This past Sunday, (13th December) 19 year old Wells city Harrier Oliver Fox was part of the bronze medal winning Team GB u20 mens squad when competing at the European XC Championships. Meanwhile over 40 Harriers of all ages were competing at either the Somerset XC Championships at the University of Bath, or at the Dorset XC Championships. Over a dozen of the Harriers gained County medals .
> The European XC Championship races took place in Hyeres near Toulon in France and saw the cream of the European runners come together. Running on a relatively dry and fast circuit with some short sharp hills, Oliver was running for TeamGB for the 2nd time in his career. Oliver finished in 31st place out of 90 in a time of 18.30 for the 5.95km circuit. He was only 50 seconds behind the European Champion which indicates how tight and fast, racing is at this level of the sport. Oliver is now combining full time studies at Cambridge with his running, and started training with the Harriers when aged 8.
Meanwhile at the University of Bath sports centre, there were 39 Harriers competing in the Tri-county XC Championships, bringing together athletes from Avon, Somerset and Wiltshire all aiming to achieve good times and possibly medals awarded by the individual County's. For the harriers there were two outright winners of the races when Sophie Hamilton won the u15 girls and Sam Sommerville won the u20 men's race. There was real strength in depth amongst the Harrier performances with a dozen gaining Somerset medals.
>
In the u11girls race there was a clean sweep of medals as Jasmine Caley, Maisie Loader and Sophie Gillard won gold, silver and bronze. In the u11 boys race Bradley Glover did some great front running to gain gold for Somerset, with team mate Jamie Robinson taking bronze. Euan Lyall and Owen Dukes also had good runs, with Owen some 2 years younger than many in the race.
In the u13girls race Kai Snell (11.30) and Abbie White (11.46) won gold and bronze respectively which is a good return for the training they put in. Tom Loader won Somerset bronze for the u13 boys, maintaining good form when running the final 200m downhill to the funnel to finish in 10.39. Will Parry was next in 10.54, then Toby Watson 11.29,Will Carr 11.31, and James White 11.59.
It was in the u15 girls race where the Harriers dominated the major medals. Sophie Hamilton and Elise Thorner have both been running well this season to date and they took control of the race after the half way mark gradually drawing away from the field. In the final furlong Sophie got ahead of Elise to win the race outright in 14.19 with Elise just 1 second behind. Daisy Davies was 9th in 15.26. In the u15 boys race Dylan Dukes won Somerset gold in 13.11, with Luke Macpherson also gaining a medal with 14.03.
The u17& u20 mens races were combined , with Sam Sommerville outright winner in 18.36, and team mate Phil Bridge gaining u20s silver with 19.11. Ben Lloyd was first of the Harriers u17 athletes in 19.28, then James Bridge, 20.22, Josh Thorne, 21.49, and Che Thompson in 22.00. In the u17 women's race Catlin Carnegie was silver medalist in 18.45. Katie Lloyd ran 20.04, Lucy Pittard 22.21 and Jodie mitchell 24.19.
The senior men's race saw the largest field of the day with the 9.5k course proving a challenge for all. Kieran Young led the Harrier squad of 9 home in 6th place overall in 36.53. Chris Green was 9th and then John Yells,18th, Tom Dukes, 23rd, Robbie Hawkins, 36th, Richard Dukes, 51st, Graham Goldsmid, 52nd, Ed Tickner, 61st and Mike Bosley 76th.
On the same day the Harriers also had another 8 members competing at the Dorset County XC Championships with Michael Biss having the best run to gain Dorset silver in the u17 men's race. Other good runs came from U17 Jonny Ellis, 10th, and in the u15 race from Luke Baker, 5th, Chris Ellis,9th, nd George Biss, 14th. Neil Biss was well up in the senior men's race finishing in 13th place and Sam Baker in the senior women's race.
Attention for the XC runners now turns to the South West Championships taking place this Sunday at Bicton Park in Devon. Entries for the SW event are now closed.