The England Athletics National track & field Championships at Alexander Stadium, Birmingham, again saw u17 Tom Webb come away as a national champion. Running over his favourite track distance of 3,000m Tom raced to victory in a time of 8.46. His victory follows up his national title from last year at the same distance. Retaining his national title is a good indicator of how consistent Tom has been the past few years either in spite of, or because of, his ferocious appetite for racing!
Meanwhile at the South West Regional T&F Championships held on the Sunday at Exeter a number of Harriers came away with either the SW Gold medal or a pb or both. Step forward SW Champions u13 Ruby Shaw, u15 Oskar Beck and Senior Men Luke Prior & Matt Lusby for some great running.
Read on for more details of the SW Championships and last Thursday's end of the month Open event hosted by our partners at Yeovil Olympiads - many of our junior athletes were in action. Also ...links to the Olympics....
South West Track & Field Championships (inc Inter-Counties) - Exeter Sunday 28th July
A good number of the Harriers were selected to run for the Somerset County AA team and so wore the County vest, otherwise they were in our partner Club's orange vest. There was a terrific number of personal bests (pbs) achieved, especially by those who train with us on Monday nights, and by all acounts a number ran very smart in order to win...including u15 Oskar Beck, pictured below, winning his 1500m race.
There was one Championship record set by one of our Hon Life Members, Luke Prior
U13 girls 800m 1 Ruby Shaw 2.30pb
U13 boys 800m 3 Toby Hirst 2.28pb
U15 girls 100m 5 Poppy Shaw 14.40
U15 boys 800m 5 Jack Barker 2.29pb
U15 boys 1500m 1 Oskar Beck 4.24pb
U20 women 1500m 2 Sophie Nicholls 4.35
Senior Men 3000m 1 Luke Prior 8.53 CR
Senior Men 2000m Sch 1 Matt Lusby 6.13pb
Below: Ruby Shaw - South West Champion with her Gold medal
Yeovil Open Evening - Thursday 25 July
These end of the month Open events have been great for junior Harriers in particular to get some good competition opportunities. Many thanks to all of the volunteer officials and helpers that make the evenings work so well. If there are any Harrier parents or senior Harriers that can help at the next one please let Yeovil Chairman Geoff Cole know.
Oskar Beck ran his first 1500m Steeplechase race and came first in what is a new Yeovil club record of 4:55.24 (was 5:18 from 2017). u11 Rowan Kelly picked up three personal bests....
U11 boys 75m 1 Rowan Kelly 11.63pb; 4 Milo Cook 12.44pb; 5 Alfie Beck 12.68pb
U11 boys 600m 6 Rowan Kelly 1.59pb; 10 Milo Cook 2.13; 11 Alfie Beck 2.22
U11 girls 75m 1 Florence Perkins 13.18
U11 Howler throw 8 Rowan Kelly 24.86m pb; 10 Alfie Beck 22.02m pb
U13 girls 1500m Ruby Shaw 5.13pb
U13 boys 1500m Toby Hirst 5.15pb; Dominic Cook 5.47
u15 girls 100m 2 Elspeth Perkins 13.78pb
U15 boys 1500m Jack Barker 5.18pb
U15 boys 1500m Sch 1 Oskar Beck 4.55pb
U17 women 100m 3 Lara Cook 13.65
U17 women 1500m Sch 3 Amelie Cook 5.51
Olympic links?
Hopefully, everone knows that the Harriers main Olympic link is to our Hon President Mary Rand. Her Gold medal winning performance in the Long Jump at the Tokyo Olympics of 1964 is forever commemorated in the Wells Market Place. Whenever she comes back to Wells she calls in to see us and has been down to our Monday junior sessions a few times in the past to inspire the next generation of potential Olympians. Photo below from 2012 of now TeamGB athlete Elise Thorner as a junior receiving a medal from Mary Rand when she joined us at a Monday training session just before London 2012.
More recently, the Harriers cross-country teams of the 2007/2008 era included Sam Weale. Sam was a first claim Yeovil Olympiad and he competed at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games in the Modern Pentathlon - finishing 10th in Beijing in 2008 and 13th at the London Olympics. A few of us were fortunate to see him in action at the Greenwich Park venue in London.
This week, for those who have been watching the TeamGB Women's hockey team in Paris you might have spotted that one of our former junior athlete's Sophie Hamilton has been playing really well with the team (midfield No23). By the age of 15 she and her twin sister became dedicated to hockey and we lost her from our strong junior road-relay team of the time....Photo below of our October 2015 u15 girls national road relay team (which finished 4th) with left to right Elena Sidman, Elise Thorner and Sophie Hamilton.
Meet the Harriers
Our latest edition of Meet the Harriers features Jonathan Williams. Click here to read his interview.
Jonathan Williams
Yeovil Olympiads Update
Read the latest Yeovil Olympiads newsletter here.
Races & events coming up
August 2024
Friday 2nd August 2024 - Wessex 10K
(SS) Wednesday 7th August 2024 - Haselbury Trail Race
Wednesday 14th August 2024 - Yeovilton 5K (Race 5)
Wednesday 14th August 2024 - South West PB Series (Race 3)
Wednesday 14th August 2024 - Crook Peak Cake Fell Race
Sunday 18th August 2024 - Frome Running Festival (5K, 10K, HM)
(SS) Monday 26th August 2024 - Baltonsborough 5 Mile
Thursday 29th August 2024 - Yeovil Evening Open 4
September 2024
Sunday 1st September 2024 - South West League fixture 4
Saturday & Sunday 7th & 8th September 2024 - Southern Fell Running Championships (IoW)
Saturday 7th September 2024 - Yeovil Open Games - possibly last chance for a Track & Field pb in 2024? entries now open
Saturday 21st September 2024 - South of England Road Relays at Aldershot
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