The Cup Final beckons.

Written by David Jones on 14/08/2025. Posted in News

Some team members and volunteer officials at our Vets team’s last league fixture of the season.

A pretty quiet week.

There are the results from last Wednesday’s final fixture of the Midland Vets T&F League with the club once again qualifying for the ‘A’ Cup Final at Pingles Stadium on 7th September. There is also an appeal from team manager Hannah Osborne for much needed officials on the day.

There are also the results of Wednesday night’s August Shakespeare race accompanied by some lovely photos.

We have another reminder of the upcoming club championships, alongside a few photos from last year as a reminder of what a truly wonderful event it is for all members, juniors and seniors. There are also details of how to enter. Don’t leave it too late.

Finally, the current age group categories in which young athletes compete are to be revised from 1 April 2026 and there are details of these changes, primarily for parents of junior members.

Good luck to those members who will be competing in the Summer 6 on Friday. It’s going to be warm !

Take care.

David Jones.

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The Midland Vets T&F League

The final fixture and a season overview

After narrowing the gap between ourselves and Worcester at the last fixture to a mere 7 points, Worcester pulled out all of the stops at last Wednesday’s fixture to win by a margin of 47 points. Our ladies were comfortably in second place but sadly our men slipped to 3rd place, being beaten by the resurgent Bromsgrove and Redditch team at their home track.

The results for the season as a whole show once again Worcester triumphing with a combined women and men’s score of 1084 points. We, however retained our second place position on 937.5 points, a margin of 176 points over 3rd paces B&R.

Our ladies finished the season in overall 2nd place, just 68 points behind Worcester but some 180 points ahead of 3rd place B&R.

Unfortunately our men dropped to 3rd place for the season, being pipped by B&R by just 5 points out of a combined total for both men’s teams of over 900 points. Sadly a lack of male middle distance runners didn’t help.

On a more positive note, our overall 2nd place finish means that the club have once again qualified to contest the ‘A’ Cup Final on 7th September at Pingles Stadium.

Once again we were indebted to our volunteer officials for their support and effort throughout the league season. Without them we would not have been able to submit teams.

For the results of the last league meeting, together with cumulative points totals for the season as a whole, please follow the link below

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15SLB8RcROROtzF5Blb5QM6qh_VOI6F44/edit?gid=1571152353#gid=1571152353

On the subject of officials

Team manager Hannah Osborne, who once again managed the team superbly throughout the season, has made the following appeal :

We urgently need officials for the Cup Final. I have contacted our usual officials but many of them are away. I have submitted to the organisers who we have that are available but we urgently need more to enable us to compete on the day. Even if you can only do half a day, please get in touch with me.

vicechair@suaac.co.uk

Thank you.

August Shakespeare Race

And they’re off in idyllic surroundings and led by Richard Liggatt, the eventual race winner.

Queen of the sefies Hannah Osborne with competitors in the background.

I did say idyllic.

August Shakespeare Race

In somewhat warm conditions – understatement – 48 senior members’ completed this month’s Shakespeare Race based at Richard and Anne Dobedoe’s farm at Loxley

The race was won by Richards Liggatt in 33:50. The other top 3 finishers being Seth Turner 2nd in 35:24, followed by Kieran Tursner, just 10 seconds further back, with a time of 35:34. First lady, in a superb 5th place overall, was Kate Wright (36:21). Kate was also first V60 of either gender. She was followed by Alexandra Brooks (17th – 41:56) and just one place further back was Beth Pearson (18th – 42:14)

Foe the full set of results please follow the link below:

https://www.racetecresults.com/results.aspx?CId=16418&RId=3136&EId=9

This is an event open to all members of the club, both juniors and seniors. As there isn’t a great deal to report on this week I’ve taken the opportunity to include a few photos from last year’s Championships as a reminder of what a really superb event it is, an event that has the potential to bring the whole club together for what have, traditionally been, truly memorable days

A gathering of some of the 200+ competitors who took part in last year’s championships, alongside some of the officials who made the event run smoothly.

Martha Edwards entering in to the spirit of things.

A rogues gallery. Ready for the start of the 1500m

And representing the seniors, Pip Bell and Lisa Lambourn competing in the 5000m Shakespeare Race at last year’s Club Champs.

The Club Championships is licensed by UKA and led by our volunteer trained officials, supported by the club coaches and parents, which means results can be submitted to the Power of10 where the results will be posted.

