British record & 3 gold medals.

British Masters Championships

Lee Valley Indoor Stadium

17th/18th February

Report – Paula Williams & David Jones

Last weekend saw the British Masters Athletic Federation (BMAF) Championships held at the prestigious Lee Valley Indoor Arena in London.

Over the weekend some 580 athletes competed across 135 different events. It was a superbly organised meeting with events running pretty much on time throughout the weekend.

4 of our club members made the journey south to compete with pride of place going to Paula Williams, the club’s world class W50 athlete.  

Paula was feeling good going in to the meeting having had a good session at Loughborough High Performance Athletic Centre on the previous Friday followed by a tune up at the Stratford track over 3 hurdles two days before the competition.

Her Saturday morning started with a W50 60m hurdle race. It was a straight final and she managed to win gold with a PB time of 9.59 seconds to break the previous British Record of 9.62s set in 2008. 

Her Sunday morning consisted of a gold medal in the W50 shot put with a distance of 13.17m. She felt ok about that because she’d achieved over 13m and is throwing consistently over 13m at each meet. 

Sunday afternoon was what she was really excited about. Paula has been working on her start and speed for a year now and she wanted to see what she could achieve over 60m. January and early February had shown improvements but this was her first championships of the year.

She ran 8.32s, comfortably winning heat 1 with a huge season’s best and finished the final with gold. Her time of  8.24s in the final was the fastest she has run since 2018. 

3 events, 3 golds. Needless to say she was absolutely delighted and now feels she just needs to keep her fitness and start to taper for the European Masters Athletics Indoor Track and Field Championships in Poland in a month’s time.

I had pretty low expectations going in to these championships being in the final year of my M70 age category, however I was delighted to return with 2 bronze medals from my 800m and 1500m races.

Although my 800m bronze was due to a runner ahead of me being disqualified for breaking too early I was particularly pleased with my 1500m race.

The first 2 finishers were a foregone conclusion which left the 3rd place up for grabs. Having identified my most likely opponent I decided to sit on his shoulder for most of the race before, hopefully accelerating off the final bend to move up in to 3rd place, which is exactly as it played out. My time of 6:15.75 was my quickest 1500m since 2019. Having said that my 800m time of 3:08 was a personal worst! Win some, lose some.

For multi-eventer Mark Illingworth it was a case of almost but not quite. In his 200m race, a distance that is a little outside of his comfort zone, he ran 31.32 in his heat to finish just 0.15 seconds off a qualifying place for the final. In his 60m heat his time of 9.05 was a PB but just 0.04 of a second off the qualifying time for the final. It was still a time that sees him in the top 10 UK rankings for his M65 age category.

Dave Battersby was running in the hugely competitive M45 400m race, his first indoor 400m for almost 12 months. Sadly his time of 58.84s in the heat failed to earn him a place in the final.

West Midland Young Athletes Cross Country League

Aldersely Stadium, Wolverhampton

Report – Rachel Stevens

The WMYACCL 23/24 season finished with a haul of five individual medals plus team golds, silver and two bronzes at the final meet of the season at Aldersley Stadium, Wolverhampton!

It was early trouble for the wellie-less as just making it from the car to the club tent was a muddy task. That was nothing compared to the challenge faced by our athletes: an inclining first 200m with ankle hugging grass meant the season’s toughest start. No sooner had the legs and lungs overcome it, our super-troopers were running up it again on Lap 2. If you were un/fortunate enough to run the smaller lap, you had even more chance of having your shoes devoured by an even boggier field. Isn’t that what cross country is all about?!

The finishing straight was another incline, albeit not as steep or long as the starting/midway points. After a punishing race that’s the last thing you need. Nevertheless our athletes took to the course with the commensurate professionalism they have shown all season. For some it was a season’s best, for others it was team or even individual medals. It was also time to say good-bye to some of our older U17 Men and Ladies as their junior cross-country sadly ended.

Some of those retirees were up first in the U17W. There was early drama with two of the most exciting finishes of the day: both MJ Spriggs (4^th) and Abbi Cooper (17^th) kicked for their lives on the final approach, overtaking competitors and finishing in the most nail-biting style. Despite taking a fall, Niamh Hillard (9^th) and MJ Spriggs both finished on league career highs: Niamh with the individual bronze and MJ the individual fourth place medal.

To finish on a high particularly after competing for Stratford since they were U11s – is the envy of any Stratford athlete. Congratulations, Ladies!

Adding Abbi Cooper’s points across the season meant our U17 Ladies team, including Martha Peters (30^th on the day and 32^nd overall), Alice Cottam (31st), Emma Francioni (33rd)  and long-standing member Tilly Campbell with a season’s best 35th finished as Team Silver Medallists’.

We look forward to hearing more of Niamh, MJ, Abbi , Tilly and Emma as they move to the seniors. You will be much missed, not least for your calming influence on the younger ones and your ability to muck in with last-minute shoelace tying and number pinning. 

Next saw our best individual performance of the season. In the U11B’s  Robin Gallagher leading by five metres the whole way round, found an extra gear on the final approach to win by some twenty metres! After an incredible opening season, Robin becomes the ‘WMYACCL 23/24 Silver Individual Medallist’. Many congratulations, we can’t wait to see you race next season!

