Category: Race reports

Here’s Margaret’s report from the Midland Championships:

Some of Royal Sutton Coldfield’s top athletes were in action at the weekend in the Midland Championships staged at Prestwold Hall, Loughborough. The course was a true test of endurance with a stiff headwind over the first half of the course.

Pick of the races was the under 20 Women’s event and star of the show was Georgia Curry.  Never out of the top three she ran a tactically mature race, shadowing the early pace-maker, only conceding top spot in the final fifty metres. A silver medal should secure her selection for the Home Countries International to be held in Wales in March. Completing the line-up were Georgia Delaney in 22nd and Emily Campion in 24th and they were rewarded with bronze team medals.  Ellen Humpherston was Sutton’s sole representative in the under 17 women’s race which was run in conjunction with the under 20’s. Ellen has another year in this age group and was pleased to finish in 14th.

The under 20 men’s race was a high quality event. Shaun Evans had a good race and sat in on the early pace but couldn’t quite hold on to the leaders and finished a creditable 4th. Alex Jones ran strongly, crossing the line in 17th and Alex Blackham, having his first outing of the season, ran well in 24th.

The under 17 men’s race saw Tom Parkes cross the line in 43rd and Ben Horton in 47th.

The senior men’s race was over a gruelling nine miles and Sutton had two representatives.  Joe Spruce had a great race to finish 64th with Tom Chew in 134th.

Here’s Steve’s report from last weekend’s XC:

Royal Sutton’s senior men were in action last Saturday at Coventry in the third round of the cross country league. On a fast and slightly shorter course than normal at Coundon Park in Coventry the men’s team, depleted by a number of runners due to injury and illness, again took on the cream of the Midlands top cross country runners. The standard on the day was the strongest of all races so far this season yet Shaun Evans and Ollie Harradence set off strongly following their county championship winning runs the week before in the junior men and masters over 35 events respectively.

A larger than normal lead group of over 20 runners, including Evans, broke away early and on the three lap course, this group slowly split up with Evans coming home first for the club in 14th place followed by Ollie Harradence in 35th place. The A team was completed by Alex Jones, Joe Spruce, Tom Chew and Rob Andrew bringing the team home in 12th place on the day. This result saw the club slip one place in the table from 10th to 11th however with one final fixture remaining in February the club sits in relative mid-table security safely above the relegation battle.

The B team scorers on the day were Simon Corker, Fred Tremblay, Matt Powell, Matt Bennett, Paul Jenkins and Iain Mackie with Trevor Lewis also finishing for the club.

Here’s Graham report on our young throwers who were in early season action at the Alexander Stadium yesterday:

Well, 2017 started well at a cold and wet Alexander Stadium yesterday. We had 4 Hammer Throwers competing and results were as follows.

• Sherri Smart (Senior Women) 2nd
• Chrissie Prince (U20) 1st
• James Ward (U17) 1st New PB 25.96 metres on his first Comp in new Age Group and heavier Hammer
• Meghan Sharman (U15) 1st New PB and Club Record 29.53 metres

The New Season looks like it might even be better than last year. Big thanks to Chrissie Prince for all the coaching she has been doing with the group and for looking after the squad during my holidays. A lot of the credit goes to Chrissie.

Here’s Roy’s Report from the Women’s XC League clash at Wolverhampton yesterday:

A great effort by all our athletes who competed at the County Championships last weekend with lots of team and individual medals won. We had a particularly strong showing at the Warwickshire County Championships where the club was second in the medal table winning a total of ten medals. We won a further medal at the Staffordshire Championships – Well done all!

At the Warwickshire County Championships (held at Newbold Comyn, Leamington) the U13 Girls won team gold, with Elsa Buchanan winning an individual silver medal and Lucy Carey winning an individual bronze. Maddie Hammond completed the scorers, finishing 7^th, whilst there were great runs by Hope Stirland (8^th), Zara Buchanan (17^th) and Leila Rahmati (20^th).  Jack Wakefield finished 12^th in the U13 boys race

The U15 Girls team also came home with a bronze medal, with Charlotte Hey finishing 5^th, Caitlin White (10^th) and Lucy Corker (13^th). In the U15 boys race Finlay Barlow finished 7^th, Joseph Martin was 23^rd and Matt Perry was 40^th meaning a 6^th place finish for the team.

The U17 women’s team of Ellen Humpherston (3^rd) , Abi Trevis (9^th)  and Lucy Ollerenshaw won team silver, with Ellen Humpherston winning an individual bronze medal. In the U17 men’s race Ben Horton was 10^th and Tom Parkes was 13^th.

There was also a team gold for our U20 Women. Georgia Curry led the team home in 3^rd place with great support from Georgia Delaney (5^th) and Emily Campion (7^th). There was gold for Shaun Evans in the U20 men’s race whilst Alex Jones was 4^th.

In the senior women’s race Megan McBrien was 5^th, Katie Ingle was 8^th, Rachel Thebridge was 34^th and Helen Elsoueidi was 37^th. The team finished 5^th.

Oliver Harradence retained his title in the Masters event whilst Rob Andrew was 41^st.

