The lead story this week is about the success of our 41 U11,13 and 15 juniors’ who, along with our partners at Rugby & Northampton AC, provided the lion’s share of the Warwickshire team that performed superbly in the West Midlands Regional Sportshall finals held in Solihull.
We had 20 members competing at Warwick last Sunday. 19 running the half marathon and U11 Marnie Short finishing in a superb 4th place overall out of 96 finishers in the 1k Junior Run Through. Marnie’s time of 3.45 ensured that she was the first girl to finish, some 5 seconds ahead of the 2nd placed girl.
Finally, on a somewhat chilly Wednesday night at the Stratford Track, 68 members’ completed the Annual Shakespeare Track Mile. Finishing in 1st place in the hugely impressive time of 5:04 was Seb Woolsoncroft-Dodds. The first lady finisher was Bronwen Mansel in 13th place overall with a time of 6:07.
Good luck to all of our cross country teams who are competing at the weekend.
Team managers Carolyne Johnston, Danny Tolhurst, Paul Bearman and Lucy Edwards.
They’re not just pretty faces!
Under 11, 13 and 15 West Midlands Regional Sportshall finals
Report – Paul Bearman
Indoor Sportshall athletics combines speed and a tremendous amount of variable skill sets that require athleticism and control in the various races and especially in field events. It creates a great atmosphere within a relatively confined space of a conventional Sportshall with races run at a frenetic speed.
Stratford and our partners at Rugby & Northampton AC, combined trials to select a team to put a Warwickshire team together that resulted in 41 Stratford AC U11, U13 and U15 athletes providing the lion’s share of the Warwickshire team that performed superbly in the finals, held in Solihull against county teams from Birmingham and resurgent teams from Shropshire and Hereford & Worcestershire.
Every year all the age groups are very competitive and this made the discrete age group competitions tight throughout and individual medals hard to come by.
Traditionally the huge catchment area of Birmingham dominates the regional competition, and they did so again this year winning all 6 of the age/gender groups.
The U11 competition is based around the whole teams scoring in the various events and the girls team that included, Elsa Scott, Lara Ryan-Gill, Megan White, Elsie Pipitone, Indigo Ogilvie-Putt, Poppy West, Sara Clewer, Saskia Atkins and Matilda Hutchings were 3rd in their respective age group with Reese Ridgway from R&N and Lara, Tilly and Elsie winning a fast and furious 4×2 lap relay.
The boys team included Tobias Freeman, Casper Willis, Dexter Sharpe, Simon Zawada, Thomas Webb and Oliver Marriott and were a very close second missing out on the top spot by just 4 points.
Tobias was at the hub of the teams successes winning the Standing Long Jump and then combining with Casper to win the 2+2 lap relay and Casper and Thomas the 4 x 1 lap relay with Emeka Okwara (R&N) and again with Casper winning the 4 x 2 lap relay with (Emeka Okwara and Bruno Houltby R&N).
The old adage of every point counting from everyone is very important in Sportshall and the U11 competition is primarily team based unlike the U13s where individual performances are also recognised.
The girls team were also second and included Emily White,
Maggie Silvers, Lucia Ogilvie-Putt, Lottie Willis, Lila Gallinagh and Isabella Marriott. Lila won the standing Triple Jump with a huge hop, step and jump of 7.0m and she combined with, Emily, Lottie and Isabella in the 4 x Obstacle relay in what is renowned as a tricky race with plenty of scope for errors and penalties, but they sailed through it to win.
The U13 boys team of Carter McKenzie, Charlie Castle, Douglas Van Der Walt, George Stacey Harper, Henry Stacey Harper, Laurence Hovell, Toby Ledgard, Toby Wilkinson and Billy Sheppard and they finished second.
Carter had a good day winning the Speed Bounce and then combining with Joe Walden (R&N) to win the gruelling 8 lap Paarlauf. Billy, Charlie, George and Toby Wilkinson emulated the U13 girls winning the 4 x 1 Obstacle relay.
The U15s event is a combination of all the team having to do a run, throw and jump and relays to find the individual All Rounder champion and then the combined scores are collated to give the overall team score.
The girls team came up against a powerful Birmingham team and were kept on their toes throughout by our girls who finished 2nd. The team was made up of four Stratford athletes Niamh Williams, Ava Sheppard, Tahlia Jones and Amelia Peeke who with Ava won the Speed Bounce.
The U15 boys team of Olisa Odiamma Mckenzie, Harry Cutler, Jasper Cooper, Sam Plumb, Arthur Mansbridge and Will Hovell who finished 3rd in the individual competition, pushed Birmingham all the way and finished 2nd but only by a meagre 7 points.
Arthur won the Speed Bounce and he teamed up with Harry, Jasper and Olisa and won probably the race of the day in the 4 x 2 lap relay from Birmingham.
