Truly battling the elements

Written by David Jones on 15/01/2026. Posted in News

Toby Wilkinson, Maggie Silvers, Ben Harrison and Alistair Durance training in somewhat less than ideal conditions. They’re called endurance runners for a reason

There’s a bit of a theme running through this week’s newsletter.

Bad weather.

Last Thursday’s Junior Endurance runners and Junior T&F training sessions at the track really were something to behold. I hope the photos here illustrate that perfectly.

With last Saturday’s senior XC fixtures having been cancelled, our junior XC runners braved the elements and the snow and ice lined course at Pingles Stadium in Nuneaton, turning in some superb individual performances, despite these conditions.

Meanwhile, the Fladbury Festive 5 became the Fladbury Festive 4.4 due to the shortened course because of high river levels. Despite this 9 of our hardiest Seniors successfully battled the course.

Opting for the comfort of the indoor track at Loughborough, a mixture of our juniors and vets shook the competitive cobwebs off and enjoyed the relative warmth of the indoor facilities.

Wednesday night saw the traditional January Shakespeare race start and finish on Waterside, following last week’s postponement. 59 seniors completing the course, with Jamie Hall finishing in first place. Sarie Weaving was first lady finisher in 11th place overall.
The race was once again superbly organised by Simon Penson and his team. Sincere thanks are due to all of them and to the marshals out on the course

This week’s Stratford Herald acknowledges the resilience of our junior athletes, despite the bad weather, with coverage of both Thursday’s training sessions and Sunday’s XC fixture.

Take care.

David Jones

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And some of our junior sprinters also showing their mettle.

I am in awe of our junior athletes.
As many of you know, training sessions for our junior endurance runners and junior sprinters are held on Thursday nights at the Stratford School track.

Last Thursday, with a forecast of extreme cold, rain and snow showers, a forecast that proved to be extremely accurate, the club’s coaches expected few, if any, of the athletes to turn up in such challenging conditions.
They greatly underestimated the resilience and enthusiasm of these athletes. In an age when we are often led to believe that our youngsters are shut in their bedrooms, looking at TikTok videos on their screens, over 30 turned up.
They not only turned up but they embraced the sessions with enthusiasm, a couple even rejecting appeals by parents, who turned up mid session thinking their children would welcome an early exit. Silly parents, they really should know better.

I think those are smiles on the faces of the sprinters. They might be grimaces.
Shown here with coaches Sandy Green, Paul Bearman and Carolyne Johnston, or, to quote Paul “stoic and nutty coaches!’

It really was bad.

I am also in awe of Jan Turner. A few years back she joined one of our Couch to 5k groups and in the blink of an eye she was running a marathon. On Sunday she added to her trophy haul, winning her age category, at the Festive 5.
Truly an inspiration.

Some of our Festive Fivers. L to R: Emma Davis, Kate Sergent, Rachel Fielden, Jan Turner, Sandie Owens and Sarah Odell.

Fladbury Festive Five

Report – Sandie Owens

I’m not entirely sure about the “festive” label, as this race took place on Sunday 11 January, by which time the last of the tinsel had long been packed away.

A last-minute course change, due to the high river levels, also shortened the route slightly to 4.4 miles. So perhaps The Fladbury Not-So-Festive January 4.4 would be a more accurate title.

Run by the Friends of Fladbury community group, this multi-terrain, mainly off-road event starts and finishes at The Springhill Greenhouses near the village of Fladbury in Worcestershire.

A total of 140 runners, including 9 SAC members, set off into a bitter wind to take on this fun race. The route was very muddy in places, with a couple of cheeky hills thrown in, but the stunning countryside views, along with the support of brilliant marshals and friendly locals, made it a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

At the finish line, each runner was rewarded with a bag of delicious organic tomatoes before heading inside for tea and amazing homemade cakes.

All 9 SAC members completed the course safely, with our wonderful Jan Turner winning first place in her age category.

Our other 8 runners were Rachel Fielden, Emma Davis, Sarah Odell, Alix Frost, Rowena Hogg, Kate Sergent, Allan Coldicott and myself.

This is a really lovely event, run by fantastic volunteers, with all proceeds going to Neuroendocrine Cancer UK. I would highly recommend it as a well-organised and enjoyable January race — perfect for working off those festive mince pies.

