A Very Active Week.

Our U11Bs team on the start line and waiting for the off.
L to R: Simon Zawada, Ollie Hollis deep in thought!, Reuben Wheeler, Dexter Sharpe, Rafe White, also deep in thought and Lewis Cowley.
Well that was a busy and active week. The New Year has certainly got off to a flying start.

I hope you enjoyed last week’s 2024 Photo Special. For those off you who didn’t receive it due to the size of the file please let me know and I’ll try sending it to you again

Over the weekend some 60 of our members, both young and not so young, competed in their penultimate league fixtures of the season with a further 8 opting for the indoor option by competing at Loughborough.

This weekend sees 20+ senior members officiating in various guises at Saturday’s parkrun take-over. Some 60 of our young athletes will be competing to try for selection for the Warwickshire Sportshall team to compete in the West Midlands finals on 2nd February and several of our junior endurance group will be racing at Princethorpe College in the Warwickshire Schools XC race.

Good luck to you all.

Take care.

David Jones
I’ve received this lovely note from Beat the eating disorder charity, thanking us for the contribution we made following the collection at the Christmas Social Run.

Many thanks again to those who contributed
Good afternoon David,
 
I hope you are well 😊
 
I just wanted to personally reach out to thank-you for the fantastic fundraising (and raising awareness) you have been doing for Beat. We were so grateful to receive your recent donation and cannot put into words just how much this will positively impact our charity.
 
Thank-you so much for your ongoing support David – it does not go unnoticed.
 
With very best wishes,
 
Claire 😊
View this email in your browser
U13 girls. L to R: Maggie Silvers, Lucia Nicole Ogilvie-Putt, Emily Lambert, Jasmine Mothershaw and Amelie Marshall.
U17 Sam Lambert gets off to a flying start on his way to leading our U17 men to overall victory on the day.
Our U15 girls. L to R: Marijke Tear-Verweij, Georgia Sharpe, Lois Ford, Ellie Weir and Rosa Pipitone.
Some of our U11 girls. L to R: Elsie Pipatone, Matilda Hutchins, Ella-May Williams, Sara Clewer, Imogen Jolly, Marnie Short and Lara Ryan-Gill.
 

West Midlands Young Athletes Cross Country League

Match 4

Aldersley Stadium, Wolverhampton 

Sunday 12 January.

 

Report – Angela Williamson

The cold snap lifted for this fixture as warmer grey skies welcomed us to Aldersley Stadium.  

The ground frost had largely gone but conditions remained challenging, the thawing ground a clumpy mish mash of hard to soft and the long incline from the start that would need to be renegotiated on subsequent laps by the older athletes.  Suffice to say post-race feedback was not always glowing but our juniors once again did us proud and several had outstanding races.

Starting with a full team complement in the U17 Women.  Brooke Rossney 32nd/19:34 and Martha Peters 34th/19:54 coped well with the conditions and Hannah Wilkinson 45th/23:09 paced herself brilliantly, maintaining her rhythm and cadence throughout to complete an excellent team effort.  Annie Silvers, we missed you but wish you the best of luck for your exams!

Next was the short, sharp event of the U11 Boys, seemingly over in the blink of an eye, despite being the largest field of the day with 105 competitors.  Rafe White 38th/6:04 finished strongly, just ahead of Dexter Sharpe 43rd/6:08.  Next, in quick succession, were Oliver Hollis 58th/06:17, Lewis Cowley 61st/6:23, Simon Zawada 66th/6:28 and Reuben Wheeler 76th/6:39.      

There was a strong field in the U17 Men’s race.  Sam and Zak Lambert took 6th/15:20 and 9th/15:56, Zak very generously giving course feedback and encouragement to younger teammates.  Tom Fisher had a brilliant run to take an excellent 13th/16:06, followed by Will Mayes 17th/16:18, James Day 32nd/17:17 and James Mayes, who gained over 20 places from his position on the first hill to finish 34th/17:41. Our U17 men were victorious on the day, finishing in first place out of 18 teams competing in this age category and they maintained their overall lead in the season to date, some 82 points ahead of Bromsgrove and Redditch going in to the final league fixture.

