10 gold, 15 silver, 17 bronze. Blimey.

The Warwickshire County Championships 2025

Report – Paul Bearman

On what was a beautiful sunny and warm weekend the Warwickshire County Championships, which is very early into the Track & Field season, 105 Stratford upon Avon AC athletes, across the age groups but mostly juniors, descended on the Pingles Track in Nuneaton to pit their skills against the other clubs within the old Warwickshire County boundary. This included the “big gun “ clubs from Birchfield, BRAT, Rugby & Northampton and the resurgent Solihull & Small Heath.

It’s very noticeable in the last couple of years that these “big guns” are now taking the County Champs more seriously and they, like Stratford, are swamping the Champs with athletes, which makes the event highly competitive and making a final and getting on the podium even more of a challenge. 

However, a very impressive haul of 42 medals, 10 Gold, 15 silver and 17 bronze medals saw a steady flow of Stratford’s athletes standing on the podium to receive their medals but as always it was the 4^th to 8^th positions for athletes reaching the finals that will massively help the club’s total points.

The team scores are still being worked out by Warwickshire AA and with the anticipated higher level of competition we were hopeful of a top 3 place but at this point we have no idea how the club faired in the  Warwick Vase for the best total of points scored by a club. However, what we do know is that after a tremendous across the board effort by everyone and with the track swamped over the 2 days by Stratford’s bright yellow vests, we are still keeping our fingers crossed to be in the mix for a top 3 place.

What is satisfying from a club point of view is that all the Stratford medallists and finalists were spread right across the age groups and events; sprints, middle distance, jumps and throws. This meant that there was a constant stream of athletes competing in all parts of the track virtually non-stop over the 2 days with the throwers, hurdles and jumps groups, who don’t always get the limelight, providing a continual source of point scoring and medal winning performances

Medallists

7 Hurdlers (Short & Long)

3 Sprinters (200 & 400m)

9 Middle (Distance (880 & 1500m)

11 Throwers (Discus, Shot & Javelin)

12 Jumpers (High, Long & Triple)

From a coaching perspective what gives us a sense of pride in what is evident is that we still have a group of highly committed athletes across the age range who ran, jumped and threw to the absolute best of their ability and wore the yellow vest with a huge amount of pride and passion and we can’t ask any more than that.

The evidence of this is that within the performances of the 193 eligible events our athletes contested i.e. not including the under 11s, a staggering 134 were Personal Bests and another 27 were Seasons Bests!! A great testament to all the athletes efforts and thanks to the coaching teams across the age groups. 

The Under 11s, our new generation of young athletes, Elizabeth Atkins, Nell Wheeler, Florence Castle, Megan White, Ella-May Williams, Quinn Lancaster, Indigo Ogilvie-Putt, Saskia Atkins. Florence Andrews,
Simon Zawada, Rafe White, Henry Yates, Oliver Marriott, Jacob Thomas, Henry Cotton, Bertie Hovell and Luca Armstrong competed in the Quadrathlon, a multi-event competition comprising of 75m, 600m, Howler throw and Long Jump. 

They all performed well and most importantly had fun and enjoyed the experience in what was their first time at such an event with Henry Yates coming out on top and winning the boys event.

There were many good individual performances in the championships, although it is the contribution from all the athletes, coaches and officials that makes the champs such a great event and occasion.

Full results can be found on

https://www.thepowerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=699303 
 

BMAF Throws Pentathlon, Open Event and 1 mile & 10000m Championships.

Report – David Jones
 

Just over a week after returning from GB duty in Albania, Paula Williams competed in her first ever Throws Pentathlon at a blustery Horspath track in Oxford.

Paula was there with two other members who made the trip to Albania, Phil Brennan and myself, alongside Elaine Ledden, who was making her return to competitive sprinting after a lengthy period of injury

A Throws Pentathlon consists of shot, discus, javelin, hammer and weight, the last two of which are pretty alien to Paula.

She finished as first W50 with a points tally of 3075, a tally which puts her comfortably on top of the current UK rankings in her age category. The leader, before this competitIon, was Sarah Hewitt from Brighton and Hove on 2636 points. Hewitt also topped the rankings last year with 2666 points.

Paula’s performances on Saturday were:

Shot 12.79 metres 827 pts

Discus 23.89m      480pts

Javelin 32.47m      688pts

Hammer 27.73m   455pts

Weight 12.09m      625 pts

Elaine Ledden (W65), making her comeback in the 100m had, by her own admission, a slowish start out of the blocks but then worked her way through the pack, showing good form and only being beaten by a relatively young W55 by just 0.04 of a second, beating a couple of W60s in the process. This performance earned her a W65 gold medal. Well done and welcome back Elaine.

Phil Brennan picked up a silver medal in his mile race, only being beaten by current World number 1 Peter Giles. Giles’ time of 6:55.22 places him at number 2 on the all-time list for his M80 age category with Phil’s time placing him 2nd in this year’s UK rankings behind Giles.

I ran my first 10000m track race for over 6 years and it was tough, very tough. There was a pretty brutal headwind on the final bend, which is hard enough if you have to run it a couple of times in an 800m race but to do it 25 times takes its toll.

It’s a bit disconcerting when you are struggling to complete the 18th lap and an official calls out to say you’ve got 7 to go. Even more disconcerting when, with 2 laps to go, the official tells you you’ve got 3 to go. I corrected her !

I was pleased to win the gold medal but a bit disappointed with my time of 52:01.93. I’d hoped to get closer to the 50 minute mark.

Birmingham University Track and Field Series.

Report – David Jones

It was an extremely successful night for the four of our club members who competed in the latest of these meetings on Wednesday night. All 4 ran in the 1500m races.

Georgie Campbell, fresh from he recent success in the Birmingham half marathon and her multi event contribution to our Midland League T&F team in Banbury the previous weekend, ran her quickest 1500m race for almost exactly 2 years. Her time of 4:38.73 saw her finish as 4th senior woman on the night and was just 5 seconds off her PB achieved in 2023.

For the Lambert brothers it was yet another successful night. Zak (U20) who finished 3rd quickest in his age category, showed remarkable consistency by equalling almost exactly his PB time in the 1500m at Banbury 10 days previous. His time at Banbury was 4:04.40, itself a 7 second PB. His time on Wednesday of 4:04.70 was just 0.30 of a second off that PB time.

Younger brother Sam (U17) recorded a time of 4:10.7 at Banbury. At this meet he absolutely destroyed that time, running a sub 4 minute 3:59.12, to record yet another PB. This time puts him in 6th place in the current U17 UK rankings but more interestingly he is placed 1st in the Year 1s in this category.

The ever improving Dougie Garnett was the 3rd of our members to record a 1500m PB on the night. His time of 4:10.26 lowered his previous best time by a meaningful 6 seconds.

All in all an excellent night for our Fab Four.