Luke Prior gained his first regional title at the weekend when he competed at the Southern Track & Field Championships at the Lee Valley Stadium. Oliver Dickinson and Sam Harding also had excellent results at the same Championships, whilst Jack Bancroft was victorious at the Midland Championships; and Andrew Tindall pb'd at the Yeovil Marathon; and a host of other Harriers tasted success and pbs at the Somerset Schools Track & Field Championships.
Dad Simon Prior reports from Lee Valley :"Luke ran in the u20s 5000m track event and, after a slow tactical first 2000m, Luke decided to take up the pace and gradually speeded up to the finish, to bring him home first in a new personal best of 15.27 and take him to 14th on the current UK u20 rankings and no1 in the South West. Luke has one more year in this age group.
Team-mate Oliver Dickinson also competed in the same 5000m event and he came in a creditable 5th and with a new pb of 16min 08 sec. Oliver has two more years in this age group. On the Saturday u23 Sam Harding qualified for the 800m Senior men’s final in a solid 1min.54 sec, and then on the Sunday, Sam ran a pb for 5th place in the final against some very strong competitors in a time of 1:53.63. That was Sam’s second pb in successive weekends. These performances on the track at Lee Valley were achieved in very changeable weather conditions. Well done all" (Photo above of Luke on the podium and of Oliver in the 5000m and sam in the 800m final - all by Simon)
Meanwhile Jack Bancroft competed at the Midlands Track & Field Championships, held at Nuneaton, and won the senior mens 5000m track event in a time of 14.51 and thus become Midland Champ.
Also achieving a pb at the weekend was Andrew Tindal, but this time on the road. Andrew described conditions and race organisation as excellent at the Yeovil Marathon and he finished in 13th place overall in a time of 3hrs 4 minutes for the 26.2 mile course - some 7 minutes inside his previous best. Harrier Treasurer Gary Tubridy also competed in a time of 4.34, 158th in the field of 214 competitors.
Meanwhile at the Somerset Schools Track & Field Championships held at Millfield on Saturday a number of Harrier members were successful in their events. In the Junior Boys (school year 8&9) Luke Macpherson ran an excellent 4.28 for the 1500m bronze. This was 30 seconds quicker than he'd gone before.
In the Inter boys (school years 10 &11) events Dylan Dukes also achieved a personal best when winning the 3000m in 9.46 to become County Schools Champion. For the Inter girls, Elise Thorner was also a worthy Schools champion when she ran 2.14.7 for victory in the 800m, just outside of her pb but with little company for the final run in. Elise was also 3rd in the inter girls High Jump when she cleared 1.62m.
For the senior athletes (School/college years 12 & 13) Felix Rusby was crowned School Champion over 1500m with his 4.05 clocking, less than half a second outside of his best. Ed McCabe was also crowned Schools Champion when he won the Long Jump with an excellent pb of 6.46m; before going on and finishing in 5th place in the 100m sprint in a time of 11.67.