Another full team and excellent race by the U11 Girls, all showing grit in the tricky conditions and getting a strong and determined start up the hill.  Elsie Pipitone 19th/6:03 was our first SuAAC athlete home, in an almost identical time to Rafe, our first finisher in the U11 Boys!  Saskia Atkins was next 35th/6:24, followed by Laura Ryan-Gill 42nd/6:28, Sara Clewer 52nd/6:42, Marnie Short 66th/6:56, Matilda Hutchings 72nd/7:03, Indigo Storm Ogilivie-Putt 77th/7:12, Imogen Jolly 83rd/7:28 and Ella-May Williams 89th /7:42.  

We had another very strong field in the U15 Boys.  The good news was that all our boys finished in the top 15, the not so good news was that we only had a team of four.  In his own words, Will Hovell led at the start but then ‘died’…it might have felt that way but he hid it well, running strongly to take an impressive 4th/10:18 behind some extremely accomplished athletes.  Joel Ledgard and Arthur Williamson showed great resilience to take 11th/10:48 and 13th/10:58, with Max Rossney completing his second outing in 59th/14:56.  

Lucia Nicole Ogilvie-Putt had an outstanding run in the U13 Girls, eating up the ground around the 2500m course to take 7th in 9:58, just ahead of Amelie Marshall in 8th/10:02. Congratulations Lucia and Amelie!  Also a top 20 finish for Maggie Silvers 18th/10:17 and good work from Jasmine Mothershaw 52nd/11:00 and Emily Lambert 57th/11:07.

Tom Yates ran strongly in the U13 Boys, finishing well up the order in a large and strong field 32nd/9:40.  There followed the “battle of the Tobys”, which resulted in excellent performances by both boys.  Toby Wilkinson got off to a quicker start but was caught on the uphill of the second lap by Toby Ledgard, and they remained close all the way into the finishing straight.  Toby Ledgard produced a sprint finish with a few metres to go, but Toby Wilkinson found just enough to hold on to take 47th/10:16, with Toby Ledgard in 48th/10:18.  Well done to both athletes for giving it their all and producing such an exciting race to watch and cheer on!  

Closing out were the U15 Girls.  Marijke Tear-Verweij appeared to glide effortlessly up the incline on both laps and finished an excellent 6th in 11:56. Lois Ford, 29th/13:24, ran well and finished strongly, opening up in the downhill closing stages to gain a position and top 30 finish.  There followed some great work by Elle Weir 39th/13:47 and then another thrilling race to the finish, this time for Rosa Pipitone 59th/15:12, on her debut, and Georgia Sharpe 60th/15:13.  According to Rosa, “the feeling afterwards was absolutely amazing, when’s the next race?!”.  Congratulations Rosa, and what a great note to end on, see you next time! 

Overall Top 5 (out of 21) Team Standings

1 Rugby & Northampton AC 

2 Wolverhampton & Bilston AC 

3 RSCAC

4 Birchfield Harriers 

5 Stratford upon Avon AC

Overall 8 athletes in top 10 Individual Standings going into final Match:

U17 Men: Sam Lambert (2nd), Zak Lambert (5th)

U11 Girls: Elsie Pipitone (10th)

U15 Boys: Will Hovell (3rd), Joel Ledgard (5th), Arthur Williamson (9th)

U13 Girls:  Amelie Marshall (9th)

U15 Girls: Marijke Tear-Verweij (5th)

Ruby Edwards in full flight.

Loughborough Indoor Open.

Saturday 11th & Sunday 12th January.
 

Report – Paul Bearman

Winter training is a slog and as such I like athletes to break the winter slog up with competitions to enjoy the thrill of competing again or for the first time and to try to ensure athletes have an eye on the qualifying standards for the imminent EA indoor Championships. I also see indoor competitions as a benchmark for how the winter training is going whilst continuing to build up the strength and conditioning base for the summer .

