Trebles for Tannika & Feron, devastating win for Ann

The last few weeks has seen the qualification process for the prestigious English schools championships, which completed its journey at the national inter counties Mason trophy held at the Alexander stadium.

The club had one of it highest ever selections to this event as athletes battled their way through their own regional championships with the leading performances coming from treble title winners Tannika Burgess and Feron Sawyers, and the eye catching victory of Ann Ika Oqua dropping back to the 100m sprint, also going on to win the 300m.

The Douras twins again impressed in qualifying for the Mason Trophy – Emma in the hurdles and Sarah in the high jump. Megan Dixon also qualified in two events as she prepares for the combined events championship in Oxford. Shalliece Benjamin, one of the most improved athletes this year, took two silver medals in photo finishes as she qualified for her first Mason Trophy, as did Jodie Harrison in the 300m where she took second place behind Ann.

Sisters Becky and Kay Oakley made it another sister act by qualifying through the Staffordshire schools, Becky in the 300m hurdles and Kay in the 8oom, while over in Shropshire Georgia Gallant was performing as well as ever, as she to made her first Mason Trophy in the long jump. In the seniors girls Laura Pacey continues to move forward in her new event, getting down to 67 seconds in the 400m hurdles.

Mason Trophy

There were so many great performances of quality of grit and determination, such as Meg Dixon, coming off the high jump bed to win the 80m hurdles, Feron Sawyers amazing 1.95 high jump, after his victory in the sprint, and Tannika Burgess’ two excellent personal bests in hurdles and long jump, taking two silver medals and beating older girls. Both the Oakley and Douras sisters stepped up with first class performances, in four different events, 300m hurdles, 800m, 75m hurdles and high jump, but the stand-out performance has to be that of Ann Ika Oqua who stormed away from a top class field in what was her first 100m race since April- a truly amazing performance from an amazing young lady.

Well done to you all. We are proud of you, your families are proud of you, the club is proud of you, you are the future, the future we are all working towards Howard & Clova Court

Don’t forget – Midsummer 6

The Midsummer 6 off road race and Fun Run from Aldersley Leisure Centre, Aldersley, Wolverhampton

Sunday, July 12th at 10.00 a.m.

DON’T FORGET  – SPREAD THE WORD!!!

Midsummer 6 Entry Form

NATYAL update

Well done to everyone who took part in the NATYAL meeting on Sunday 21st June at Aldersley Stadium. After a lot of hard work and planning it was fantastic to see the club hosting a full timetable of events on home turf for the first time in 9 years.

All the effort really paid off, as we easily achieved second to Birchfield’s first place, who also had a strong advantage being in a relatively close location. Recent matches have been less satisfactory, and as the league table currently stands we’re not in a safe position yet to be guaranteed a place in the Premier league next year.

We have just under a month until the next match on July 19th at Tamworth, and we need to pull out all the stops to make sure we get all our best athletes to come along and help maintain our position in the Premier division. We have a really good chance to win this match!!

See the final scores and times from the match at Aldersley

See our current standing in the league

Midland Championships Match Report

At last some good weather reached us In time for The Midland AA championships at Alexander stadium last weekend (May 23/24).

There were seventeen competitors from the club, in the two age groups – under 17 and under 15 – and these young athletes did Wolves & Bilston proud with 20 personal best performances being set over the weekend, which is what it is all about. Add to that 9 medals being taken, it was noticeable how many W&B vests where on show raising the clubs profile.

As expected Feron Sawyers and Tannika Burgess took championships titles and showed fantastic form, although it was the head to head clash over 300m between our own Ann Ika Oqua and Doncaster’s Chloe Bradley that caused great excitement, as both qualified through the heats with just a tenth of a second between them. The race these two youngsters put on was one of the highlight of the weekend and a great demonstration of what our sport is all about, as neither gave an inch as they fought neck and neck for the last 170m of the race. Only on the line did Chloe prevail. Congratulations to Ann – it was a fantastic performance – and to Chloe; we look forward to the rematch.

Jodie Harrison produced her best ever performance setting a huge PB in the same race and qualified for the nationals. Becky Oakley broke through to the 46 second area of the 300m hurdles taking a bronze medal, again a PB. Her sister Kay, not to be out done, produced two excellent PB’s in the 800m and 1500m finals. Lucy Turvey took on the 3000m in what was turned out to be tough competition, while the Douras twins Emma and Sarah jumped and hurdled over the two days both just missing out on a medal, finishing in 4th place in their finals.

