2 golds, 2 silvers and a bronze!

Written by David Jones on 29/01/2026. Posted in News

Mike Hayward receives his gold medal following his M65 age category win.

The top 3 positions shown below

Mike Hayward 37.10
Gary Thomson 39.00
Richard Wilkinson 40.34

Last Saturday’s Midland Cross Country Championships saw our 20 competitors – 18 juniors and 2 seniors – return with a haul of 5 medals – 2 golds, 2 silvers and a bronze. Definitely a successful outing.

This week’s Stratford upon Avon Herald has recognised this success with almost a full page on the event based on Paul Hawkins’ report featured below.

There are some wonderful photos of these championships, capturing XC in all of its glory (!!) provided by Nick Campbell. Many thanks Nick

The following day it was the second running of the Shipston 9, successor to the legendary Not the Roman 1X. All of those who competed, marshalled or volunteered seem to agree that it was a wonderfully organised event.

Good luck to those of you running the Warwick Half on Sunday, or any other event you may be competing in.

Take care.

David Jones

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Marijke Tear-Verweij on her way to the gold medal in her 3rd race victory of the week.

Midland Cross Country Championships 2026 – Mallory Park

24th January 2026

Tough challenge at the Midland Cross Country Championships

Report – Paul Hawkins

The Midland Cross Country Championships were held at Mallory Park, the same venue as in 2025 but with a completely new course which provided plenty of challenges for the athletes with mud and hills. It wasn’t the course as much as the biting wind that made the overall conditions a tough challenge for the athletes alike.

The Midland Championships is the next stage on from the County Championships, where the athletes can test themselves against the region’s best, and hence the competition was equally tough. It is also the final race that will be taken into account for selection for county teams that will compete in the Inter Counties races in March.

Stratford AC were pleased to win two gold medals, two silvers and a bronze.

The U13 boys’ race over 3k was first on the agenda, with only Charlie Cassells representing Stratford AC after a late decision to run and he ran superbly to be in the top ten for the whole race, finishing in 6th place, just beaten by Sam Howell of RSC with both having the same time of 10.47.

The U13 girls’ race followed over the same distance with a larger Stratford contingent despite late withdrawals for various reasons. The team was led by Eliza McLeod in 18th followed by Amelie Marshall (35th), Poppy West (38) and Imogen Brooks (49) making her debut for the team, to claim a 6th team place. Unfortunately Maggie Silvers was unable to finish.

Max Rossney was the only Stratford runner in the under 15 boys race and he worked hard to finish in 54th. Over the same 4K course foe the U15 girls, Jasmine Mothershaw ran well for 48th (18.06) closely followed by Rachel Sparrow (52, 18.40)

The under 17’s enjoyed running over a longer 6k course and the Stratford girls, led by Marijke Tear-Verweij had high hopes of medals. The race started with a group of three starting fast with Marijke in the next group but she gradually closed down the leader so going into the final 2k lap there were three in the lead group which became a pair of Marijke and Estelle Lowe of Gloucester AC but in the last 600m Marijke moved clear to win in 18.28, 7 seconds ahead of Lowe which was her third race win in a week. The very strong Stratford team was completed by Annie Silvers (21, 20.42) and Brooke Rossney (33, 22.32) to finish 5th team just behind local rivals Nuneaton and Leamington.

Next up was the men’s U17 team who are usually bankers for team medals but with only three runners they were one short of a team. Nevertheless all three had top races. Leading the way was Sam Lambert who was soon in a leading group of three with regular local rivals Archie Lane of Leamington and Gabriel Wagstaff of Bromsgrove & Redditch. After a hard fought battle the final result was Lane, Wagstaff followed by Sam, in 3rd place to claim the bronze medal, this despite a heavy fall during his race Tom Fisher continued his very good form to come 12th with Joel Ledgard close behind in 25th.

The senior women’s race was over 8k and Sue Mothershaw was the sole Stratford representative and she will be happy with a good run in 116th place (49.22). As the older Masters Men run a slightly shorter course they run alongside the senior women and this applied to our Mike Hayward, who, in his cross country debut for the club was competing in the M65 age category. He recorded a time 37.10 to win his category to claim the second Stratford gold medal of the day. During the race Mike didn’t realise he was winning until told afterwards so it was a great surprise for him.

Finally, a very strong Stratford team in the U20 men’s race on the same 8k course claimed the team silver medal, only just missing out to Mansfield. Zak Lambert was in the lead group for all of the race and he just missed out in a sprint finish with Ed Holden of Mansfield. With a time of 25.56, he won the silver medal Close behind, in possibly his best race for the club, was Dougie Garnet (6, 27.18) then Will Mayes (14, 28.20) and James Day (22, 30.30) completing the team.