Arthur Mansbridge has just moved up to the U17s and he has literally been chasing the EA qualifying time for the 60m of 7.50s. Despite 2 personal best runs of 7.57s and then 7.53s he fell agonisingly short by .03s, a mere blink of the eye and Arthur said afterwards “I’m disappointed but happy about the 2 PBs”. Hopefully another run in Cardiff next week will get Arthur the elusive qualifying time before the closing date.

In his first  indoor competition as an U17, Harry Cutler entered the 60m and ran a personal best of 7.74s which gives him a good benchmark going forward.

Ethan Winning and Toby Thomas went to the competition with the focus of running the EA champs qualifying time of 9.10s for the U17 60m hurdles and they both duly did just that.

In both of Ethan’s races he was relatively slow out of the blocks but his pick up over flights 2 to 5 was good and he ran the qualifying time and PBs in both races of 8.87s and then 8.84s. Ethan reflected afterwards “I’m pleased with my 2 runs and 2 PBs and just need to work on my starts for the champs”.

Toby flew out of his blocks in his first race and cleared the first hurdle well but his over exuberance changed his rhythm and stride pattern and after clattering the 2nd hurdle his race was over. After watching the video of the race we had a few texts back and forth about not overthinking and overtrying and keeping his normal rhythm like in training and Toby ran a better and controlled 2nd race and ran 8.95s. Toby said afterwards ” I slowed it down for the start and first couple of hurdles and then tried to pick it up a bit for the last few, but got the qualifying time for the England champs so I’m happy” 👍🏽

Ruby Edwards competed in her first indoor competition of the season in the Long and Triple Jump with very little jumping possible in training due to the frozen pits and so expectations were limited. She said “after going through the winters training and it was a good opportunity to test myself and although I didn’t manage any PBs my jumps were consistent. I now know what I need to work on moving towards outdoor training and Spring/ Summer competitions”.

Similarly with limited training in the pits dues to the adverse weather, Lila Gallinagh competed for the first time as an U15 in the Long Jump and jumped a seasons best of 4.31m and U13 Martha Edwards also jumped a seasons best of 3.69.

Paula Williams, our sole senior representative, competed in 3 events. She was disappointed with her 60m hurdles time of 10.05 but reasonably pleased with both her 60m (8.46) and shot put where she won her heat with a throw of 13.43. Paula is now preparing to compete at Sheffield in a couple of weeks time.

The juniors used to be able to use Sportshall athletics to break up the winter but unfortunately the Warwickshire Sportshall league folded during Covid. However, working with our close colleagues at Rugby & Northampton AC we are running trials this weekend with 60 of our young athletes competing to try for selection for the Warwickshire team to compete in the West Midlands finals on 2nd February.

Top 10 finishers.
Top to bottom : Georgie Campbell (6th senior), Donna Allen (8th master) and Abbi Cooper (8th junior)

Midlands Cross Country League Race 3

Warley Woods

Saturday 11 January 2025

Report – Becks Pridham

A much depleted ladies cross country team due to injuries and other commitments meant that it was the brave (possibly foolhardy) who tackled the sub zero temperatures on Saturday.

Stratford was covered in a freezing fog but Birmingham was sunny, which definitely raised the spirits of the runners.

I think of Warley Woods as ‘running around a large bowl’ as it is a spectators delight and runners can be seen pretty much most of the time (no walking!!). Even in the woodland bit, Nick Campbell was there with the camera ready to spot anyone who needed a breather!

Of the age groups, Stratford had representation in all three, with Georgie Campbell 6th in the senior category (26:39), Donna Allen 8th in the masters category (30:13) and Abbi Cooper 8th in the junior category (30:28).

