Amelie Marshall, Emily Lambert, Eliza McLeod, Maggie Silvers and Imogen Gray.
A much quieter week after last week’s hectic goings on.
Having said that there are some great successes to report on. Several of our junior endurance runners were instrumental in helping Warwickshire win the prestigious Inter County Cross Country Championships at Hamlet Hall, Dudley last weekend. After initially having been declared runners up, which would have still been a heck of an achievement the provisional Minor Boys result was found to be incorrect (Warwickshire had been placed 5th instead of 2nd), and with the significant additional points the results were confirmed, Warwickshire were the Champions.
Meanwhile across the Irish Sea in Belfast, club member Phil Brennan donned his England and added to his numerous England appearances by competing for his country in the British and Irish Cross Country Championships.
Racewalkers Gemma Smith and Paul Hawkins were competing in the 2nd league fixture of this season’s Midland Race Walk Winter League and both improved there times in the first fixture with Paul competing in both the 5k and 10k races with just a 12 minute gap in between !
Last Sunday also saw the second of this season’s Tempo Winter Series races with club members making up some 10% of the field. Andy Lawrence was the overall race winner with Jamie Hall in 2nd place and we had 5 of the top 8 finishers.
So another successful week for many of our members.
Brothers in Arms
Will Hovell, Joel Ledgard, Tom Fisher and Sam Lambert.
Inter County Schools Cross County Championships
Himley Hall, Dudley,
Saturday 16 November 2024.
They think it’s all over
It is now.
Report – Angela Williamson
It was a wonderful effort by Warwickshire Young Athletes to retain the Dave Sunderland Trophy as the Inter County Schools Cross County Champions!
Warwickshire had two winning teams in Junior and Inter Boys, a team 2nd in Minor Boys and four individual medallists, including our own Sam Lambert who took 2nd place in the Inter Boys and Robin Gallagher who was 3rd in Minor Boys.
Placings for the top six runners for each County count for the team competition, and teams can only compete for the trophy if they have six runners, so this was very much a whole team effort, including not only the athletes but their clubs and supporters.
Very much the thoughts of Gwil Price MBE, Warwickshire Schools Athletics Association (WSAA) Secretary, “each and every athlete deserves our full praise for their magnificent efforts on challenging courses, against some large and traditionally strong counties. Please feel proud of your achievement! We had a full turn out of our expected runners so thank you for your wonderful support! It is always good to meet our runners and parents. Thank you so much!”
As some of you will know, overnight we thought we had finished in a (still excellent) Runners Up position behind Cheshire, but the provisional Minor Boys result was found to be incorrect (Warwickshire had been placed 5th instead of 2nd), and with the significant additional points the results were confirmed:
Warwickshire
Cheshire
Staffordshire
West Midlands
Shropshire
Cumbria
Surrey and Hereford and Worcs also competed but did not qualify for the team trophy.
SuAAC’s overall contribution was significant, with the following athletes achieving placings in the top six for Warwickshire:
Minor Girls: Amelie Marshall (16th), Maggie Silvers (22nd), Emily Lambert (27th), Eliza McCleod (29th).
Minor Boys: Robin Gallagher (3rd), Charlie Castle (11th), Charlie-Jay Cassells (28th).
Junior Girls: Lucia Ogilvie-Putt (25th), Portia Nabney (48th) and Isabella Marriott (49th). A fabulous result for talented all-rounder and newcomer Lucia.
Inter Girls: Marijke Tear-Verweij (20th), Annie Silvers (33rd).
Inter Boys: Sam Lambert (2nd), Will Hovell (16th). Sam ran a brilliant hill and second half of the final lap to pull away and create a comfortable (well he made it look easy) gap between him and 3rd placed Ben Allen from Staffordshire.
As Gwil so rightly said, ALL of our athletes put in a magnificent effort on a challenging course (the gradient was deceptively gruelling and the rain unleashed on some of the races) and should be proud of their individual achievements. Elle Weir missed a 6th spot for Warwickshire by the narrowest of margins, having started from the back of the pen and more than holding her own with her teammates, finishing strongly to pip her closest rival at the post! It’s a great feeling when that happens and keeps us training hard!
Well done all and look forward to seeing many of you at the WMYACCL Match 3 on Sunday 8 December at Pingles Stadium.
Team England
Phil Brennan – 2nd row centre.
35th British and Irish Cross-Country International
Belfast
Report – Phil Brennan
Entry for the England team is by selection: for the first time this year, M80 and W75+ were recognised as separate categories, although there was no team race in either category, in the expectation that not every nation could raise a team of three or four. In the event, Wales was the only country not to provide any runners.
Given my performances this year, I was quite surprised to be picked again and was under no illusions that it would be tough.
The organisation by the Northern Ireland Masters was exemplary.
The course was 3 x 2k laps in a country park, good-to-soft grass underfoot making a fast course (for some). Each lap rose sharply to begin with, descended sharply and flattened towards the end, except for the inevitable steep short climb to the finish.
My major achievement was finishing, as I was on the point of dropping out halfway round the first lap, but kept going to finish 6th M80.
I did enjoy the dinner afterwards ,though.
Paul Hawkins and Gemma Smith
Midland Race Walk Winter League
The second match in the league was held at Stourport with Senior races over 5k and 10k on an undulating course on the cycle way. There were also junior races over 1k and 2k on the grey day and in drizzly conditions.
The first race was a 5k with two Stratford walkers on the start line. Gemma Smith led the way for Stratford in 9th place in a time of 39.24 which was 3 seconds quicker than in the first fixture at Warwick. Paul Hawkins came in 10th place in 41.46, a 35 seconds improvement. Both were happy as Stourport is a tougher hillier course.
Hawkins decided to walk part of the 10k as training even though it only gave him 12 minutes break, just enough time for a drink and eat a cereal bar. However, as he was feeling strong he kept going to the end to finish in 6th place in 90.34. Covering over five laps of the course in the first race and eleven in the 10k, Hawkins knows this course well! Due to injuries and illness he has not raced much this year so both his times were Season Bests.
Winter Series 2024/25
Race 2
Last Sunday saw the latest of this season’s Tempo Winter series races and once again our club members enjoyed considerable success with 5 of the top 8 finishers.
Andy Lawrence (35.13) was the overall winner with Jamie Hall (37:40) finishing in 2nd place, followed by Seb Wolsoncroft-Dodds (5th – 40:12), Ade Mason (6th – 40.30) and Drew Sambridge (8th – 40.45).
Donna Allen was 2nd female finisher in 22nd place overall with a time of 44:38.
Some 33 of our club members completed the race, representing almost 10% of the 348 finishers.
For the full results please follow the link below:
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