Category: Race reports

A fantastic day for our cross country runners at the Warwickshire county championships on Saturday.  We had four individual winners, four team victories and medals won in every age group.  Well done in particular to our new county champions Elemena Saunders (U15 Girls), Katie Ingle (U20 Women), Laura Whittle (Senior Women) and Nick Corker (Masters Men) and to our victorious U13 Girls, U15 Girls, U17 Womens and U20 Womens teams.

There were also individual silver medals for Kieran Mullis (U13 Boys) and individual bronze medals for Shaun Evans (U15 Boys), Georgia Curry (U15 Girls) and Megan McBrien (Junior Women).  The U15 Boys and Masters Mens teams picked up silver medals and the U13 Boys won bronze medals.

Many other runners finished in top ten positions putting them in contention for selection for the inter county championships later in the year.

The full results are available here.

We also had some runners competing at the Staffordshire County Championships.  Results and photos are available here.  Well done everyone!

We had a couple of runners competing in the Wheaton Aston Roman 10k. Ollie Haradence finished third in a time of 32.55. Paul Terleski was 17th in 36.40.  Great running guys!

Race results and photos (like the one shown of Ollie splashing round the course) are available on Bryan Dale’s website here.

Well done to Laura Whittle who had a fantastic victory in the Telford 10k.  She beat a quality field to win in a time of 34.14. Race results and photos are available on Brian Smith’s website here.

Well done to everyone who ran in the third league race at Sandwell Valley.  Highlights were a second successive victory for Elemena Saunders and a team victory for the U11 girls.  The full results are available here.

Three Royal Sutton runners were tempted out of their beds on a cold December morning by the prospect of a post race Christmas Pudding.   Steve Marklew (57.45), Dave Long (58.29) and Dave Liddell (1.03.24) all had great runs over the 10 mile course.  And apparently the Christmas Puddings were good too!

An 18 strong team travelled to Cofton Park and put in a battling performance in the 2nd league race of the season.  On a hilly six mile course including over 600 feet of ascent our athletes ran excellently with many runners improving their positions from the 1st race.

Ollie Haradence led the 1st team home with a superb 33rd place finish.   The other A team scorers were Nick Corker (37), Dave Long (108), Steve Marklew (118), Paul Terleski (121) and Russell Simpson (138).  Overall the team finished 14th.

The B team finished in 10th place in the B race with the scorers being Simon Corker (142), Chris Taylor (144), Vikram Balachandar (165), Paul Davey (171), John Fletcher (202), and Dave Bowen (210).  Our other runners were Simon Ralph (213), Subudh Dave (214), Matthew Stenson (216), Paul Jenkins (222), Richard Lewis (225) and Matthew Lumley (228).

The result leaves us in the relegation zone but with plenty to fight for in the last two races.  Well done to everyone who ran!

The full results are available here.  Video coverage is available on the athleticos site here.

The senior women’s team ran superbly in their second league fixture at Burbage Common, Hinckley.  On a “horrendous” course with two long laps of thick mud our young team put in a great performance, with all runners improving on their placings in the 1st match.

Megan McBrien led the team home in 9th place (10 places higher than the last race), Becky Robinson was 28th (10 place improvement), Andrea Deathridge was 33rd in her first race of the season, Miranda Stoddart was 57th (13 places higher than last) and Rachel Smith was 60th (13 places higher).  The team results have not yet been published but we should be well placed.

The next league race (12 January) is at Sandwell Valley at the same venue as the men.  It would be great to get a good turnout at this fixture with all runners welcome.  If anyone would like to run please speak to Margaret Riley.

A number of runners were out on the roads at the weekend. Clive Hackforth made up for the disappointment of missing out on the New York Marathon by running 3.09 at Luton.  This knocked six minutes off his PB and qualifies him as “good for age” for the London Marathon (the 12th runner at the club to have achieved this during 2012).  Ollie Harradence finished second in the Shakespeare Raceway Half Marathon running sub 1.15 for the 3rd time this year, whilst Paul Davey knocked 50 seconds off his PB running 1.23 at the St Neots Half Marathon. Well done all!

On Sunday our junior athletes travelled to Wolverhampton for the second league race of the season.  There were over 60 athletes competing and they all ran fantastically!

The top individual performance came from Elemena Saunders who led from start to finish to win the U15 girls race by 21 seconds.

The U11 girls won their team race with Beth Darrock 3rd, Georgia Platt 9th, Caitlin White 11th, Maisie Cain 12th and Rachel White 18th.  Harrison Batchelor (8th) and Alex Stapleton (12th) starred in the U11 boys race.

There were great performances in all the age groups with Molly Rees, Georgia Curry, Laura Richardson, Kieran Mullis, Shaun Evans and Jerome Austin all recording top 20 finishes.

The results are available here. Well done to everyone who took part!

The men’s and women’s senior XC teams were both in action for the 1st league race of the season at Newbold Comyn, Leamington.  On a gruelling course with thick mud, a short energy sapping hill, a stream crossing and more mud, both teams put in great performances.

The women continued their great form following their 6th place finish in the English XC Relays last weekend.  Katie Ingle was the first runner home in 9th place, with Megan McBrien 19th, Rebecca Robinson 39th, Miranda Stoddart 70th and Rachel Smith 73rd.  The team was 5th.  The results are all the more impressive given that all the athletes are running in their first year for the senior team.

The men’s race comprised all three divisons and more than 700 runners.  Ollie Haradence was first home for the club in 33rd place.  The other 1st team scorers were Nick Corker (72nd), Mark Bridges (126th), Dave Long (127th), Russell Simpson (136th) and Simon Corker (152nd).  Great performances from the other runners with 20 people competing.  In particular, well done to Paul Davey, Matt Stenson, Subudh Dave, and Richard Lewis who were making their XC debuts (always good to pick a nice easy race for your debut!).  The team was 15th on the day.

The next race is on 1 December, with the men at Cofton Park and the women at Burbage Common (Hinckley).

The men’s results are available here.  The women’s results are available here.