Swindon Harriers official

OUR chairman Howard Moscrop has broken new ground again for his member of the Month for August - with three recipients sharing the accolade.

Howard has opted to highlight the achievements of Reka Carr, Sam Waddell and Kieran Golding explaining that all three athletes played an immense role in what was one of the busiest summers in the club’s history for the senior section.

“With the club in effect having senior teams in two leagues this year, there have been three National Athletics League fixtures and four Southern League fixtures this season, the last two in August,” said Howard.

“Only three members in the senior ranks have been at all seven matches - one lady and two gents.

“They have not only competed in their own events but also on a number of occasions, in other events to fill in where the team had gaps.

“Kieran has also put his ‘other hat’ on for the club and officiated as well.

“They have accumulated over 200 points between them and have travelled almost 1000 miles each.

“From a club and team perspective, a dedicated and successful season.

“Reka Carr (pictured with her relay team-mates), Sam Waddell, Kieran Golding (also pictured) hats off to you, you are my members of the month for August. Many thanks for all your efforts.”

Also at the recent South West 5K PB Series in which Lucy Morrison grabbed the headlines the club had a strong presence in the men’s competition.
Simon Byrne was our first man across the finish line in fourth (14:49) with Ben Lines also making the top 10 in eighth (15:26).
Teenager Leo Kyson made his debut at the distance and was fourth in the U16s age group in 17:47.
Others: 35 Ben McIntyre 15:52; 52 Simon Dill 17:30; 70 Alex Williams (U20 3rd) 18:06; 79 Collin Fox (M45 6th) 18:25.

LUCY Morrison admitted she was ‘buzzing’ after smashing her personal best over 5k on the road .

The 29-year-old not only carved 10 seconds off her lifetime best but also dipped inside 17 minutes for the first time with 16mins 54secs in the South West 5K PB Series around the traffic-free Odd Down cycle circuit near Bath.

“It was a pipeline dream and then suddenly here we are, no taper required,” she said.

Lucy’s success follows hard on her first sub 36 minutes for 10k when she clocked 35:59 in the latest Lightning Bolt event at the start of the month.

Both results should give her a big confidence boost as she builds up to the Berlin Marathon at the end of September.

Meanwhile on the track teenager Finley Byrne was showing PB form in the latest British Milers Club Regional meeting at the Exeter Arena.

Lining up for the men’s 1500m B race Finley clocked 4mins 07.13secs for sixth place, clipping 1.02secs off his previous PB set at Loughborough University earlier in the month.

IT was not only our young relay runners who were making headlines at the weekend as the club’s senior athletes also completed a successful return to the National Athletics League.

In the third and final match of the Championship West Division at Yeovil the combined senior men and women finished fourth.

On top of winning the opening match at Yate in May plus another fourth place in match two last month in Bournemouth that meant the club finished third overall on their return to the top level of club athletes in the UK.

Star of the meeting and continuing her outstanding season was Teresa Iannetelli.

Teresa ran two club records and personal bests in the 200m (24.48secs) and the 400m (53.98secs), the latter acclaimed as the second best performance overall of the meeting according to the UK Athletics age grade rankings.

Teresa’s time improved the PB of 54.06secs that she set just the previous weekend at the Stratford Speed GP Series while the 26-year-old’s previous PB over 200m was 25.03secs.

So great for Teresa to end the season as a sub 25 and 54 seconds runner for 200m and 400m respectively while having also gone not just sub 60 but also sub 59 with her PB of 58.57secs for the 400m hurdles, also the previous weekend in the Southern League.

What a brilliant summer for Teresa!

Also making the top 10 performances overall on the age grade basis was our over 40 veteran runner Ben Cole, who clocked 8:43.32 to finish third in the 3000m with Ben Lines (8:54.34) just behind to win the B race.

Arthur Widdows also impressed to win the 400m hurdles in 55.14secs and the 4x400m relay squad of Samuel Waddell, Arthur, James Newton and Ben Lines raced to victory in 3:31.84.