Team Manager Carolyne Johnston said afterwards “everyone did a grand job especially with such little preparation. Most of the team had never done a regional competition representing their county before so we really did throw our athletes in at the deep end and they were all amazing, working well as a team with Rugby”.
Kate Wright
Our first lady finisher in 1:27.38. Kate was the 10th overall lady to finish and was 20 minutes ahead of her nearest rival in her W60 age category.
Warwick Half Marathon and 1k kids childrens’ race
Sunday 2nd February
Report – David Jones
A field of some 2360 runners completed this half marathon, a race that took in spectacular and scenic views of the Warwickshire countryside. This undulating race took place on fully closed roads and so was suitable for runners of all abilities.
The stunning views, buzzing atmosphere and enthusiastic local support kept runners motivated every step of the way and with the final 2km slightly downhill, they were able to enjoy a strong finish.
The race was won by Jonathan Davies from Reading AC who completed the course in 1:07.05, 34 seconds ahead of the second placed runner, Ian Allen from Spa Striders. The first lady finisher was Natasha White from Northbrook, who finished in 47th place overall with a time of 1:19.45.
In the 1k Junior Run Through, our very own U11 Marnie Short finished in a superb 4th place overall out of 96 finishers. Marnie’s time of 3.45 ensured that she was the first girl to finish, some 5 seconds ahead of the 2nd placed girl.
In the half marathon 19 SuAAC members are listed in the official results as finishers. First to finish for the club was Andy Lawrence in 5th place overall. His PB time of 1:09.21 was 84 seconds quicker than his previous best time achieved in this race last year.
2nd to finish for the club and 2nd in his V45 age category was Matt Burdus-Cook who finished in 43rd net position. Adrian Mason (1:26.41) was next to finish for the club.
Our first lady finisher was Kate Wright (1:27.38). Kate was 10th overall lady finisher, finishing 20 minutes ahead of her nearest rival in the W60 age category. Kate was followed by Ian Stevens (1:29.29) and serial half marathon runner James Coy (1:33.35). Next to finish in a PB time of 1:33.49 was Ted Burch. This was a 4 minute improvement on his previous best time achieved in the Stratford half last year.
Our next 3 runners to finish were Nigel Chidgey (1:46.20), Graham Hill (1:46.43) and our second lady finisher Kim Lee (1:50.16). Andrew Madden’s PB time of 1:49.16 was 42 seconds quicker than his previous best time achieved in 2019.
It was a case of another week another race for the indefatigable Susan Hunt, comfortably getting under the 2 hour mark with a time of 1:56.49. How were the cakes Susan ?
Rachel Fielden, in what looks like her first half marathon, just dipped under the 2 hour mark with a time of 1:59.58. Also dipping under 2 hours was our partially sighted runner James Morrison (1:59.40).
Kath Pester and Lisa Stevens recorded huge PBs with Kath’s time of 2:07.38 being over 11 minute quicker than her time at Milton Keynes last March and Lisa (2:07.43) was almost 14 minutes quicker than her time in the Worcester Half last year. That’s over a minute a mile improvement. Jane Fradgley (2:32.21) was next to finish for the club followed by Angela Mclean (2:40.47) who was 7th in her age category.
The Shakespeare Track Mile
The élite heat ready for the off.
Wednesday night saw the annual Shakespeare Track Mile take place at the Stratford School Track.
68 members completed the race on a pretty cold night, cold enough to make the track somewhat slippy due to a light frost. Mercifully there was no wind, quite unusual at the track methinks.
The race was won by Seb Woolsoncroft-Dodds in an extremely speedy 5:04, 9 seconds ahead of the second placed runner Richard Liggatt (5:13).
The next 3 runners’ recorded identical times of 5:26, with James Lake just taking 3rd place as a reward for his blistering last lap of 1:15. James just edged out Richard Gubby (4th) and Sam Mercer (5th).
The first lady finisher was Bronwen Mansel in 13th place overall with a time of 6:07. Second placed lady was Santa Pavlika (17th – 6:14) just a second behind Santa was 3rd placed lady and new member Lily Holbrook (18th – 6:15).
Race organiser Simon Penson said it all when he posted on Spond “Just a quick note to say thank you to all who helped make this evening’s races a success – to Hannah and MJ for managing the money, Kath, Pete and Gary for keeping the show rolling, and of course huge thanks to Sarah B for timing and making it all work. Also thanks to all who took part”
He just omitted the one person. Himself!. Many thanks Simon for making it run so smoothly.
Apologies for the dodgy photos. Where’s Max’s drone when you need it ? Oh he was running. Silly me.
For the full set of results please follow the link below:
Seb Woolsoncroft-Dodds about to cross the finish line in a race winning 5:04.
Heat 7 ready for the off. Fingers on the buttons.
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