More bling for Byng.

Written by Mike Eldridge on . Posted in News

 
Lewis Byng outside the Etihad with his British silver medal.
We start this week with a Covid update from Paul Bearman.

We also have details of Lewis Byng’s and Josh Roberts’ record breaking seasons. There’s a copy of a report by Paul Bearman to be submitted to the local press on our Club Championships, plus a report on the podium dominance of our young duathletes at the Darley Moor Duathlon.

John Raby has provided the final results together with a report of this month’s virtual Shakespeare Race.

At Friday’s Night of 1500m races at The Pingles there were some superb performances from our athletes, as there were at both Sutton Coldfield and again at The Pingles over the weekend.

Best Wishes

David Jones
Covid Update
Paul Bearman

The latest government announcements regarding Covid-19 have thrown up a few questions that we all need to be aware of.

The good news is that following the new restrictions outlined by the government, England Athletics has confirmed that guidance for outdoor club and group activity as well as all types of outdoor competitions for athletics and running is not affected.

However, whilst indoor activity for Under 18’s can take place with larger numbers in a Covid-secure environment, indoor training for athletes over the age of 18 is restricted to groups of 6 (1 coach to 5 athletes).

This means we will continue outdoors on the track but we wont be using the Sportshall at all for the foreseeable future, so athletes need to come to training prepared for all types of weather conditions. The pavilion will also be closed, apart from using the toilet.

I’ve been involved in running the Warwickshire Sportshall League for 27 years and sadly this will be the first year that the league cannot be safely run, however, we are looking at alternatives to keep some form of competition alive throughout the winter. It also looks like the indoor competitions in the New Year are unlikely to run.

Schools

To date we are aware that 4 school years in separate schools have unfortunately been sent home and they have all been advised to self-isolate and work from home due to a student having had a positive Covid test. This obviously means that those athletes who are isolating must not attend training.

We will be guided by how schools respond to advice by the Local Authority Public Health Team, however, unless a family is isolating, if a sibling at the same school in a different age group is allowed to attend school they will still be allowed to attend training.

Autumn Training

With the evenings drawing in we have had to modify the way we will meet and greet, use new positions for the waiting zones and warm up away from the field. Please see the plan and follow it religiously.

As schools have returned an air of complacency has slipped into the training groups and we need to again emphasise that we are still using the 2 metre social distancing rule, which is a core part of our protocols to keep everyone safe.

With the upsurge in infections the coaches will again be doing our level best to keep everyone 2 metres apart.
Lewis Byng.

Record breaker Byng.


Report – Paul Bearman

After recently winning the silver medal in the 7.26kg Shot at the British senior championships, Stratford AC’s Lewis Byng returned to his Under 20 age group and continued his assault on the record books by breaking the British Under 20 6kg record twice in the space of a week.

Having broken Curtis Griffith-Parker’s record of 19.30m, which had stood since 2009 the week previously, Byng put together another consistent series with every throw being above the 19.20m mark. He added another two centimetres to his own record with a 19.73m throw and strengthened his position at the top of the British Under-20 rankings, and keeps him seventh in the world for 2020.

A very happy Byng declared, “I’m really pleased with my consistency and timing considering the lack of competition and to have broken the British record. I’ve got a couple more competitions left in the Under 20s before I move into the Under 23s and so I’m hoping to push 21m before my Under 20 career finishes”.
1 Getting ready ; 2 On the runway ; 3 I’m really chuffed ; 4 Off home for a lie down
Josh Roberts
Paul Bearman

Irrespective of not being able to train properly and a challenging year with a lack of competition, Under 15 Josh Roberts has managed to keep his technical training and fitness up and has risen to the top of the UK javelin rankings after a superb series of throws at the Club Championships, finishing with a best throw of 56.73m and also breaking the club record.

