Thoroughbred’s excel at Cheltenham Race Course.

County Schools and Inter County Championships.

Report – Paul Bearman

After a long winter’s and spring training we are well into the competition season and after the respective County Championships where, after 7 years winning the Warwick Vase as the club with the best number of points, Stratford were knocked off their perch by a formidable Rugby & Northampton team but once again the strength across the juniors in particular showed what a strong club we are competing against much bigger clubs.

Onto the County Schools Championships, which are the first step towards the English Schools National Championships and over 40 Stratford junior athletes were selected to compete in their respective county championships; Warwickshire, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire

After trials athletes were selected to represent their area, which is a feather in their cap to start with. The County Championships are a gateway for junior athletes to represent their respective area at the various inter county champs.

For those who do well they can be selected for the prestigious Inter County Championships, which are a major stepping stone towards the possibility of being selected for the ESAA Championships assuming they reach the stringent ESAA entry standards. This is the pathway we set ourselves and work towards at the beginning of the season.

After the trials in local schools 39 athletes were selected to represent South Warwickshire schools in the inter area championships with a couple more in the Central area at Leamington.

Ruby Edwards and Ella Smith went to the Gloucestershire Championships and Luca de Freitas Pires and Ethan Winning competed in the Worcestershire Championships at Stourport.

Amongst the many excellent performances across the 3 championships, Alex Wood broke the Warks county schools’ junior boys 300m record with a dominant run finishing in 38.8s. He has the ESAA entry standard from previous races.

Olisa Odiamma McKenzie produced a leap of 1.72m to win the junior boys High Jump, achieving the ESAA entry standard in the process.

The Lambert brothers Sam and Zac dominated their respective races with Sam winning the 800m in a time 1.59.7 and was followed home by James Day 2.09.2 and Josh Davis 2.10.2 for a 1-2-3. Sam also has the ESAA ES from an earlier race.

Another 1-2-3 came in the Inter boys 3000m with Zac winning in 9.09.2 followed by Will Mayes in 9.28.0 and Tom Fisher in 9.34.2.

Seb Hillard is on the comeback trail after fracturing his ankle earlier in the year and he won the Inter boys 100m hurdles in a time of 14.5s and his training partner Toby Thomas finished 3^rd after knocking nearly a second off his PB. 

Will Hovell won the junior boys 800m in a time of 2.08.0 but he also continued his odyssey in the Pole Vault finishing 2^nd in his first competition with a “modest” but promising 2.40m.

Afterwards The South’s Team Manager Jamie Powell from Alcester Academy said “our athletes did a fabulous job finishing second in the Inter age group and winning the Juniors. Also, we were the only area with Seniors involved (all Stratford AC athletes), so you could say we won that too, although there’s no trophy!

After their performances in the 3 championships, 14 Stratford athletes were selected to represent their counties in their respective Inter County Championships. These competitions are only just one down from the national ESAA champs and so represent a big step up in the level of competitors that are involved.

Ella Smith and Ruby Edwards travelled to Exeter for the South West Championships representing Gloucestershire against Dorset, Wiltshire, Avon, Devon, Somerset and Cornwall.

The rest of the Stratford contingent competed In Stoke in the Masons Trophy for either Herefordshire & Worcestershire or Warwickshire against Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Derbyshire and the West Midlands

Amongst some good performances and personal bests, the stand out medal performances came from Olisa Odiamma McKenzie winning gold in the junior boys High Jump with 1.71, Will Hovell winning silver in the JB Pole Vault with 2.20m and another entry standard performance from Alex Wood winning bronze in the JB 300m in 37.94.

The final comments come from Gwil Price the Warwickshire Team manager…..

A very proud Warwickshire Schools A.A. ‘Champion County for the 2^nd year running!!!!  …..

A fantastic result for us!!

It must be remembered that we are a small county by comparison with the majority of Counties competing at this event, thus making this follow up win an even greater achievement!

The 90 athletes from 30 schools displayed real determination and total commitment, using their considerable talent to compete strongly against quality opposition and some appalling weather conditions Some were gaining their first representative honour at county level and many were relatively inexperienced 

Finally, to the greater number of athletes who represented us at the Mason but will not qualify for the ESAA Championships, feel proud that you have achieved so much at this prestigious event!

My thanks to Stratford volunteers for their support Niamh Hillard, Emma Sparrow, Sandy Green and Nick Hillard.

Report – Adrian Mason

And they’re off…………. Odds on favourite 🙂

As part of the Cheltenham Running Festival held on Fathers Day, comprising of a 5k,10k and Half Marathon, I opted to run the 10k race along with the invincible and fellow club runner, John Butler.

Being my home town, having lived there for 20 of my younger years, it’s always an honour to return and run there, none more so than at the world stage of the Cheltenham Racecourse.  

Sold as a “flat-ish” course, it is far from flat and whilst a large majority is on tarmac, there is a fair share of gravel and soft wood chippings (no prizes for guessing what’s buried under the chippings!) but thankfully they removed all the fences! 

The 10k ran two laps of the course, which meant spectators had a great view of the runners, but it did become quite busy in places, as all three races were on the course at the same time, with the Half doing 4 laps!

With no expectations and no idea how many entrants there were, I rocked up for a pleasant sunny Fathers Day trot, hoping for a Top 10 finish at best.  With ~180 starters, I led the pack out following the 10k lead bike and had a contest on my hands up until about 6km. 

It was at this point I realised the competition were fading a little with the heat, so I pushed on feeling quite comfortable with the pace and ~4km later, running slightly long, I crossed the line as the winner!! in a time of 38:31. 

John Butler also bagged another age cat win to his name. 

Delighted with the win and completely unexpected, this made for a great Father Day that I won’t forget in a hurry and the 1st Place medal was lovely too.  My 7yo daughter Daisy also ran her first chip-timed mini race with 58 other children of all ages and came 21st.  She was over the moon and it made for a great family day out.

110/100m hurdles

400m hurdles

3000m steeplechase

400m flat

High Jump

Triple Jump

Pole Vault

Hammer

It will probably be a while before we learn how the overall league points worked out on a division by division basis. On the day we had PBs recorded in the Triple Jump, Hammer & 400m!

For individual results please follow this link:

Technical-Match-2024-RESULTS-version1.pdf (midland-athletics.co.uk)