Haywards Heath Harriers spring forth into action

The second of the West Sussex Fun Run League races of the year was held at Tilgate Forest, Crawley. The “Eat Your Heart Out” race was a five-mile trail race starting and finished on the athletics running track at the K2 sports centre.

Haywards Heath Harriers had a super 35 finishers from this race.

Marcus Kimmins led the men home in 12th place overall and Rachael Overton was the first harrier lady finisher in seventh place in the ladies’ race and 66th overall.

Full results were as follows:

12th Marcus Kimmins 33:23; 22nd Andy Hind 33:51; 30th Will Axell 34:39; 52nd David Adams 36:01; 60th Tim Miller 36:21; 66th Rachael Overton 37:07; 71st Chris Faulkner 37:24; 76th Sam Atkin 37:56; 82nd Andy Dray 38:20; 94th James Smyth 39:17; 101st Simon Robinson 39:41; 105th David Harper 40:01; 131st Jayne Brewer 41:52, 136th Richard Caddy 42:02; 155th Ian Tomkins 42:50; 160th Glen Hedges 43:02; 163rd Rebecca Pugh 43:08; 167th Simon Fitzpatrick 43:18; 170th Clare Kenward 43:26; 185th Abigail Redd 44:24; 186th Phil Scott 44:29; 187th James Buckeridge 44:33; 247th Amanda Soper 47:47; 249th Kath Buckeridge 48:03; 254th Nick Fellows 48:23, 270th Jac Barnes 49:14; 275th Richard Jobling 49:38; 276th Emma Pryor 49:42; 281st Marion Hemsworth 50:20; 288th Graham Kenward 50:33; 296th Michael Parish 51:21; 387th Carys Hind 62:10; 392nd Tracy Adams 63:39; 394th Rupert Purchase 64:22; 410th Richard Bates 69:01.

The Sussex Indoor Athletics Championships took place at Carshalton, London. The event was combined with the Surrey Indoor Athletics Championships.

The Harriers had several athletes competing at this event.

Under-15 boy William Kean finished in sixth place in the final of the 60m in 8.54 seconds and finished in third place in his heat in 8.57 seconds. Both times were personal bests.

In the senior women’s events, Lucie Venables came third and won bronze in the 60m in 9.18 seconds and also won bronze in the triple jump with a jump of 8.41m (her best for two years).

Anya Cole (U17) competed in the high jump and won bronze for third place with 1.40m, equalling her personal best. She also finished in sixth place in the Pole Vault also equalling her personal best with 2.40m.

Alice Johnston finished third with bronze in the pole vault in the U17s with a new personal best of 2.80m.

Jessica Diack came seventh in the pole vault in the U15s with 2.00m.

Sussex Indoor Sports Hall League

Jessie Diack and Isaac Farmer competed for Sussex in the Sportshall League regional finals, in the U13 girls and U11 boys’ events respectively, against teams from Kent, Surrey, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Hampshire and Buckinghamshire.

Diack came 13th in the two lap parlauf and finished in sixth place in the vertical jump. Farmer finished in 19th place in the balance test and 14th place in the chest push.

Cross Country

At the Inter Counties at Wollaton Park, Jamie McDowell had a super run finishing in 75th position in the U20 men’s race in a time of 25min 32sec.

At the South of England Cross Country Championships which was held at Beckenham, Kent, Jacqueline Barnes finished in 316th place in 42:54 and Sarah Hamilton finished 338th in 45:38.

For the men Tim Hicks finished in 682nd place in 73:28 and Carl Bicknell 703rd in 78:26.

Road Running

The Brighton Half Marathon took place in windy conditions but this did not stop Haywards Heath Harrier Chris Faulkner running a six-minute personal best.

It was great to see many from the club getting new personal best times for the half marathon at this early in the season road race.

Harriers results: Michael Priest 76:48 (pb); Jamie McDowell 78:17 (pb); Jamie Gibson 82:17; Marcus Kimmins 83:06; Matt King 83:25; James Moffat 84:09 (pb); Tim Stannard 84:40; Matt Cook 85:31; Mark Green 91:14; James Bennett 91:54; Chris Faulkner 93:17 (pb); Simeon Wishlade 98:16; Oliver Fyfe 98:37; Greg Broad 1:40.36; Gray Wilkinson 1:45.00 (pb); Mark Davies 1:45.05 (pb); Jayne Brewer 1:46.23 (pb); Richard Caddy 1:47.08 (pb); Phil Scott 1:48.30; Emma Pryor 2:03.36; Sarah Hamilton 2:11.38 (pb).

Other Harriers results

At the Paddock Wood Half Marathon, Ben Gibson ran a very speedy personal best time of 71.57 for 25th place in this very competitive local race. He was accompanied by Ian Kenton, who finished in 77:46.

At the Eastbourne Half Marathon, Pete Francis finished in 1hr 29min 22sec.

Sam Ridley ran in the Seville Half Marathon and finished in a time of 1.37.02.