In an incredibly high standard of competition with Ollie Wear and Acelin Smith (6th and 15th in the UK U17 rankings respectively) and Adam Farrow throwing over 45 metres it was by far the best and most competitive field competition the club has seen.
1500m runners at the Club Championships.
I realise that there was an item on the recent Club Championships in last week’s newsletter but below is a report by Paul Bearman that will be submitted to the local press on Tuesday, hopefully for inclusion in next week’s local newspapers.

Club Champs 2020.

Report – Paul Bearman.

On a crisp sunny morning a scaled down, Covid safe version of the Stratford upon Avon AC club champs, which is the biggest and most important in the club’s calendar, enabled over 130 athletes, expertly marshalled by nearly 50 of the club’s volunteer officials and coaches to enjoy what was for some, the first and only time they could compete in this summer’s blighted track & field season.

The athletes have continued to train hard this year despite the severe restrictions placed upon them and after only being allowed back to training at the track 2 months ago the performances of the athletes surpassed all expectations with over 200 personal bests being recorded and a few club records being broken too.

Paul Bearman, the meeting coordinator, commented afterwards, “it really was a terrific team effort and achievement by everyone concerned to put the champs on in such a short timescale and getting it licenced to the stringent, safe standards required by England Athletics only 5 days before leading up to the champs made it touch and go to run the event”. He added “Covid has decimated the track and field season and so without the commitment, hard work and attention to detail to make things safe by the small army of volunteers the Champs simply wouldn’t have happened”.

Athlete Millie Leighton said “the Club Champs was a great way to end an incredibly short season and for many of us was the only chance to compete this year. Nevertheless, everyone seemed to rise to the occasion and produce some great performances. It was definitely a challenge having gone so long without training, but I think it’s safe to say we have all missed competition and it was nice to restore some amount of normality. Considering the lack of competition preparation and training at the track over the last 6 months, along with the majority of athletes, I was very surprised and pleased with my results managing to get a PB in two out of my three events. Given that it’s unlikely that we won’t be able to have the Club awards evening this year, it was nice to see all of the club enjoying being together”.
Charly Marshall.

Podium Dominance for Stratford Youth Triathletes.

Report – Kate Marshall.

Club members Charly Marshall (15) and Ellie Deaner (15) produced fine performances to take first and third places at the Darley Moor Duathlon on Saturday.

Charly fought through the pain barrier after taking a fall on second transition to power through the last 1500m run to a convincing victory, 90 seconds clear of the second placed finisher.

Ellie showed strength with a solid third place in the challenging and windy conditions.

Earlier in the day Jules Marshall (12) finished strongly in the TS2 race and sister Amélie Marshall (7) completed her her first Duathlon representing Stratford-upon-Avon.


Kate Wright and Rich Shephard – winners of this month’s Shakespeare Race.
September Shakespeare Race.

Report – John Raby

The September Shakespeare race has now closed for the 2 mile race and we had a 69 athletes enter which is down on last months 94. It also seems there was a last minute dash with 45% of entrants on the last day. This therefore meaning a busy time collecting and processing from the superb team of
Sarah Bland, Matt Burdus-Cook and Ryan Bakewell
.
Please click the link below for the full list of results

https://www.racetecresults.com/results.aspx?CId=16418&RId=675

Top 3 in the ladies
🥇
Kate Wright
12:05
🥈
Vicky Sharpe
13.14
🥉
Maisie-Joy Spriggs
13:47

Top 3 for the men:
🥇
Richard Shephard
09:57
🥈
Matt Burdus-Cook
10:19
🥉
Richard Liggatt
10:56

Picking up the age category wins: The good news is that if you missed out but still want to give the 2 mile race ago or just want to try and better it this month, then why not give the WRRL a go as it’s still open until the end of the month.

Even if not wanting to go again, please do still click the link and submit your result, as every result submitted really does help the club in the tables.

Well done to everyone who entered this month some fantastic racing as always. Fingers crossed we’re a step closer still to some real inter club racing.

https://data.opentrack.run/en-gb/x/2020/GBR/vwrrl-sep/?fbclid=IwAR3FaQW05NJUUqkRWEQdzFQhSIJ6tyaQmbBnxBDXOiNTETv8qrZxmAjO0n
Ned Campbell about to cross the finish line after his superb 1500m race.
Night of 1500 metre races.

