Unlocking real talent!

Written by David Jones on 04/12/2025. Posted in News

Sarah Odell and Kate Sergent.

A really quiet week this week.

Club stalwarts Sarah Odell and Kate Sergent like nothing more than an unusual challenge, so last weekend they completed the 9 Locks Challenge and seemed to enjoy it.
Last Sunday I was really pleased to come away with a bronze medal at the British Masters 5k Championships in Battersea Park, to round off a pretty pleasing competitive year.

There’s belated acknowledgment of U17 Marijke Tear-Verweij’s trophy winning performance in this year’s Warwickshire Road Race League and there’s more Marijke in this week’s Stratford Herald, who report on the performance of 18 of our junior XC runners’ who, as reported last week, helped the Warwickshire team to a 3rd place finish in the recent Inter-County Schools Championship.

Good luck to our junior XC runners in their latest league fixture on Sunday.

Best wishes and super well done to our latest group of C25Kers as they graduate after their 12 week course, by taking part in the local parkrun. Total respect to them all. It ain’t easy.

Take care.

David Jones

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Their goody bag!

9 Locks Challenge

Report – Kate Sergent

After completing this challenging 10 k in torrential rain and flooding last November, Sarah Odell and I took advantage of the early bird offer the following day to have another crack at it hoping that the weather would be better this year.

I also ran it with club mates in the Summer as this wonderful company put it on twice a year.

It encompasses 9 Canal locks from Stourbridge to Merryhill

The weather was perfect. The organisation with this company is seemless. No stress.

The locks are challenging as they all are going up the canal. My favourite place to run is along a canal and I highly recommend the Black country Half run by this same company in July.

Both of us had good runs despite finding the wooded 1k section very slippery.

Sarah ran a great time of 59.04. I made her wait at the finish, completing it in 1.08 and coming 1st in my age group.

We were rewarded with a lovely medal and the best ever goody bag!!

David Jones
Job done

Bronze medal.
I’m happy with that.

British Masters 5k Road Championships

Battersea Park

Sunday 30th November

Report – David Jones

I competed in these Championships on a glorious sunny, if somewhat chilly morning, in Battersea Park last Sunday

These British Championships consisted of 2 races, one for M35 to M60 age groups and the other for Ladies and M65+ age groups, with approx 250 competing in each race.

The course was effectively the Battersea Parkrun course. Having run my slowest parkrun for 2 years the previous Saturday and realising I would have to run some 90 seconds quicker to secure a medal, I was somewhat apprehensive but felt good on the day.

5k is somewhat outside of my comfort zone these days but I do enjoy a challenge..

The gold and silver medals were effectively decided before the race started and it looked, on paper, to be a battle between myself and a Trent Park runner for the bronze.

I managed to get within 4 seconds of my required time, beating him by 32 seconds and recording a time 98 seconds quicker than last year.

Needless to say I was delighted, with this race finishing off what has been a hugely satisfactory year of racing for me.

As someone who still thinks in old money when it comes to distances – miles as opposed to kilometres, I was particularly pleased to have run the 3rd mile quicker than the 2nd. That doesn’t happen very often!

Roll on 2026.

In reporting on the WRRL Awards last week I omitted to mention Marijke Tear-Verweij (no 91 above). Despite only being an U17 and despite only competing in 3 of the fixtures, in all of which she was first U20 finisher, she won a trophy for finishing as 3rd U20 for the season as a whole. Well done Marijke.

More Marijke!

This week’s Stratford Herald reports on the performance of 18 of our junior endurance runners who helped Warwickshire secure a 3rd place finish in the recent Inter-County School’s XC championships.

Talking of junior XC, the photo above shows a group of our junior XC squad on the Welcombe Hills last Sunday, about to train in readiness for this coming Sunday’s league fixture at Newbold Revell.