Bronwen Mansel is having a great season with the second senior home in 33:14 and finishing in 71stplace. Emma Vickers has been strict on her training and also finished in brilliant form in 105th (36:32). Beth Swain enjoyed her first run back this season finishing strong in 38:01. A battle between Tilly Campbell and Suzi Graham to the finish line saw the young legs of Tilly finish triumphant coming home in 40:07, with Suzi only 7 seconds behind her. 

I  found it a tough course finishing in 42:31 and even dared not to smile sometimes, although the photos from Nick Campbell suggest otherwise! Sue Mothershaw finished in 45:39 to loud cheers. She finished with a few bruises after taking a tumble in the woodland part of the course.

A fine performance all round and we all finished in one piece with a full team!

We few, we happy few, we Band of Brothers.
Stratford’s finest.

Birmingham & District Invitation Cross Country League

2024-2025 Season Race 3

11/01/2025 

Top Barn, Worcester.


Report – Malcolm Bowyer

Nine Stratford runners braved the wintery conditions to compete in this the penultimate fixture of the league season. The course was four fairly flat laps but the cold conditions made it very slippery under foot, especially at the finishing funnel where unfortunately a few runners lost their footing sprinting over the Finish line. 

There were a total of 215 runners. First runner back was Ian Allen [Spa Striders] in a time of 30.45.

Ned Campbell who led his Stratford team mates over the four laps finished in 28th place in a time of 33.52. 

The next three Stratford runners were chasing Ned down over the four laps. Henry Wheeler 34.39. Sam Wilks, 34.53 and Tom Southall, 34.55 all raced to the finish line neck and neck in 44th, 45th and 46th place. Henry ran magnificently to finish as 2nd junior on the day just 11 seconds off the first placed junior

James Lake, 35.04 in 52nd place is now truly part of the team and ran a solid race over the four laps, picking off several runners on the last lap.

Huw Crossweller 36.16 in 76th place is also a valuable member of the team and he finished very strongly to make up the six runners in our A team.

Unfortunately we didn’t have enough runners to make up the six required for a B team, but the final three Stratford runners were determined to do their club proud. 

Mike Sheppard 39.37 in 134th place never misses a race and once again he showed his usual fighting spirit running a strong race. Wayne Vickers 40.46 in 156th place is a veteran of many cross country seasons and was his usual reliable self, overtaking runners on the last two laps. 

It was nice to have a new Stratford runner making his debut, Jack Miness 48.17 in 204th place. He ran a very sensible race, working his way up the field over the four laps.

The A team were 8th out of 14 teams in the league with everything to race for in the final race of the season at Wolverhampton next month, where we will be joined by the women’s team who will be competing in their final fixture of this season’s Midland Women’s League Division 1.

Okay, maybe that wasn’t too bad.
Runners at the end of the race, held, as you can see, in somewhat murky conditions
January Shakespeare Race

Wednesday 15th January.

Report – David Jones

The first of this year’s Shakespeare Races took place on a somewhat murky night and with conditions decidedly slippy underfoot.

68 senior members completed the course of just over 6 miles, running through the streets of both Stratford and Shottery for this the traditional season’s opener.

Finishing in 1st place was Jamie Hall in a time of 33.50, giving him a 2 minute cushion over the 2nd placed runner Seb Wolsoncroft-Dodds (35.48). Seb was 8 seconds ahead of 3rd placed Richard Liggatt (35.56) with the ever improving James Lake (35.59) a mere 3 seconds further back in 4th place.

First lady finisher was the ageless Kate Wright (40.17) in 11th place overall. Kate was some 3 1/2 minutes ahead of the 2nd placed lady Bronwen Mansel (18th – 44.40). The 3rd placed lady was Santa Pavlika ( 20th – 45.33).

Many thanks to all of the marshals who had to stand out in some pretty miserable weather conditions.

For the full set of provisional results please follow the link below.

https://www.racetecresults.com/results.aspx?CId=16418&RId=3136&EId=1&dt=0&PageNo=2