Sadly apart from Sue and Mike the seniors in the club didn’t want to compete at cross country with the exception of two late withdrawals due to injury.

For the full results please follow the link below:

https://results.sporthive.com/events/7420400179662028800

Our other medallists.

Top to bottom:

U20 men’s team. L to R: Zak Lambert, Will Mayes, James Day and Dougie Garnett. Silver medal.

Zak Lambert. Silver medal.

Sam Lambert. Bronze medal, despite this fall captured wonderfully by Nick Campbell’s superb photo.

Emma Davis with a super happy Rosie Slocombe, on her way to successfully completing the Shipston 9 road race

Rosie’s Shipston 9

Report – Rosie Slocombe

When the date of the SAC Shipston 9 race came out I asked my mum, Kate Sergent, if she could run it with me but she had committed to the cake stall again so it was a no. She also worried that it was too far for me as I hadn’t run that far since Not the Roman 9 in 2022.

I told Emma Davis I wanted to do it and she said she was happy to run it with me.

Sarah Bland said I could start early like I do for the club races.

I was very nervous and nearly backed out on the Saturday but mum assured me our club would support me and that marshals would be out in force.

Emma was such a great support and we had a lot of laughs.

The hills were tough but I powered up them. Emma sent mum a photo of us finishing so she could stop worrying and get on with serving her cakes!!

It was a great day and all the club were so supportive.

Thankyou SAC!! I am very proud of myself!!

Rachel Fielden, Rosie Slocombe and Kim Lee

Bogdan Ene, our first finisher in 21st place.

Without who…. 3 of our marshals who helped make Sunday’s race such a success.
L to R: Sandie Owens, Ann Absalom and Miranda Maloney.

Kim’s Shipston IX Road Race

25th January 2026

Report – Kim Lee

Gifted with a place at London Marathon 2026 thanks to Stratford Athletics Club, the Shipston IX 9-mile road race fell nicely into my training programme.

Replacing the ‘Not the Roman IX’, this was the second edition ran by our very own Stratford Athletics Club.

Back in September 2025, I picked up viral encephalitis resulting in three weeks of illness, with two of those weeks horizontal in Warwick hospital. When I was finally discharged, I felt like I’d lost all my strength and fitness.

It turned out to be exactly what I needed to motivate me not to take my run-fitness for granted and to do everything I could to come back stronger.

Roll forward to November and I found out I had won a place at London – a daunting challenge, but the timing couldn’t have been better.

After enjoying the Tempo Events Winter Series, my run-fitness was creeping back and I was excited to take on this 9-mile challenge. Registering at Shipston Scout Hut, no queue for the ladies and plenty of smiley, welcoming faces.

With a downhill stretch straight off the start, I inevitably went off quicker than the target 5.15min per km pace set by my Runna app. With kilometre Runna notifications that I was ‘going too fast’, I maintained the 5min/km pace and took the notifications as a compliment.

Echoed by other runners, the route was stunning, the logistics were effortless and there were plenty of marshals out on the route.

The miles ticked by and I picked up a run buddy to chat to for the second half.

My highlight was a thoroughly enjoyable sprint finish, edging ahead of a guy just before the line. I originally passed him about 800m from the finish and couldn’t resist saying “Don’t get beaten by a girl!”. By the 400m he had gone back past me – doh! I managed to stay on his shoulder and from nowhere I pulled out my strongest finish yet.

I was delighted with my time of 1hr 12mins and looking forward to Warwick Half Marathon on 1st February.

Fellow Stratford runners were Bogdan Ede in 1hr, Kevin McFall 1hr 11mins, David Fathers in 1hr 15mins, Rachel Fielden in 1hr 17mins, Kendra Ball and Liz Whitehead in 1hr 38mins, Grace O’Donnell Burke in 1:38 and Rosie Solcombe in 1hr 54mins.

The race was won by Daniel Clarke of Daventry Road Runners in a time of 53.21 and the first lady finisher, in 29th place overall, was Charlotte Edwards of Banbury Harriers in 1:02.17

Well done everyone and thank you to all the amazing organisers and marshals!

For the full results follow the link below:

https://www.racetecresults.com/results.aspx?CId=16418&RId=999

This week’s Stratford Herald celebrates our success at the Midland XC County Championships.

Sue Mothershaw, our only Senior lady to compete in the Midland Cross Country Championships, seen here battling typical XC conditions.

Well done Sue

Our U17 ladies team. L to R: Brooke Rossney, Marijke Tear-Verweij and Annie Silvers.