Next was Reuben Joyce finishing on a season’s best by breaking into the Top 20 to finish fourteenth. Then it was improved runs by Toby Ledgard (45^th), Oliver Hollis (55^th) and Dexter Sharpe (57^th). Our U11B’s finished 5th and in the series were 6th with a strong team going forward. Congratulations.

After an incredible first season for the U17M, Zak Lambert strode powerfully home to take both fifth on the day fifth for the season, earning himself a top finisher’s medal. Congratulations, Zak!

Will Mayes (12^th) has also improved and finished the league in ninth place. With such focussed and determined heads, these men make very exciting prospects as upper age U17 Men next year. Next were two series Top 30 finishers with retiree Henry Wheeler (26th) finishing his season in a very respectable twenty-fifth. We wish Henry all the best as he progresses into the Seniors.  James Day (30^th) also ran with great consistency to finish in twenty-ninth overall. James Mayes completed the team, matching his strong day’s performance with his overall league performance of thirty-fourth.

With a deep sense of camaraderie, our U17 Men were third both on the day and in the series and so became Team Bronze Medallists’. Congratulations.

It was more medals as our U11G’s won ‘Team Bronze’ – a super way to close their season and a sign of things to come. Elsie Pipitone had a cracking race, finishing in a season-busting eleventh, with Maggie Silvers a mere second after in thirteenth place. Maggie completed her season in overall ninth place – the highest of our U11 girls! Next up was Amelie Marshall in eighteenth on the day and fourteenth overall. Lyler Turner was next in twenty-sixth and twenty third overall, then Emily Lambert and Saskia Atkins finished their series in thirty-sixth and sixty-seventh places, respectively. Poppy West matched her season’s best performance in eighty-ninth and Layla Sparrow broke into the Top 100 finishing in overall ninety-ninth.

There’s much to feel proud of here, girls. Enjoy your medals. Congratulations! 

Next up were our potential gold medal-winning U15B’s team. Could they withstand the pressure of being league leaders with everything to lose?

Of course they could!

Sam Lambert crossed the line in a superb third place, finding himself the ‘WMYACCL 23/24 Individual Bronze Medallist’. Congratulations Sam; you have exemplified grit and determination all season! Next was Will Hovell pulling out all the stops by smashing his season’s best to finish in sixth place – a particularly impressive feat given it is his first season as an U15. Then it was Top 20 series places for Joel Ledgard – seventeenth on both the day and the series with Aran Cooper just one place away in eighteenth. Eighteenth on the day was Josh Davies – a season’s best. Sam Plumb was thirty-second. Having contributed to team points earlier in the season, Sam along with Will, Joel and Aran, were delighted to receive ‘Team Gold Medals’ for the second consecutive year. A fantastic achievement.

Our U13G’s dug deep to deliver strong performances. Portia Nabney completed her season in thirty-first position. Our next three girls finished closely together: Georgia Sharpe (64^th), Rachel Sparrow (68^th), her best performance of the season and Jasmine Mothershaw (69^th). Our U13G’s completed the season in tenth position.

Through no fault of your own, you have struggled with numbers this season meaning a hit to team points. Nevertheless, you have delivered of your best and represented the club fantastically. Well done; we are proud of you. 

In our U13B’s team and after a season beset with illness, Kipp Stevens gave it his all to match his season’s best performance (15^th) to finish the series in overall seventeenth. Also, saving his best for last was Reece Yarnold who for the first time broke into the ‘Top 20’ in eighteenth and finished his season in twenty-third.

Perhaps the award for the ‘Most Resolute Performance of the Season’ should go to Tom Yates who ran most of the race in just one shoe. Not only that but despite being neck-a-neck in the final straight and with the advantage of being on the inside, he was unceremoniously cut across and shoved by a competitor. Not having any of it and being the tough cookie he is, Tom overtook the perpetrator to finish ahead of him in thirtieth place – his best of the season by twenty spots. Justice served.

Taking fourth spot and also with a season’s best performance was Morgan Nabney, 43^rd on the day. Our U13B’s also suffered a hit to team points because of a diminished team of just four runners. Despite this, they all finished with their season’s bests. Quite a feat and it bodes well for next season. Our U13B’s were seventh on the day and sixth overall. Well done, boys!

Not wanting to be outdone in the drama stakes, our U15G’s race saw poor Brooke Rossney sprint frantically from the starting line to the club tent for a missing race number. Despite making it back to the start in lightening time, this proved to be too unsettling and Brooke was a DNF.

In better news, Annie Silvers matched her season’s best, finishing the day in twelfth place. Lois Ford made light of the final straight to see her take twenty-fifth spot in the series. Bayleigh Stubbins finished on a high improving by twelve places on her previous best. A super way to finish! Our U15G’s finished the day and the series in eighth place. Well done!

So the season came to a close with SUAAC third on the day and fourth overall with 22 teams competing.  A reminder of how committed our athletes are to their sport and to one another. 

Running on uneven terrain in all weather conditions takes guts, focus and an iron will . It is no surprise that at each meet, our athletes claimed the race as the hardest yet but they kept coming back.

Congratulations to all our young athletes on a successful season, especially to our medal winners and debut runners. A note of thanks to our coaches for investing their time. For those of you competing for your School Counties or in the Saucony Nationals, good luck. 

Now it’s time to clean the mud off your shoes and get ready for the T&F season!