Wells City Harriers once again had athletes competing at all disciplines of the sport this past weekend. Members were in competition at the Inter-Counties cross country championships at Loughborough, the half marathon road race at Bath, the tough 20 mile multi-terrain race known as The Grizzly from Seaton, Devon, the Larmer Tree races in Dorset, and one junior Harrier was competing indoors at Pole Vault. Top billing goes to Luke Prior who, after years of hard training, has achieved the feat of being selected to represent Britain at the forthcoming World XC Championships to be held in Uganda.
Luke Prior gained selection for the forthcoming World XC Championships at the weekend when he finished 3rd in the u20s inter-counties cross country championships held at Loughborough. In a very tight competitive race with seconds covering the first half dozen places, Luke's time of 27.17 was just 4 seconds off the winning time.
Luke has trained with Wells City Harriers since the age of 8 and becomes the 7th Harrier to gain TeamGB status in the past 20 years. Coached by his father, deputy chairman Simon Prior, Luke is now studying at Queen Mary's College, London. The World XC Championships take place at Kampala, Uganda, on Sunday 26 March and will be televised on the BBC. Earlier this week Luke was making sure he had the correct documentation and a Yellow fever jab to enable him to make the trip with the British team. At Loughborough he was part of the select Avon & Somerset County team drawn from Clubs from across the wide area.
In addition to Luke Prior’s excellent 3rd place in the u20 race at Loughborough, there were another 9 Harriers pulling on the Avon & Somerset vest. In the u13 boys race Toby Watson was 100th, with Bradley Glover 225th. In the u13 girls race Hannah Blundy was 170th and Olivia Earthy 245th. For the u17 women's race, Elise Thorner had the best result for the girls with a composed 33rd place finish, despite being a year younger than many ahead of her. Lucy Pittard was 274th in the same race. In the senior women's race Debbie Glover was 214th and Katrina Prior 255th.
(Photo below of Elise by Al)
Despite some overnight rain, the weather in Bath for the Half Marathon on the road gave almost perfect conditions for the 12,000 plus runners.There were 12 Harriers toeing the start line of the popular City half which comprises an almost flat 2 lap course around Bath cheered on by huge crowds all along the route. many of the runners are taking part to raise money for good causes but at the sharp end there is some great competition.
First Home for the Harriers, in 10th place overall, and 1st junior overall, was Exeter Univ. student Phillip Bridge in a new personal best time of 70.47. Phillip is in training for next month's London Marathon.
Next in for the Harriers was Pete Grist in an excellent 38th place in 73.48 followed by 70th Tom Dukes, in a pb of 76.15 (also in training for London); then v50 Andrew Tindal 251st in 84.04; 319th v40 Neil Biss in 85.52; 599th Harrier v50 Chairman Graham Goldsmid 90.58; v40 Justin Thomas, in his 3rd race in a week, in 1.33; v50 Mike Rusca on pace-making duties again in 1.45; then Club Coach F45 Sharon Bowles in 2.11; followed by F65 Maureen Arthur in 2.12.
A special mention also for one of our Harrier Hon Life Member John Reynolds who set out on Thursday eve from the top of Glastonbury Tor at 10pm to complete 15 half marathons back to back finishing with the Bath Half on Sunday. John duly achieved the feat and is raising significant sums for Charity Time is Precious.
Please advise us if we have missed your performance amongst the 12,000 runners so that we can update this report.
(Tom, Graham, Andrew & Justin after the Bath Half - photo by Julia)
At the tough 20 mile Grizzly race in Devon, first home for the Harrier's was Claire Prosser in 96th place in 2.59. Nick Weaving, Mike Bosley and Simon Carr were making their debuts at this race and ran together finishing in 3.37 in positions 435, 436 and 438 respectively. They all seemed to enjoy it, pacing themselves to take in the tough climbs up and down the headlands, and the sections along the beach.
Mike, Simon & Nick taking it easy on the beach section! (you're not supposed to be smiling)
At the various Larmer tree multi-terrain races, held near Salisbury, there were another set of great Harrier performances. Nathan Baker ran the Larmer Tree Marathon to finish 21st in 3.55, with his wife Sam Baker 1st F55 in 46th place overall in 4.15. Michelle Blackmore was 144th in 5.16.There were 307 finishers over the 26 mile course. Damien Pick was 5th in the Larmer Tree '20 miler' in 2.40, with Duncan Verel 84th in 3.55 (259 finishers)
Meanwhile, Ollie Thorner joined around 100 others competing at Vault Cardiff on Saturday in the Cardiff Met Indoor Arena. He finished third in his pool of 10, clearing 3m 93 (just 2cm short of his PB!) going out at 4m 03cm. This coming Saturday, 18 March, he exchanges his pole vault for his XC spikes when he is part of the strong Somerset Schools team competing at the English Schools XC Championships at Norwich. We wish Ollie and all his fellow team-mates from across Somerset well at that competition.
This coming Sunday, 19 March, sees the Harrier's supporting the Butleigh multi-terrain10k that starts at 11.30am. Entries are taken on the day with full information on the dedicated website.