The Championship is run on a Multi Event basis i.e.to be included in the Club Championship competition, athletes need to compete in 2 events i.e. 1 Track and 1 Field.

Senior competitors i.e. Under 20 plus can compete in as many events as they wish, however,

2 events must be 1 Track and 1 Field to be scored for the championship.

We are pleased to be running the 5000m which is a race that will be included in the Shakespeare Race Series.

Junior competitors – Under 11, 13, 15 & 17 can compete in a maximum of 4 events. Under 20athletes can compete in a maximum of 5 events. 2 events must be 1 Track and 1 Field to be scored for the championship.

Please note Under 13, 15 & 17 athletes can only compete in either the 800m or the1500m not both. U11s can’t compete in either.

Relays will be organised on the day and do not count towards the championship.

Points are allocated to each event. The athletes highest score for 1 Track and 1 Field in their respective age/gender group will be used for the championship scoring.

To enter go to https://www.riderhq.com/events/p/kbo8rmzi/f/stratford-upon-avon-ac–2025-track–field-championships and follow the instructions to complete the entry.

The deadline is 5^th September at the latest (no manual forms will be accepted). Please keep a copy of your events for your reference.

Take care when completing the form.

You will need to select the event that you are completing the form for ‘Someone Else (Child)’ NOT you the parent.

The system requires you to repeat the athlete’s details for each event that you are entering.

You need to keep a note of the events you have entered for each athlete.

You will receive a general email acknowledgement for each event but it will not detail the events you have entered.

More detailed information has been emailed to all Juniors and posted to all members on Spond. This includes an easy view table of the events you can enter in each age group, a timetable and scoring charts.

If you have any queries, please contact

Junior Members Carolyne Johnston juniormembership@suaac.co.uk

Seniors Members Robin Langhorn seniormembership@suaac.co.uk

AGE GROUP CHANGES

NOTICE FROM ENGLAND ATHLETICS

The current age groups i.e. categories in which young athletes compete are to be revised and young athletes will compete in the following age groups from 1 April 2026.

U10: school years 3 and 4
U12: years 5 and 6
U14: years 7 and 8
U16: years 9 and 10
U18: years 11 and 12
U20: year 13+

The objectives of the age group changes are to:

Simplify age group dates for all disciplines
Support athletes in their long-term development
Retain and recruit more young people in athletics
Provide a clear, simplified pathway for all areas of the sport, from U10s – Seniors
Provide better gradual progression for all athletics events
And in creating an additional age group, better support age and stage appropriate competition formats & events

These new age groups will replace the existing U13, U15 and U17 groupings and will ensure that athletes compete across the school year (in England) from October-September in the same age group through cross country, road and then track and field competition.

The rules will be effective from 1 April 2026, so athletes will compete in the 2026 track and field season in the above age groups. For example, for track and field, an athlete currently in year 7 will be competing in the U13 age group in the 2025 summer season and will be in year 8 and therefore U14 in the 2026 track and field season.

Athletes will continue to compete in Cross Country and Indoors 2025 in their age groups so the Transition Year for both will be 1 September 2026 to 31 March 2027. However, I understand it’s still being debated what happens with the 2026 Indoor T&F season.

I believe these are positive changes that will benefit athletics in general and unlike other clubs whereby we are already training in age groups, the above changes won’t mean any difference to the way we train other than slightly different ages in the respective groups.

There are a few technical changes to the hurdles, but I will be modifying our training to accommodate these. There are also a couple of modifications to the throws but nothing drastic.

Unfortunately, English Schools’ Athletics Association’s (ESAA) have made a decision to pause implementation of the new age groups effective from 1 April 2026, pending a further review of the impact on schools’ athletics and that the ESAA have indicated that they intend to conduct this review during 2026!!

This throws up important questions such as how athletics will be taught in schools and how athletes will qualify for the ESAA championships if athletes are competing using different implements, hurdle specifications and race distances thus creating confusion for athletes, coaches and parents!!

Carolyne and I will be working on the registers so that when we return to training in October after our break, we will already have our junior athletes in their respective groups ready for 2026.

Irrespective of what the ESAA does or doesn’t do, yes, this all may look a bit confusing but we just need to work through a relatively short transition period over the next few months to get all our ducks in a row for the future.

Any questions please email me at :

trackandfield@suaac.co.uk

Paul Bearman