Reports
Worcester Athletic Club Members Win County Awards
At County Track & Field Championships 10/5/08
For the second year running, three out of the four prestigious county awards for the best track and field performances went to WAC members. Both the track cups were won for sprint performances, under 15 boy Alex Bradnick for his 100m - 11.6 & 200m - 24.3 & under 17 Jenny White for her 300m hurdles - 44.1 & 200m -25.7. Best male field performance of the day went to under 17 Richard Colado for his high jump of 1m 90cm.
Worcester AC athletes claimed a total of 51 medals at the Championships – 18 gold, 19 silver & 14 bronze! In addition to the above athletes the following were also crowned county champions Helen Reeves, double champion (U15 200m – 28.4 (heat – 27.9) & LJ – 4.54); Jodie Ledger (SW 1500m – 4:53.1); Sean Linnie (U20 Long Jump – 6.50); Max Clayton (U20 High Jump – 1.80); Jack Coulter (U15 High Jump – 1.45); Ben Gallant (U15 Triple Jump – 8.88); Jack Lannie (U15 80m Hurdles – 15.7); Elizabeth Sliwa (U15 Discus – 19.31); Ella Gibbons (U15 High Jump – 1.40); Martyn Bowles (U13 Long Jump – 4.16); Sam White (U13 High Jump – 1.30); Siobhan Glover (U13 High Jump – 1.25).
A rewarding day out for all the medal winners, for those who achieved club records & personal best performances & those who qualified for a place in a final after challenging heat.
Added 27 May '08
Worcester Athletic Club members win Performance Awards
Six top athletes from Worcester AC rose above the West Midland top ten target for the 2007 track and field season. Under 15 boy Josh Herbert gained success in 4 individual events (80m Hurdles – 12.50, High Jump – 1.72, Shot – 12.03 & Javelin – 40.31) & also the Pentathlon in which he was ranked 1st in the WM with 2624 points. Under 17 women Jenny White ran away with 4 awards (300m – 41.4, 80m Hurdles – 11.96, 300m Hurdles – 43.22 & 400m Hurdles 65.9) her 300m Hurdle time put her 1st in the UK. Under 17 jumpers were both 2nd in the WM Max Clayton with his High Jump of 1m90 & Sean Linnie with his Long Jump of 6.83 which also took him above the UK target, Sean also ranked in the Triple Jump with 12.61. On the track Under 20 men Sam Mitchell & Mike Simmonds made their mark, Sam 4th in WM with his 5000m time of 16:03.8 & Mike for both the 400m - 49.7 and 400m hurdles - 57.2 which ranked him 3rd in the WM. These athletes have been awarded certificates to show they "hit the power of 10 local target".
Several Worcester AC athletes are already on target for the 2008 season! www.powerof10.info
Added 27 May '08
Sports:hall Round Up 2006 - 2008
Club
Sports:hall is track & field athletics adapted for indoors. As last years activity was not publicised I will also mention highlights from then too.
Both years about 100 young athletes participated in enough events during training and competition to gain their “Shine Award” certificate. This scheme has 7 levels and rewards every athlete for their achievements over a range of events in running, jumping, throwing & agility. Medals were given to the highest scoring athletes:-
| 2006 – 2007 season | 2007 – 2008 season | |
|---|---|---|
| School year 5 girl | Siobhan Glover | Nicola Lam |
| School year 5 boy | Ben Stephens & Scott White | Jacob Ham |
| School year 6 girl | Georgina Greenwood & Hetty Swan | Megan Kewn |
| School year 6 boy | Sam White | Matthew Glover |
| School year 7 girl | Ella Gibbons | Hetty Swan |
| School year 7 boy | David Serafini | Thomas Maund |
This season, in November, we had a “Friday Friendly” Sports:hall competition -
Tues v Thurs. Those who took part had fun and Tues group won.
County
The county (H & W) teams were selected from athletes who went along to a selection day in November at Perdiswell sports centre. This year it was particularly well supported with over 200 athletes and 120 of those were under 11! WAC were very well represented in all age groups and many got into the County teams, see position of H & W teams at Regional Finals below. It is a great achievement & honour to represent the county well done to you all.
| H & W Teams | 2006 – 2007 season | 2007 – 2008 season |
|---|---|---|
| Under 11 girls | Team position 5th (6 teams) | Team position 2nd (6 teams) |
| Under 11 boys | Team position 4th (6 teams) | Team position 4th (6 teams) |
| Under 13 girls | Team position 4th (5 teams) | Team position 4th (5 teams) |
| Under 13 boys | Team position 4th (5 teams) | Team position 5th (5 teams) |
| Under 15 girls | Team position 4th (5 teams) | Team position 4th (5 teams) |
| Under 15 boys | Team position 5th (5 teams) | Team position 5th (5 teams) |
As you would imagine, the competition at this level is very high, so when a WAC athlete wins an event against the whole region they deserve an individual mention…………
Under 11 “Fun in Athletics Festival” 14/1/07 - Cannock
Martyn Bowles 47cm in vertical jump, Harry Lannie 21m in javelin, Sarah Harrison & Sam White 60 seconds (maximum) in balance test.
Under 11 “Fun in Athletics Festival” 13/1/08 – Coventry
Lulu Smith 26 points in target throw.
Under 13 “Team Challenge” 9/2/08 – Worcester
Ella Gibbons 1.45m in high jump.