Match 1: 1 Swindon 582pts; 2 Cardiff Athletics 460.5; 3 Yeovil Olympiads 434; 4 Yate & District 419; 5 Bournemouth AC 327; 6 Wi******er & District 196.5

Match 2: 1 Yeovil 592; 2 Bournemouth 525; 3 Cardiff 494; 4 Swindon 421; 5 Wi******er 277; 6 Yate 196.

Match 3: 1 Yeovil 621; 2 Cardiff 503; 3 Bournemouth 431; 4 Swindon 379; 5 Wi******er 298; 6 Yate 293.

THE club’s Under 18 men are celebrating a superb medal at the England Athletics National Relay Championships in Birmingham.

The quartet of Elliot Cox, Luka Shankland, Al Virgilio and Ben Janes won the bronze medals in the 4x400m relay event.

The lads clocked a club record time of 3mins 26.16secs to win the B final and with only the top two in the A Final running quicker - Tonbridge were third but 0.65secs slower - they made the podium.

“I think we were expecting to win a medal and realistically looking at who else was there bronze was the most realistic for us,” said Elliot.

“We had not done this event before so it is a big achievement for us.”

For Elliot personally it is another national medal after his gold at the British & Irish Schools Championships and silvers at both the English Schools and Welsh U18s Championships.

It is also worth noting that all four young men are coached by our chairman Howard Moscrop so what a super group of athletes he has there.

“They have all trained very hard throughout the winter to get to where they are this summer,” said Howard.

“Performances have been excellent and to finish together with a bronze in the National Relays is a great way to finish a season.

“Together with Teresa (Iannetelli), Arthur (Widdows), Kalina (Karacheva) and others, they have spurred each other on.

“It is a wonderful medal to get and I am very proud of them all.”

If there was delight for the U18 men then the club’s U16 girls suffered the heartache of missing out on a medal by just 0.14 of a second in the 4x100m relay.

The team of Hannah Sharrad, Amber Lea Clifton, Ola Onyia and Arabella Penny Griffths ran a club record time of 49.04secs but were just edged off the podium by Croydon Harriers (48.90).

“I was gutted for them and the U16 boys, who also ran a club record,” said coach Tony Jackson, who was at the stadium.

The U16 boys squad comprised Lewis Belgrave, 15-yer-old Luka Shankland, Jayden messiah and Ethan Bryon with reserve athlete Jaliel Joseph.

There also two reserves of the U16 girls with Tamiah Roswell and Sienna Baklava on standby in case of last-minute injury.

“But a big mention has got to go to the friends and parents of the Swindon athletes,” added Tony.

“They were the loudest cheerleaders in the whole stadium! We took the roof off when the Swindon athletes were introduced over the tannoy system.”

England Athletics Relay Championships, Alexander Stadium, Birmingham

U18 men - 4x400m Final B: 1 Swindon Harriers 3:26.16 (PB); 2 Preston Harriers 3:27.80; 3 Chelmsford 3:29.69

Final A: Cambridge Harriers 3:22.29; 2 Havering AC 3:22.38; 3 Tonbridge AC 3:26.81.

U16 girls - 4x100m: 1 Be Fit Today Track Academy 46.92; 2 Birchfield Harriers 48.77; 3 Croydon Harriers 48.90; 4 Swindon Harriers 49.04 (PB).

U16 boys - 4x100m ht 3: Swindon 45.78 (PB).

JESSE Bryant produced a fantastic effort in the British Milers Club MarketAxess Tooting Bec Record Breaker meeting last night.

The 15-year-old, who is coached by John Dill, smashed his PB by over one second improving from 1:59.15, which he ran at the start of the season in the BMC PB Classic at Millfield School, to 1:57.99.

That gave Jesse third place in the I race on another night of top class middle-distance running.

Jesse has also run PBs over the mile (4:28.72) and the 1500m steeplechase (4:26.60) but his 2025 PB in the 1500m of 4:07.46 has eluded him - so far!

