What a truly memorable weekend. Part 2.

The TCS Mini London Marathon gives the UK’s most promising young athletes the chance to compete against the best new talent in British road running. Over the years the event has launched the careers of international athletics stars including Laura Muir, Keely Hodgkinson and Josh Kerr – not to mention Sir Mo who won this event 3 times.

For youngsters taking part it is a wonderful experience. 

For Charlie Cassells it was more than a race, from being dropped off at Alexander Stadium and then travelling on the team bus to London, followed by an overnight stay and dinner in the athletes’  hotel and then the race itself. 

It was well organised, communication with the parents was excellent, new friendships were formed and it made him hungry for more! 

He finished 41st in 8.42 and was 4th for the West Midlands U14 boys team. U18 Tom Fisher finished in 44th in his U18 race, with a time of 7:43 for the 2.6k race. Tom had to work hard to find space early on but was happy with how it went and thought it a decent result.

Stratford half and full marathons

Report: David Jones

An impressive 30 of our members’ competed in the Stratford half last Sunday, with a couple more running the full marathon.

In the full marathon Rob Gisbourne recorded a time of 3:40.26, a full 11 minutes quicker than the albeit more challenging Snowdon Marathon last year. James Purdy dipped under the 4 hour mark with a time of 3:59.09.

The marathon was won by Matthew Lock in 2:30.22 from Witney Road Runners. The first lady to finish, in  104th place and with a time of 3:08.16 was Samantha Hudson dos Santos Figuero from Belgrave Harriers.

In the half marathon the first SuAAC runner home, in 5th place, was Harry Jolly (1:14.19) hot on the heels of his victory in last week’s Coventry 10k. 

Next to finish, despite not having done any half marathon specific training, was Richard Liggatt in 1:20.09. Ian Stevens’ ran 1:23.44 to finish 2nd in his V45 age category. 

Ian was followed by James Mayes, running in a Shakespeare Hospice top. It is fair to say that the half marathon distance is somewhat outside of James’ comfort zone, which makes his time of 1:24.14 all the more special. He was also placed 2nd in the U20 age category. A truly fabulous performance James. Just 7 seconds behind James was Sam Mercer (1:24.21).

The first lady to finish for the club was, unsurprisingly, Kate Wright, with a time of 1:25.25, comfortably winning her V60 age category. Just edging out the second placed runner in her category by a mere 15 minutes !

Kate was followed by Matthew Harris (1:26.27) and Bogdan Ede (1:27.43). Richard Dobedoe (1:29.40) was placed 2nd in the V60 age category. 

Next there was an enthralling sprint finish between Santa Pavlika and Matt Burdus-Cook, with the former just edging out the latter by a couple of seconds. 1:30.43 v 1:30.45. Santa recorded a 2 minute 12 second PB and was 4th in her age category in the process. 

David Smyth (1:32.40) was placed 5th in his age category.

Ash Habel (1:35.42) was a minute quicker than when he last ran this race in 2024 and Owen Lewis (1:37.42) improved his time of last year by over 3 minutes. It was then John Bettles (1:38.12) and Ted Burch (1:38.55).

One of the most impressive performances of the day was that of Maisie Joy Spriggs. Having not run seriously for some time due to a long term shoulder injury and having had just 5 warm-up runs, her time of 1:42.00 was 14 minutes ahead of her nearest competitor in the female U20 age category. Well done MJ. She was followed by Julia Brookes (1:48.10). Julia was 5th in her age category.

Kevin McFall ran 1:52.07, a 96 second improvement on his time last year. He was followed by Ian Greaves (1:54.55), Jamie Howkins (1:55.25), Daisy Musk (2:10.05) and Sue Mothershaw (2:14.13). Daisy commenting that this was the toughest race she’d ever done but that she was happy with how it went.

Chris Wilkinson (2:17.38) was a massive 16 minutes quicker than his time in the Warwick Half in 2023.

Sandy Owens (2:18.10), Jane Fradgley (2:29.46), Grace O’Donnell Burke (2:33.24) and Charlotte Crouch (2:33.56) were next. Grace just a couple of weeks after running the Brighton Marathon.

It was then the turn of  our very own international racewalker Paul Hawkins, who did indeed racewalk the 13.1 mile course, recording a time of 2:55.00. 

Finally, Susan Hunt (2:55.12) reported that she was privileged to accompany Rosie Slocombe (2:55.15) and that it felt like she was running with a celebrity: the support from her club mates and friends being just incredible. She is a very determined lady.

The race was won by Chris Kilburn from Mansfield Harriers in 1:10.47 and the first lady finisher, in a time of 1:22.21, was Becky Straw from Birchfield Harriers.

The times quoted are chip times.

2979 runners completed the half marathon with 1695 finishing the full which, was won by Mark Willicott (2:20.05) with Samantha Hudson Dos Santos Figuero being the first lady finisher in 3:08.16. 

Warwickshire Cross country Championships 

Report – Paul Hawkins

The Heeley Trophy is awarded to the best club overall, taking into account the results of all 14 races in the Championships.

Since the competition commenced Stratford AC has been very successful, winning in 2022 and 2024 after coming third in the first year of 2019.

These were really good results as we were up against some of the biggest and best clubs in the area. It’s also pretty special when the whole club counts in the results from under 11’s to Masters.

Unfortunately there have been some delay in producing the result this year but …
the good news is that we won again in the December 2025 event, finishing ahead of Solihull and Sutton Coldfield in second and third place, as well as BRAT, Birchfield, Coventry and others.

The full results are below and you’ll see we scored well in every category and everyone there played their part in the success.

Many thanks to all the coaches who made this happen. 

 https://www.warwickshireathletics.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Warwickshire-County-Cross-Country-Championships-Heeley-Trophy-2025.pdf

Let’s hope we have similar success in the upcoming Track and Field Championships