Tom Fisher on his way to a magnificent 4th place finish.

Nell Wheeler (265) and Saskia Atkins (261) driving each other on. They finished in 7th and 8th place respectively out of the 93 finishers in their race.

West Midlands Young Athlete’s Cross Country League.

Report – Angela Williamson

Snow and ice lined the course for Match 4 of the West Midlands Young Athlete’s Cross Country League.

Grey, cloudy skies and a cold breeze welcomed the hardiest of junior club competitors and their supporters to Pingles Stadium, Nuneaton. 40 of our club juniors’ did the club proud, with 6 of them finishing in top 10 places.

There was a full team turnout for the U17 Women’s race, the circuit similar to previous years but with some added energy sapping bumps.

Marijke Tear-Verweij’s maintained her excellent form to take 4^th, 15:54. Tear-Verweij is 3rd for the season as a whole in her age category. Annie Silvers finished strongly to take 20^th, 18:07 and Brooke Rossney had an outstanding race, her best in the league to date, to finish in 24^th, 18:52.

In the Boys’ U11 race, the biggest field of the day with 119 competitors, Rafe White went one better than his previous result with an excellent 6^th, 7:41. Rafe is in 5th position for the season as a whole, out of 191 who have competed in this category.

Lucas Shepherd and Simon Zawada followed in 10^th, 7:46 and 15^th, 7:55. Next across a mixture of mud and frozen ground came Stratford’s Oliver Hollis, 31st, 8:09, Henry Cotton, 65th, 8:46, Jacob Thomas, 70^th, 8:50, Jamie Cassells, 71^st, 8:51 and Max Loom 98^th, 9:53. Stratford’s U11 boys are 5th overall in the season to date out of 23 teams.

Tom Fisher battled bravely in a physical race in the Men’s U17, finishing an excellent 4^th, 17:12. Will Hovell and Joel Ledgard supported each other, running nip and tuck for much of the race, to take 13^th, 18:04 and 16^th, 18:19.

Tom, Will and Joel are placed 9th/10th and 11th overall for the season to date.

Completing a solid team effort were Arthur Williamson, 34^th, 19:29 and Aran Cooper, 56^th, 21:55. Stratford’s U17 men are placed 2nd overall. A superb achievement in the season to date.

Two hard fought top 10 finishes for Stratford in the Girls’ U11, by Nell Wheeler, 7^th; 7:59 and Saskia Atkins, 8^th, 8:03 and a strong team performance overall, with Olivia Hunt, 14^th, 8:20, Marnie Short, 27^th, 8:49, Florence Andrews, 33^rd, 8:52, Quinn Lancaster, 67th, 9:53 and Imogen Jolly, 78th; 10:08. Saskia and Nell are 6th and 8th overall out of 141 who have competed in this category.

Stratford’s U11 girls are in a magnificent 3rd place overall.

In the Boys’ U15 race Harry Coulson, Toby Wilkinson and Max Rossney showed great determination to finish 38^th, 13:55, 56^th, 15:26 and 65^th, 17:49.

Eliza McLeod handled the conditions well and was first Stratford vest home in the Girls’ U13 race, in 22^nd, 10:57, followed by Emily Lambert 32^nd, 11:23, Amelie Marshall, 34th, 11:25, Elsie Pipitone, 41^st, 11:46, Poppy West, 48th, 11:57, Annabel Ryan-Gill, 56^th, 12:06, Florence Rowlands, 78^th, 13:24 and Lara Ryan-Gill, 80^th, 13:25. The U13 girls are currently in 5th place in their league.

The course deteriorated as it thawed and, by the time of the U13 Boys’ race, the up and down, zig-zag sections had become very slippery. Stratford’s Charlie Cassells and Toby Ledgard showed grit in the challenging conditions to finish 19^th, 10:02 and 50^th, 11:09. Charlie is currently 5th overall out of 134 in his age group.

In the Girls’ U15 race, conditions resulted in a slower than average pace. Eve Ashley completed in 25^th, 15:54, Jasmine Mothershaw in 38^th, 16:30, Rachel Sparrow in 49^th, 17:05 and Rosa Pipitone, 62nd; 18:06.

