What an excellent summer it has been for Wells City Harriers! Elise Thorner made her senior debut for TeamGB on the track at the European Championships in Munich, the joint team with Yeovil Olympiads pulled out all the stops to win the National Division One Title from the likes of Belgrave Harriers and Portsmouth AC, and all the while Club members have been competing at track& field, road and multi-terrain races far and wide, including the Harrier supported Baltonsborough Road Race held last Bank Holiday Monday. Meanwhile u20 Dan Maydew has been selected to compete for u20 Team England and u17 Sophie Nicholls competed well to finish 3rd at the recent National School Games in Loughborough against the best in UK.
Read on for a full round up of all the action this past month and get your race entries in now for Sunday’s Festival of Running at Wells by following the link. (Race organised by separate committee). (Please enter in advance so as to help organisers)
Good luck to those competing at the Yeovil Open Meeting on the same day (11th September) chasing a track and field personal best. We will update this report when the results and any reports come in from the final SW League fixture held yesterday (4th September), but also include here the Club’s Tuesday evening training programme for the next few months. Monday training sessions for juniors (8-15) resumed today (5th). New enquiries to join the Harriers for training & competition welcome. See separate information webpages before contacting us.
(Below: the leading runners at the Baltonsborough Road Race)
EUROPEAN ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS - Munich
I was fortunate to be in the impressive Munich Stadium when Elise competed for Team GB at the European Championships last month. Her race was one of many great moments during the week of quality athletics with incredibly passionate and animated crowds. Elise’s dad, Al, who coaches with us on Mondays has provided a report and the above photo:
Al reports:
“Wells City Harrier's honorary life member, Elise Thorner gained her first senior international vest competing in the 3000m steeplechase at the European Athletics Championships in Munich on Thursday 18th August. Elise, who is currently studying for her degree at the University of New Mexico, has competed for her country as a junior and under 23 but this was her first experience of joining a 115 strong senior Great Britain team including household names, Eilish McColgan, Jake Wightman and Keely Hodgkinson.
Elise was unable to qualify out of her heat for the final, finishing in 14th place out of 16 in a time of 10 mins 08 seconds. She spoke after the race to the BBC "I loved every single moment of running in this GB vest" she said "I went into the race very differently to how I have approached the season. I've been out in the States and I've been ranked highly in those races, so I had to take this as a whole new learning curve of 'run where you feel comfortable' and try to pick off others, but I just didn't have it in my legs today". Immediately after returning home to the UK, Elise travels back to New Mexico to continue studying for her degree and prepare for the forthcoming collegiate cross-country season.“
Well done to Elise for getting this far and sampling such a big Championships. We look forward to seeing her continue to improve, and there’s no let up in her schedule as she’s due to start the XC season on the 30th September out in the USA.
NATIONAL LEAGUE ONE CHAMPIONS!
Congratulations to all of the competing athletes who have turned out this Track & field season for our Yeovil Olympiads team competing in National League One – they are champions! The team finished ahead of Belgrave Harriers (2nd) & Portsmouth AC (3rd) following the final fixture on 20th August. Well done to all the team managers that got the team out to win by a very close margin. (I believe it was by 3 points in the end?)
There were of course some great performances across the team but here we report on the Harrier members who played their part with our Yeovil partners– winning valuable points to get the joint team over the line:
- Dan Maydew winning with 3.59 1500m
- Matt Lusby 2.09 800m & 4.18 1500m & winning 9.57 3000m s/c
- Deb Glover 2.52 800m & 12.59 3000m &6.30 1500m
- Ollie Thorner 6.38m LJ & 38.44m Discus & 1.83mHJ
- Christian Green 9.22 in 3000m
- Zak Hurrell 9.20 in 3000m
Well done all. If I’ve missed anyone out then just let me know as I’ve only been able to quickly scan the results (no report received from elsewhere)
Selection for England, Regional team & pbs
Congratulations to Dan Maydew - selection for Team England!
From Simon Prior:
"Wells athlete Dan Maydew has been selected for England u20s to compete at the Trofeo Opitergium Road Races in Oderzo, Italy on 17 September. This selection caps a great season for Dan who was Wells City Harriers male athlete of the year."
In other news, I hear that u15 Tom Webb has been selected for the SW regional team to compete at the London Mini-Marathon after winning the regional trial for his age group held recently in Taunton - Tom has also recently lowered his 800m pb to 2.05.
Other personal bests on the track that I’m aware of were achieved at the recent Exeter BMC meet by u17 Jack Harvey with pb of 2.02, u17 Sophie Nicholls with pb of 2.18 & new member u15 Charlie Court pb 2.09 & u13 Leyton Finn pb 2.32. Also competing was new member u15 Gabriel Chattard at the 1500m in a pb of 4.45. All that training is paying off!
Sophie also competed really well to finish 3rd in the recent UK Schools Games 3000m against the best from the UK. Sophie's time was 9.43. - photo below shows Sophie on left:
BALTONSBOROUGH ROAD RACES – 29th August
Pete Wright reports:
Ahead of the Baltonsborough Show on August Bank holiday Monday 29th the annual road races were held starting and finishing from the combined Village Hall and School As in previous years the series of races provided a 5 mile road race, plus the junior 1.5 mile race coupled with the fun run.
A sunny warm day with a welcoming breeze greeted all the assembled runners with 100 runners entered for the 5 mile and 30 enthusiastic juniors lined up to start the 1.5 mile race a few minutes behind the main field.