Our young sprinters just missed out on medals in blanket finishes, Shalleice Benjamin twice breaking 13 seconds, but still just hundredths away from the medals. Sophie Klair and Sarah Brookes both ran good times over the 200m, with Ellie Johnson setting a PB in the same event.

Imanuel Gardener took silver in the triple jump and set a PB in the 100m. Heptathlete Megan Dixon hurdled, jumped and sprinted well over the weekend setting a very good personal best time in the 200m of 26.8, which looks promising for her English schools heptathlon in June. Okot Ika Oqua took on her very first quadrathlon event in the championships finishing in 6th place. Last but by no means least, the vastly improving Georgia Gallant set three PB performances in long jump, hurdles and 200m and as an U15 at the bottom end of the age scale, reaching the final of the long jump was a great achievement.

Medal and regional selection for Georgia Gallant in first pentathlon

Georgia made her combined events debut in the pentathlon county trials at Telford athletics stadium last Tuesday, and this debut saw her taking a silver medal with a score of over 2300 points which is an exceptional score at this stage. That performance saw her selected for the inter counties pentathlon in Blackpool in June. Well done Georgia.

Howard Court

Download Saturday 23.05 results | Download Sunday 24.05 results

Race Walkers to Represent England

On Sunday 3rd May a small but very successful Race Walking team competed in the National Younger Age Group Championships and Senior 5km Open and Vets 3km at Victoria Park in London.

Open 5km  – 5th Marie Marshall (with a time of 31.09)
U17 Womens 5km – 3rd Vicky Morgan (29.02)
U15 Girls 3km – 3rd Beth Jackson (17.13)
U13 Boys 2km – 2nd Daniel Watling (11.07)
Open Vets 3km – 4th Marie Marshall (18.51)
Open Vets 3km – 5th Jill Langford (20.02)

Following this meeting Race Walking Selectors confirmed that they have chosen three of our athletes to represent England against Ireland in Dublin in June. They are:

Vicky Morgan U17; Beth Jackson U15; Daniel Watling U13.

A very big well done to all three of these athletes on earning their England vests!

Men’s Running Success

The senior men have had a several successful runs over recent weeks, here is a summary of some of them:

Spring Treble Series won by team consisting of Dan Brazier, Dave Smith, Dave Evans and Ross Jones. Dave Evans to individual winner.

Wrekin Streak Fell Race – Won by Ian Grindley, Ross Jones 3rd

DK 10k – Dave Evans 3rd, Ross Jones 5th, Dave Smith 10th

Muller 10k – Dave Evans 4th

Howman 9 mile handicap – Ross Jones 2nd

Lilleshall 10K – Dave Evans 3rd, Ross Jones 5th

All results (other than the Howman Handicap) can be found on the DK 10k Website.

Staffordshire AAA Championships

This open competition took place at Northwood Stadium, Stoke on a very blustery day last weekend. Many of our young athletes took part – the results can be downloaded here.

NATYAL Fixture 1 Results

Well done to all who took part in the first Young Athletes fixture of the season at Stafford’s Rowley Park Stadium on Sunday. The final match positions were as follows:

1 Notts AC 402.5
2 Cannock & Stafford AC 369.0
3 Wolverhampton & Bilston AC 352.5
4 Swansea Harriers 302.0

Download a PDF of the results here

Midland Joint T & F League Results Match 1

Well done to everyone who competed and officiated for the club we were missing a few athletes but we can and will do better for the next meeting which takes place on  is on Sunday 7th June at Yate Bristol. You can download a PDF of the full list of results here.

Noel Mckakly

Position Team Points
1 Halesowen 370
2 Birmingham Rowheath 348.5
3 Tipton H 338
4 Wolves & Biston 302.5
5 Telford AC 301
6 Yate & District 244

Club Awards Night

Thanks to everyone who came along to support the annual club awards night on April 24th. It was great to see so many of our athletes of all ages receive the praise and awards that they deserved for all their hard work and fantastic efforts throughout the year.

There were many trophies and medals awarded to track, field and cross-country athletes alike, as well as a special award to Tony & Sue Saunders for many years of commitment helping to run the club. Similarly our Club Secretary Ken Evans received a long service award, along with coach Dave Pearce who has been a club member for 40 years.

Top awards went to Alex Nwenwu (Athlete of the Year); Feron Sawyers (Male Athlete of the Year) and Ann Ika Oqua (Female Athlete of the Year).

Pictures can be found on the WBAC image gallery.