The Pingles Stadium – Friday 18th September.

Report – David Jones

On a blustery night at The Pingles Stadium there were some superb performances from the 8 club members who took part, 4 of who managed PBs in far from ideal conditions.

U15 Alex Adams improved his PB, achieved just 5 days previous at the club championships, by 4 seconds in recording a time of 4:13.38. This sees him move up to 10th place in this year’s UK rankings in his highly competitive age group.

U17 James Mucklow knocked 3 seconds off his PB with a time of 4:32.82.

Georgie Campbell, one of 3 Campbell siblings competing on the night, was a mere 0.53 of a second off her PB in running a time of 4:43.06. This places her 24th in this year’s UK rankings for her age. Brother Ned had a superb race, knocking a huge 27 seconds off his PB, despite both the fierce headwind along the home straight and him suffering from a bad back. He ran a technically superb race, not going off too quickly at the start and tucking in behind the race leader for a large part of the race before moving in to pole position. Ned was helped somewhat by the fact that the Notts runner he had overtaken continued to chase him, indeed was threatening to overtake him going in to the final bend. This gave him the impetus he needed to finish strongly. Despite his big PB he did feel a slight disappointment in that his finishing time of 5:00.56 was agonisingly close to a sub 5 minute time. Something to aim for next time Ned. Sister Tilly was a bit disappointed in her time of 6:36.08 but in her defence, the wind in her race, the first heat of the night, was particularly strong. I can certainly vouch for that as I was in the same heat.

There were a couple of other superb performances on the night from junior members. The ever improving Tessa Parkin ran a time of 5:40.80 and Olivia Robinson made a dream start to her 1500m race career, being something of an 800m specialist. Her mother had entered her in the race with a predicted time of 5:10, something Olivia doubted she was capable of. However, in leading the race form gun to tape she did indeed run 5:10 – 5:10.59 to be precise. Some time mom’s do know best Olivia.

I ran a disappointing 5:53.73, almost 10 seconds slower than my time at Leamington a week previous,. Maybe 4 races in a week wasn’t such a good idea after all.
Maddie Linfoot.
Royal Sutton Coldfield AC & Birchfield Harriers Open.
Sutton Coldfield – 19th September.

Report – David Jones

Six junior members competed in this event in Sutton Coldfield last weekend.

Included in these was Josh Roberts, our UK number 1 ranked U15 javelin thrower. Josh went to the top of the rankings with his throw at the Club championships the previous week. His throw of 54.28 in Sutton Coldfield was more than twice the distance of the next placed thrower.

In the 1500m, Maddie Linfoot ran a 5 second PB time of 5:20.8, her previous PB being achieved just a few days earlier at the club champs.

In the 800m U15 Poppy Fox-Rowe ran a season’s best time of 2:29.1.

In the hurdling events we had two members competing. In the 75m hurdles U13 Olivia Hawkyard recorded a PB time of 14.00 seconds, while over the 75m distance, U13 Leo Egan ran a PB time of 15.4, which places him in 16th place in this year’s UK rankings for his age.

In the long jump our U13 athlete Tom Whorrod was just 4 centimetres of his PB, with a jump of 4:14.
Cole Williams.

Midlands Open T&F Competition.
The Pingles Stadium – 20th September.
Report – David Jones.

Three of our members competed in this event at the weekend.

It was a busy weekend for Tom Whorrod. Having competed in the long jump at Sutton Coldfield the previous day, it was the turn of the 100m on Sunday, when he ran a time of 15.15.

U20 hurdler Cole Williams ran a time of 15.76 over the 110m distance. Cole currently has a UK ranking of 10th in this event this year in his age category.

Finally, the ever improving U17 Taylor Stubbins was 2nd in his 1500m heat with a time of 4:35.21.
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