John Boxall and Paula Williams at the England Masters AA Indoors Inter Area T&F Challenge
Pride of place this week goes to Paula Williams who broke her own British Indoor record for the shot put when she, along with our own John Boxall helped Midland Masters to a clean sweep at the Inter Area Masters Challenge at Lee Vally last weekend.
There’s a plug for Track and Field following Selby Dickinson’s enthusiastic item a couple of week’s ago, an item that he tells me resulted in enquiries from several members who are keen to give it a go.
There are photos from last weekend’s Keely Klassic, showing our members mixing with the great and the good of our sport plus a photo showing our excellent coverage in this week’s Stratford Herald.
We have a report on the final men’s league XC race of the season.
Catherine Reynolds was in fine form last weekend at the British Universities and Colleges Indoor Championships (BUCS) where she ran an indoor 800m PB to qualify as just one of 6 athletes for the final of that event.
Last Sunday saw the final race of this season’s Winter Series with Andy Lawrence victorious in both that race and over the season as a whole. In the absence of a race report, there is a brief summary.
Good luck to those of our Vets who are competing at this weekend’s British Masters Championships at Lee Valley in London and also to those competing at the National Cross Country Championships, also in London. I’m aware of one member who is planning on competing in both !
The Masters AA Indoors Inter Area T&F Challenge is an annual competition of Masters Athletes comprising of teams from Eastern Masters, Southern Counties, Veterans AC, Welsh Masters, Northern and North East Masters, South West, Northern Ireland and Midland Masters held at Lee Valley Stadium in London.
This year two of our club members, John Boxall and Paula Williams, were selected as part of the Midland Masters’ team, both of who were proud to wear the Midlands Masters Athletics Clubs vests.
The day started for Paula with the W50 shot put and W50 hurdles, unfortunately both were held at the same time ! She managed to get an average throw in the shot before dashing off to hurdle.
Paula’s result was, by her standards, a disappointing 3rd place before she rushed back to the shot for her 3rd round throw which was an improvement
Her 4th round and final throw was a new indoor PB and British record. It was originally measured at 14m but then re-measured with a steel tape as 13.98m, so just shy of 14m, a distance she will hopefully break before too long, maybe at this weekend’s British Masters Indoor Championships.
She then had a nice gap in her programme to refuel and take some photos before getting ready for the sprint, where she managed 1st place in the 60m with a time of 8.52 seconds.
John Boxall then arrived for his high jump. After not having high jumped since last summer he steadily cleared the heights and finished in a superb 2nd place in the M60, clearing 1.38m. John was really pleased with a performance that gave him an age group PB and was the highest he has jumped since 2018.
Paula’’s final event was the 3rd leg of the W50 4x200m relay where she helped the team come in 4th for some more valuable points.
Midland Masters’ were placed first in the men’s category with a score of 289 points against their nearest rival Eastern Masters tally of 277.5. In the ladies events they again finished in 1st place with 273 points v Eastern’s 254. This meant that they also won the combined event with 562 points against Eastern Masters’ 531.5.
Needless to say both Paul and John were both delighted to have been able to contribute to the triple title win for the Midlands. They also saw it as a great warm up for this coming weekend’s British Masters Indoor Track and Field Championships at the same venue.
Track and Field
Following Selby Dickinson’s enthusiastic report on his indoor racing debut at Sheffield a few weeks ago, he tells me that several members have said to him that they would like to give it a go.
Sadly there are a shortage of indoor venues with just the England Institute of Sport in Sheffield, Manchester, Glasgow, Newham, Eltham/Sutcliffe, Cardiff, Lee Valley in London and Loughborough. Loughborough is only 60m and 60m hurdles races and indoor field events.
Because of this Indoor meets are few and far between..
However there are lots of outdoor T&F events that members of all age groups can compete in, many are held at Pingles in Nuneaton.
I’m 100% biased but I think they are just the most fun ever and no hills or mud!
What’s not to like ?
Okay maybe a bit of wind and rain at times.
If you haven’t tried T&F or if you have but want to experience more meetings please try the links below. You are almost certain to see other of our club members among the entrants
The Rugby Easter Opener is currently only open to our club members and Rugby & Northampton members. It may ask you for a code to enter, if so ignore and just press submit.
Danny and Keely at the Tolhurst Classic….. whoops I meant the Keely Klassic
An easy mistake to make
So Danny any coaching tips you can pass on following your long involvement with the awesome juniors at SuAAC ?