All in all a superb performance all round in far from ideal conditions, with the club finishing in 6th place out of 23 teams competing, scoring 5154 points. This was 334 points ahead of 7th place BRAT and just 42 points behind Solihull and Small Heath in 5th place.

For the season as a whole we are in 7th place on 19501 points, within touching distance of 6th place Solihull and Small heath on 19704 and with a 2102 point cushion over 8th place City of Stoke.

Elaine Ledden, Paula Williams and Andy List at Loughborough. Unfortunately Paula picked up a strain in her warm-up and wasn’t able to compete

Loughborough Indoor Open

Report – Paul Bearman

After the Christmas break and then the recent appalling weather that disrupts training. The New Year, however, brings new opportunities to shake the competitive cobwebs off and enjoy the relative warmth of indoor facilities for Opens that hopefully lead to qualification for championships but more importantly gives an indication how the flog of winter conditioning training is going.

Fynn Allen has moved up an age group to U15 and took advantage of the first Open of the year to get some competition. With very limited 60m sprint and hurdles coaching he exceeded expectations by setting impressive PBs in both events.

V60 Andy List is planning on competing in a Pentathlon and needed to learn how to sprint hurdle. With Paula Williams passing on her experience and me tweaking his technique … or lack of it says Andy…. in training, he actually ran 2 good races both in very creditable times and as he said, “confidence is improving all the time with no doubts now about getting over the hurdles and now moving on to doing it swiftly”.

However, in the easier event i.e. a 60m straight sprint, his wrist is now in a splint after a “spectacular dive and forward roll” in his first race but still went on to run again.

In the 60m Alex Wood ran a new PB and Arthur Mansbridge ran a season’s best just outside his PB.

Elaine Ledden used the event for sharpening up and getting 2 consistent races under her belt.

Toby Thomas’ first run over the 60m hurdles certainly didn’t go to plan when he “practically stopped” with his rhythm all over the place but in his 2nd race, despite it not going as well as he hoped. he still ran a PB.

	60m
Perf	Name		AG		SB	PB
10.5	Elaine Ledden		V65	W	10.4	9.77

Perf	Name		AG		SB	PB
7.43	Alex Wood	PB	U17	M	7.43	7.43

7.60	Arthur Mansbridge	SB	U17	M	7.60	7.53

8.83	Andy List	SB	V60	M	8.83	8.73

8.63	Fynn Allen	PB	U15	M	8.63	8.63


	60m Hurdles
Perf	Name		AG		SB	PB
10.2	Fynn Allen	PB	U15	M	10.2	10.2

13.3	Andy List	PB	V60	M	13.3	13.3

9.42	Toby Thomas	PB	U20	M	9.42	9.42

Race finishers gather close to the finish line in the somewhat murky conditions

January’s Shakespeare Race

Wednesday night saw the traditional January Shakespeare Race start and finish on Waterside, following last week’s postponement of the race. 59 seniors’ completed the course in conditions that were somewhat murky but generally okay, considering the weather we have had of late.

Jamie Hall started the year off as he had finished last year, by finishing in 1st place in a time of 33:54. Jamie was followed by Matt Burdus-Cook in 2nd place with a time of 34:45. The other top 5 finishers were Richard Liggatt (35:25), Sebastian Wolsoncroft-Dodds (35:39) and James Lake (36:07). Interestingly enough, Jamie, Richard, Seb and James all occupied top 5 places in last year’s race.

First lady home was Sarie Weaving in 11th place overall with a time of 39:25. The other top 5 ladies, all of who finished in the top 24, were Kate Wright (16th – 39:46), Bronwen Mansel (21st – 42:17), Bethan Pearson (22nd – 43:52) and Emma Bexson (24th – 44:21).

The race was once again superbly organised by Simon Penson and his team. Sincere thanks are due to all of them and to the marshals out on the course

For a full list of the provisional results please follow the link below:

https://www.racetecresults.com/results.aspx?CId=16418&RId=996

The Stratford Herald reports on our junior XC race in this week’s physical and online editions. They also covered last Thursday’s training session. Did I mention that the weather conditions were horrendous ?

It really was weather for ducks last Thursday at the track