Also in the 800m Finley Byrne’s PB remains 1:57.34 from the Millfield meeting in May as he clocked 1:58.92 in the H race.

Just ahead of him last night was clubmate Fletcher Hart finishing in 1:57.92, which is outside his 2025 PB of 1:56.91.

At the start of the month Matt Woodward set a cracking PB of 3:47.91 at the BMC Grand Prix at St Mary’s University but last night he had to settle for 3:50.83, another solid performance.

But Simon Byrne posted his fastest time of the season with 3:51.34 for third place in the F race. That is also his fastest time since he recorded his lifetime best of 3:48.47 three years ago so great to see Simon finish the season so strongly.

Men’s 800 - H: 5 Fletcher Hart (U23) 1:57.92; 7 Finley Byrne (U16) 1:58.92; I: 3 Jesse Bryant (U16) 1:57.99 (PB).

Men’s 1500 - E: 4 Matt Woodward 3:50.83; F: 3 Simon Byrne (M35) 3:51.34.

WELL done to teenager Olly Hughes for his success in the recent Westbury 5k Road Summer Series.
Olly clinched the overall prize for U16 men based on his best three performances with the 15-year-old clocking 17mins 31secs (May), 17:28 (June) and 17:36 last week.
Olly has also run a PB in the 5k this year with 17:17 in the RunThrough Olympic park event in March.

OUR relay women ended the Southern League in superb style in the recent final match at Bromley.
The quartet of Delleah Belgrave, Amelia Brandon, Laila Belgrave and Reka Carr not only won the 4x100m event to add valuable points to ensure our Division One status but also broke the club record.
Subject to official confirmation their winning time of 50.37secs is the quickest recorded by a Harriers team, eclipsing the time of 51 seconds set seven years ago by Hilda Williams, Lydia Rogers, Hannah New and Teresa Iannetelli at Wi******er.
It was a great performance by the women and symbolised the fantastic effort by the team as they finished fourth in that final match to beat rivals Victorian Park and Tower Hamlets.
Both clubs ended the league season locked together on nine league points but our total points tally of 848.8 was superior to their 829 - and means we stay up while they are joined by City of Norwich, Havering and Epsom & Ewell in Division Two next season.

LUCY Morrison’s preparations for the Berlin Marathon at the end of next month look like they are proceeding very nicely.

Today she managed to churn out a personal best 10k in the Lightning Bolt race at Langley Burrell - squeezed in after a decent warm-up and then a long warm-down!

“I am building up for Berlin so went with Ben Cole and James McGough of the Harriers and first we did a six miles warm-up,” said Lucy.

“Then we did the race and afterwards an eight miles warm-down so a good 20 miles in total.”

A decent day’s training then for the trio with Ben looking at the Valencia marathon in December and James the Amsterdam marathon in October.

“I was very happy with my personal best of 35mins 58.9secs,” added Lucy.

“It is a good confidence boost.”

Lucy’s previous PB of 36:34 was set in February at the RunThrough Battersea Park event so the was her first time under 36 minutes.

She recently completed the Outlaw Triathlon, in Nottingham, but sadly the swim section was cancelled due to algae issues in the water so became just a duathlon.

Ben ran as an official pacer for the event organisers with the goal of running inside 35 minutes. Ben did his job crossing the line in 34:51.

James, who is a newcomer to the club, finished 18th in a PB time 35:10 so congratulations to him as well.

TEENAGER Eloise Foster finished first woman in the final race of the Westbury 5k Summer Road Series.

The 18-year-old, who is coached by Bryan Clinton, clocked a time of 17mins 21secs to finish almost a minute clear of her nearest rival.

It was Eloise’s fastest time of the summer in the Sris having previously recorded 17:53 in May and 18:26 in June.

In the men’s race Michael Passmore finished sixth overall and third veteran over 40 in 16:16.

Fellow Harriers Aaron Smith and David Sirrelle clocked 17:10 and 17:16 respectively with junior Olly Hughes finishing top U16 runner in 23rd place overall in 17:36.