There were many other high positions and great performances across the age groups.
Future Sports:hall
Next year we are going to start a league within the county, so to finish this season we had an inter-club friendly to get an idea of which clubs were interested in taking part. It gained good support and will take off next season, I`m sure. The winners of each age group were ………...
Under 11 girls – Dudley and Stourbridge Harriers, Under 11 boys – Bromsgrove & Redditch, Under 13 girls mixed team B & R with Hereford AC & Under 13 boys mixed team Worcester AC with Droitwich AC. Next year Under 15s will be included on an individual basis.
Gill Repton. All you ever wanted to know about sports:hall www.sportshall.org
Added 26 May '08
Under 11 Fun in Athletics Festival
West Midlands Region
Sunday 13th January 2008 
The Herefordshire & Worcestershire county team were selected from 130 hopefuls who attended an event in November.
The girls started the day with a faultless obstacle relay gaining first place and the boys completed the official events with a convincing win in the grand prix. The 11 athletes from WAC all did extremely well with many high positions and PBs. The boys teams were so close they really did give each other a good competition, H & W team finished with 399 points in 4th place just 22 points behind first place (Warwickshire). The girls team also 22 points behind first place (Warwickshire) finished in 2nd place with 419 points after dominating the field and gaining maximum points in 5 out of the 9 events. There was a packed track schedule keeping our officials Pam & Pat busy (thank you ladies), both the girls and boys had a good mixture of positions and really did look like they were having “Fun in Athletics!” Congratulations to you all.
Midland Road Relay Sutton Park 23 Sept '07
3 x 3.681km
Under 13 girls 9th
Under 13 boys 10th
Under 15 boys 16th
Under 17 women 6th
An impressive set of positions given the standard of runners within the midlands! It is a challenging course even for the most experienced runners, so very well done to you all. Unfortunately, four athletes picked up sporting injuries on Saturday and although I did ask other athletes I was unable to get the teams filled, one was ill on the morning. We always aim to run complete teams but if it doesn’t work out at least the athletes get to run and have their individual legs timed!
Under 13 girls team - Imogen Blears: 16.12, Holly Wootten: 16.24 & Amy Cooke: 16.55 - got WAC off to a good start, with three strong runs they finished in an impressive 9th place out of 25 teams. Imogen & Holly, who both ran last year, were pleased to see their team had improved by 11 positions – an excellent achievement. I was pleased to see them focussing on the “team” result, although it’s also nice to see how the individual times compare to previous performances (especially when they are so much faster), it is a team event.
Thomas Stock ran a very competitive first leg in the under 13 boys race. Not far behind first place, Thomas and two other boys raced up the hill to the take over, giving him a time of 14.27, =4th fastest out of all 57 under 13 boys and recording the fastest WAC time (by 55s) since they have been running that distance (2003). That was a great start for the team putting Sam White up with the front runners, this could have been rather daunting not having the experience at this distance but Sam rose to the challenge, running a much faster leg than I expected – 16.04 – now in 5th team place (less than a second behind 4th). Luke McCluskey was third to go and was quite relaxed having run both the midland and the national relays last year; he finished in a time of 18.56. Meanwhile Adam Higgins led off the second WAC u13b team completing his leg in 18.08 and coping well in the fast, first leg runners, Thomas Maund who was pleased to step into the team at short notice (thank you Thomas) rounded up the second team in 21.38.
Most of the under 15 & under 17 runners have more experience, having competed in this event on many occasions. Monica McCluskey: 15.21 ran very well for the under 15 girls followed by Hannah Whittal-Williams: 17.13 - a pleasing first run at this event.
Under 15 boys teams – David Jubb: 14.55 another pleasing first run at this event, Lewis Roberts: 14.34 & Josh Carr: 16.13, and the 2nd WAC team Greg Everest: 16:45. Lewis had the most improved time by a WAC athlete, over last year’s time, by a massive 2m42s.
Under 17 ladies were set off by Tiffany Jones: 16.14 followed by Ros Harvey: 14.47 – which was the 6th fastest time out of all 56 u17s then Sam Hodson: 17.55 completed the team.
Craig Johnson: 15.27 & Joe Sliwa: 15.59 in the under 17 men finished an energetic day for the WAC teams.
Very well done to all the WAC runners, and we’ll look forward to next time!
Full results can be found on www.race-results.co.uk.
Gloucestershire Open Cross Country League 2006 - 2007
These races are open to everyone from under-11 to veteran. There are four races from October to January and some athletes ran in one but others completed all four - very well done to you all.
For the third year running the under-11 girls team finished the season in a medal position – silver, the team were Hetty Swan, Rebekka Hodson and Siobhan Glover backed up by Rebecca Noble, Sophie Repton, Olivia Cairns, Laura Westwood and Holly Godfrey.
Monica McCluskey had another good season finishing 2nd in the under-15 girls.
Jodie Ledger has rejoined the club and has gone from strength to strength, she was the seasons winner in the under-20 ladies.
The under-13 boys team finished just outside the medal positions with 8 athletes taking part there was a strong team out in every race but the competition is very good. Even though the team is important to these athletes there is a lot of friendly rivalry amongst them and each race saw a different finishing order – a good competitive group of lads who will go far, I’m sure!
With fewer athletes in the other age groups it was difficult to make a team impact but the league provides excellent experience and the progress made over just a few months can be very rewarding.
The full results can be found on www.glosaaa.org.uk.