The Junior 1.5mile race with ages from 14 to 4 years was won by 10 year old Edward Salter who covered the 1.5 miles in a very rapid 9mins 21secs. Second place overall was first girl 14 years old Harrier Amelie Cook in a time of 10min 17 secs, with her younger brother Harrier Dominic Cook in 3rd place who had a very close finish with Freddie Williams in 4th place (3rd male), Georgie Gordon was 2nd female and junior Harrier Rosie Train 3rd female.
(Below - congratulations to the Cook family - picking up a couple of prizes along the way!)
Seniors running the 1.5 Mile Fun Run included Ben Train, Emma Woodcock, Stephen Orchard and Sandra De Silva.
The 5mile event provided a hotly contested race with a leading trio of Seniors comprising of a couple of Wells City Harriers and Mendip Tri Club’s Neil Golding. All three runners finished in under 28minutes with Matthew Lusby winning after a well-timed sprint to the finish clocking 27:09 just 2 secs clear of Neil Golding. Baltonsborough’s Alex Coombs was third 15 seconds down.
The female category also saw a close race between Hazel Hole and Melissa Mann just 6 seconds separating them at the finish both + 45 vet runners Hazel took the honours with Melissa second, Joanne Fordham was third female finishing in 36:41, 36:47, and 37:39 respectfully.
A substantial number of veteran runners with ages ranging from 35 to 80 took part, many enjoying category awards, including a regular competitor from Bideford + 60 vet John Shapland clocking an impressive 33:01 for the 5 miles and +80 vet Len Horlock from South West Runners another familiar face. Wells City Harriers Carol Buckland and Kim Clark took their respective age category awards.
Race sponsors were Baltonsborough Parish Council and Baltonsborough Royal British Legion providing the winners perpetual cups and vouchers for the junior award winners additional sponsors included, Train Station, Framptons, Burns the Bread, with drinks c/o Tesco’s.
Eric Conway the Chairman of the Baltonsborough Royal British Legion kindly presented all the awards as well as vouchers for the junior race.Thanks go all the Race Organisors, race time-keepers/results and all the many marshals and race officials who kindly assisted along with support from Wells City Harriers.”
Baltonsborough race results link here
Well done to Harrier Kay Franklin for organising another good community race to raise funds for local causes. The Race was part of the Somerset Race Series and the next race in the Series is the Harrier supported Wells Festival of Running 10k on Sunday 11th September, Details about that race and the accompanying 5k & junior races available from the link at the top of this article. Any enquiries please direct to the organisers as the races are organised by a separate committee with advice from the Harriers.
The latest on the Somerset Race Series is here.
ARRAN MOUNTAIN MARATHON – 27th/28th August
Report from Andrew Tindal who took part in this two-man team event with Oli Frost up in Scotland:
“Oli and I had an enjoyable trip up to Arran for the inaugural Kong Mountain Marathon last weekend. There were about 200 teams at the event with three linear classes and two score classes. Oli and I did the longest Linear course, the A Class, which was approximately 70 km and 4500m of ascent over the two days.
Arran was interesting terrain, with amazing granite ridges separated by trackless valleys with quite a bit of bog and tussock to negotiate. We were really pleased to come 8th out of the 22 entrants in the A class and we won the Veterans Handicap and so even got a prize.”
For those Harriers who have never taken part in an orienteering event you might guess that this sort of event is not for the feint hearted. Sounds like great challenging terrain with wonderful views.
South of England Fell Running - entries for the Championships taking place this coming weekend on the Isle of Wight are now closed (3 races in 2 days) but entries available on the day for individual races. I will administer (& run in) these Championships on behalf of the SEAA.
TRAINING NEWS
Monday sessions re-started on 5th September. Over 30 juniors age 8-15 signed up. Room for a very few more. Read Training webpage for detail before enquiring to have a try out session with us. We are looking to recruit more coaches to expand the session - if you are a parent interested in coaching then please contact Paul or Graham. Payments for sessions - £15 per half-term - can be made by Credit card, cheque, or cash.
Tuesday training schedule September & October 2022 here - let's get training for autumn cross-country, road relays and multi-terrains/fell races! NOTE: From 1st October, training fees can be paid by Credit card at £20 per Qtr (that's October through to end December) or cash at £2.50 per session. Members only at training sessions as we keep a record of attendees.
REGIONAL & NATIONAL ROAD RELAYS COMING UP - Traditionally the Club has entered teams into the regional road relays. These relays will take place on Saturday 24th September. This year Simon Prior & Jon James are contacts for information about entering teams ....but parents of juniors will need to help out as per usual. If u13 teams are to be entered we will need parents to take a lead....
REPORTS & PHOTOS FOR THE HARRIER WEBSITE - please send by e-mail word document or text reports and good quality photos by Monday evening 8pm for inclusion in any web report added to the Harrier website for that week. A summary report goes to the local newspaper every week. When I am away hopefully another volunteer (anyone?) can take on to edit the contributions & reports from the previous week. If not then there may be some gaps in coverage in coming months as I am away a lot..... Paul This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
COMING SOON: RACE THE NIGHT!
STREET 5k & junior 1k & 2k Race Series back again on 12th October. Series flier here - please print off and display at your local school/gym etc. Sports Towel to all that enter the Series and complete 5 races over the autumn/winter period.
MORE VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES at the STREET 5k SERIES (marshals need to sign up)