A number of athletes also competed at the Staffordshire County Championships at Wolverhampton. Sian Duval was 6^th in the U13 girls race, whilst George O’Conner was 25^th in the U13 boys race. Caitlin O’Connor was 13^th in the U15 girls race, whilst Lewis Duval was 5^th in the U15 boys race. Mel Woodward won a bronze medal finishing 3^rd in the Veteran women’s race.

The great results mean the club will have a good representation at the Inter County Championships in March.

Staffordshire results

Warwickshire results

Warwickshire XC – Medal Table

On Saturday our senior men and women were in action at Sandwell and Stratford on Avon in the second round of their respective cross country league fixtures.

It was another fine performance from the RSCAC Ladies team competing at a new venue on a very undulating and old style cross country course. All the runners had to be sure of their footing on this arduous course and it was of no surprise that there were several falls with 28 teams and over 232 runners competing on the day in this division. Although the team was depleted due to injuries and other commitments those that did run gave the club an excellent result, packing closely together. The 1st runner home for the club was Rachel Thebridge 97th place and 36th Senior, 2nd Georgia Delaney 101st place and 6th Junior, Helen Elsoueidi 115th place 69th Master being third home followed by Emily Campion 137th and 7th Junior. Overall an excellent result from this mixed team of Juniors, Seniors and Masters.

The men, racing at Sandwell Park, put out a team of 15 runners as they looked to consolidate their mid table position in their first season back in the top flight. Right from the off, Shaun Evans, Alex Jones and Ollie Harradence made strong starts with Evans running in a small group that broke away early with Jones and Harradence settling into the second group. While Jones dropped of the early pace, he held on to stay in the first 6 runners home for the club and joined by Tom Chew, Joe Spruce (making his debut for the club) and Dave Long, who all displayed some positive running to work their way through the field, to earn team RSCAC 10th place out of the 16 competing clubs on the day. This result sees RSCAC maintain the same 10th position in division one some 267 points & 4 places above the relegation zone. Special mention should go to Evans who finished in 10th place overall and 2nd in the junior men’s race for under 20’s

The B team was brought home by Mark Rickards followed by Fred Tremblay, Simon Corker, Russell Simpson, Steve Pitt and John Fletcher with Trevor Lewis, Paul Jenkins and Matt Stenson making up the club numbers.

 The next race league fixtures for both men & women takes place on the 14th January 2017.

The new cross country season started on Saturday for the seniors of Royal Sutton Coldfield Athletics Club with the men venturing down to Cheltenham in their return to Division one of the Birmingham and District cross country league. Competition was expected to be fierce with all the region’s top athletics clubs and universities competing in the four fixture season and a tough road ahead for RSCAC to retain their place in the top flight.

On a fast and firm course there was some excellent individual and team running resulting in a promising start to the season with Shaun Evans running through strongly after a slow start to coming home in 20^th place followed by Ollie Harradence in 48^th position. These were well supported by Alex Jones, making his senior debut, and Tom Chew in 101^st and 107^th positions with the scoring team being completed by Mark Rickards (162) and Dave Long (164) who ran tactically gain valuable points between them. At the end of the day, team RSCAC were placed 10th overall, four places and 83 points above the relegation places.

The B team was made up of Simon Corker, Russell Simpson, Dean England, Matt Powell, Iain Mackie (in his debut run for the club) and Trevor Lewis with supporting running from Paul Jenkins.

The second league fixture is on 3^rd December on the challenging Sandwell Valley course where the club hope to build on this encouraging start.

For the clubs senior women, their Midland Women’s Cross Country League division 2 campaign started at Newbold Common in Leamington Spa. After torrential rain in the morning the weather improved to give a damp but warm start to the race on this hilly course for the five club athletes who ventured out, 2 of whom had only just reached the age to compete in this league.

It was an excellent result for the club, the team finished 8th out of the 26 teams competing in the division with over 220 runners competing.

The first finisher for the club finishing in 3rd place overall and 1st Junior was Georgia Currie followed by Andrea Deathridge (19th) Held Elsoueidi (86th) Rachel Thebridge (87th) and Georgia Delaney (100th). An excellent performance we now look forward to the next meeting on the 3rd December at Stratford.

Some great performances from Sutton athletes at the Midland Road Relays last Saturday. Laura Whittle showed she has maintained her Olympic form running the fastest leg of the day. She led the women’s team home to a 6th place finish. The men also ran well, with the young team finishing in 24th place to secure qualification for the Nationals.

RESULTS AND PHOTOS

Here’s John’s report from the British Masters:

• JANICE PRYCE W55  Triple Jump 1st 9.75m BRITISH RECORD This beats the existing record of 9.29m set in 2014 by Teresa Eades. Janice broke the old record three times in the competition and now holds both the W50 and the W55 records; W55 Long Jump 3rd 4.08m.
• LORNA FOSTER W50 Discus 2nd 24.60m  NEW CLUB RECORD; W50 Shot 4th 8.51m; W50 Hammer 24.32m 8th
• DONALD BROWN M50 100m Hurdles 1st 14.74; 200m 2nd 24.45. Both these times were seasons best for Donald . Janice tells me that Donald tripped at the finish in the 200m which was a very close race (winners time 24.41) . He is OK after his fall.
• KEVIN BROWN M 50 Discus 2nd 45.09m  Very close competition ( Winner was 45.80m)
• DAVID PRICE  M75 Javelin  2nd 25.54m
• RICHARD HENRY M40 100m 8th 12.71