Certainly Keely but I must warn you I’m not cheap.
Long time club member, coach and England Athletics employee Danny Tolhurst chewing the fat with Keely Hodgkinson at last weekend’s Keely Klassic.
Male Cross Country runner of the year Ned Campbell who was first home for the club at Aldersely.
Birmingham League Cross Country
Aldersley Wood. Wolverhampton.
Report – Malcolm Bowyer
The last Stratford men’s cross country league fixture of this season was held at Aldersley near Wolverhampton.
The course was fairly flat, over three laps, with plenty of sharp turns and also included running along a disused railway line.
There were 219 runners taking part with the winner being Ian Allen of Spa Striders in a time of 33.16.
Stratford had an excellent turnout with 12 runners, which allowed us to have two competing teams.
Ned Campbell , who has had an excellent season, finished 27th place in 36.42. He lead Stratford over the whole race. Ned was closely followed by Sam Wilks in 41st place in 37.52. These two runners have battled each other over the whole season.
Both James Lake 43rd in 38.02 and Henry Wheeler 55th in 38.48, who kept together over the three laps have been a great asset to Stratford this season and hopefully for our next season as well.
The ever reliable Huw Crossweller ran a strong race finishing 85th in 40.09 finishing up as the 6th Stratford runner to make up the A team.
Sam Mercer in 99th place in a time of 40.45 has always been a strong part of the team and he was first to finish for the B team. David Teasdale in 104th and in a time of 40.54 gave his all over the three laps to try and catch his team mate .
Stuart Lawrence George in 140th in 43.36 has improved throughout the whole season working hard to finish for the B team. Mr Cross Country Tim Hutchinson finished in 43.57 in 145 place fought his way round the course picking off the opposition.
The last two runners finishing for the B team were Mike Sheppard who never misses a race, finishing in 150th in a time of 44.27 and Nick Campbell in 179th place in 45.21 who tried his best to catch Mike. They helped make sure that Stratford stay in Division 2.
The A team finished 7th out of 14 teams and the B team finished 9th out of 11 teams.
Our men’s cross country team did the club proud to finish mid table and I look forward to the next 2025/2026 season.
Official results for both the men’s and ladies’ XC
British Universities and Colleges Indoor Championships (BUCS)
PB for Catherine
Report – Mark Reynolds
Catherine Reynolds was in action last weekend at the BUCS indoor championships at Sheffield in the womens 400m.
Having qualified for the final last year she was faced with a very strong field including several athletes with international representation – as is often the case with BUCS.
After comfortably making it through the heats, the semifinals were particularly challenging with only six places available in the final from the four semi-final races. However, Catherine managed to record a new indoor PB of 55.96 to make it through, a time that places her 12th in the current UK U23 rankings.
The final was run only a couple of hours later and at the halfway point she was well in the mix in a tight race although eventually finishing a very close 6th in what was a high-quality and closely contested race.
With another short turnaround she was then running 2nd leg in her University’s 4x200m team in the relay final.
Catherine races again this Saturday at the NIA having qualified for the UK championships.
Winter Series
Race 5
Andy Lawrence, the overall series winner and Sunday’s race winner.
Winter Series
Race 5 – Season Finale
Last Sunday saw the final race of this season’s Winter Series with some 329 runners completing the race, 37 from SuAAC.
The overall race winner was our very own Andy Lawrence in a time of 37:02. In 8th place was Seb Woolsencroft-Dodds in 39:27 and completing our top 10 finishers, in 10th place, was Drew Sambridge (41:07).
Out first lady finisher was Eloise du Luart, who was 2nd overall lady to finish in 12th place with a time of 41:48.
Top 3 category results for the whole series show the following club members:
Senior Male – Andy Lawrence – 1st
Senior Lady – Donna Allen – 2nd
M35 Male – Drew Sambridge – 2nd
M45 Male – Ade Mason – 1st
M55 Male – Keith Jewett – 2nd
F55 Female – Clare Goodwin – 3rd
The Stratford upon Avon Herald
There is excellent coverage in this week’s Herald on both the final West Midland Young Athlete’s Cross Country League fixture of the season and Paula Williams and John Boxall at the Inter Area challenge in London
More from the Keely Klassic
Sue and Jasmine Mothershaw with Dame Denise Lewis and Colin Jackson
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