10/sm.pdf
and a selection of photos are on http://www.mickhall-photos.com/mp_client/pictures.asp?action=viewphotos&category=senior+men&ressearch=true
Adrian