It’s a bumper two week effort this time.
Although this has been delayed as we were waiting for the Division 2 results for the Birmingham Cross country league, it’s taken 10 days for these to appear on the website, they were worth the wait as you will see later.
It was an incredibly busy weekend for everyone at the club with hosting the final seniors race for both men and women of the cross-country season. Work started on marking out the course on Thursday evening and continued relentlessly throughout the weekend until the final action of trying to get the stranded burger van off the field when it was firmly anchored in almost axle deep mud. The highest of praise goes to everyone involved in the set-up, Adam Guy as race director, Glen Lock for all his efforts on course layout and acting as an official on the day, Noel McKakly for his tireless work, John Abbiss and Colin Thompson for their early start and a long day of marshalling, those dealing with the car parking nightmare, particularly Dave Hendy and all those that made a contribution to what was an incredible day for the club.
We’ll start with the ladies who were off the line first. After some significant upheaval going into into the season some work behind the scenes and some great efforts from the team manager, Sabrina Thomas, has galvanised the ladies squad and they had a superb finish to their season on home turf. Isobelle Jones swapped her GB vest for her W&B one to turn out for the club finishing in 2nd place, and 1st junior, in 24.13, Isabelle Price was 17th in 26.13, placing 5th junior, Vicki Mackay was 33rd in 27.21, Lucie Tait-Harris was 34th in 27.39, Millie Williams was 67th in 29.57, and 14 junior showing that we have some real talent coming through from the younger ranks, Sabrina Thomas was 81st in 30.50, Emily Simmonds placed 93rdin 31.41, Vanessa Landreau Barnes finished in 108th in 33.22, Veronika Ulcina (Foster) was 109th in 33.26, Danni Braine 119th in 35.21 and Imogen Harley 139th in 43.07.
This was good enough for the ladies team to finish 8th in the league from a total of 18 clubs on 754 points, only 14 points off Stratford on Avon in 7th place and just ahead of Tipton Harriers who were a place behind on 771. The Masters ladies team won a team bronze finishing 3rdbehind City of Stoke AC and Bromsgrove & Redditch.
The men went into the final race of the season on top of the Division 2 league table and were looking to bounce straight back after last season’s relegation. Three laps around the fields at Aldersley, a location they knew well, and the master plan that was hatched before the season started, the finish with a home game, meant that we had a huge squad on the day. Jonny Morris was first home in 2nd place, only 9 seconds behind the winner, in 33.45, James Neilson was 7th in 34.52, good enough to claim the top U20 prize for the season, there was a late call up for Louie Lambeth who was 11th in 35.25, Dan Turner was 13th in 35.43, Dan Maskew was 14th in 35.57 and Luke Maskew completed the A team counters in 17th in 36.09. An incredible performance.
Jon Hart was 32nd in 37.25, Gary Worrall 35th in 37.35, Dylan Illidge, 44th in 38.04, won a nip and tuck battle with Alex Blair who was a place and 4 seconds behind in 38.12. Ben Foster was 49th in 38.38, Derrick Milligan was 55th in 38.48, Alex Kelly 60th in 38.58, it was great to see Tyler Hawley back from a long-term injury running 39.28 to place 68th, Tom Pryor was 74th in 39.45, with Joe Flatley in 75th in 39.47 and Paul Marson in 76th in 39.49 chasing him home. Steve Newman was 103rd in 40.53, Joe St Quinton was 112th in 41.40, Dan Vaughan 121st in 42.12, Adam Guy 135th in 43.05, Paul Rogers 137th in 43.18, Paul Dean 153rd in 44.31, Jay Patel 165th in 45.13, Tony Cheema 175th in 45.59, Andy Dyall 184th in 46.45, Paul Clarke 196th in 48.46. Rob Edwards 204th in 49.13, Simon Calrow 205th in 49.15, Dave Davies made another comeback with 49.17 for 206th place, Mark Illidge was 207th in 49.22, Dave Norman was 210th in 50.17, Lee Partridge 217th in 56.25 and Russ Blair was 219th in 63.08.
This was good enough for the club to claim the Division 2 league title by over 250 points with Cannock & Stafford and Black Pear Joggers joining them in promotion to the top table. The B team were also top of their table, almost a thousand points clear, showing the strength in depth the club has at the moment. The club just missed out on top spot in the Masters League table, losing out by only 8 points to Black Pear Joggers, but were top of the B team Masters table. Congratulations to everyone who pulled on a vest to make this season a huge success, every single athlete has made a massive contribution and the club will return to Division 1 much stronger than when we left it.
And there was club representation in the UK Athletics Cross Challenge in Leeds where Ava Kind pulled on a Midlands vest in the U20 women’s race coming home in 35th place in 23.56.
The young guns were firing on Sunday as they completed their season with a final fixture at Nuneaton. Alba Jones claimed a win in the U11 girls race with a time of 6.47, Abigail Evans placed 7th in 7.29, Chloe Cashmore-Jones was 13th in 7.47, Holly Doody was 32nd in 7.47, Ocean Schloss 59th in 9.27, Sophie Pilsbury 80th in 9.27 and Isla Gaunt 93rd in 10.03. Good enough for a 2nd place finish.
In the U11 boys race there was a 12th place finish for George Nicholls in 7.23, Edison Bowden was 31st in 7.46, Cameron Guest was 33rd in 7.51, Evan Nash 36th in 7.55, Isaac Heinke 55th in 8.11, Samuel Worrall 70th in 8.32, George Shaw 72nd in 8.34, Joseph Blunt 75th in 8.35, Joshua Hayes 103rd in 9.42 and Alfred Harrison 108th in 10.12. With the club placing 5th. There was a 2nd place finish for Lila Pearce in the U13 girls race, crossing the line in 9.38, Biba Guest was 14th in 10.23, Heidi Hayes was 15th in 10.24, Evelyn Haines 29th in 10.50, Phoebe Bridgen 53rd in 11.27, Amiyah Pal 78th in 12.33, Charlotte Rogers 84th in 13.17. Placing the club in 2nd.
There was another win for the club in the U13 boys race with Rocco Hawley taking 1st place in 8.30, Jonathan Yang was 3rd in 8.49, Seb Palmer placed 8th in 9.00 and Theo Ulfig 9th in 9.01. Harry Monkton was 14th in 9.16, and Nahum Worrall was 15th in 9.17. With the boys finishing 1st in their age group on the day
And another victory in the bag for Grace Hendy in the U15 girls race, crossing the line in 12.50, Kiki Guest was 15thin 14.28, Alice Cattell 29th in 15.12, Maya Rosa Jelic Ramesh 37th in 15.29, Erin-Mia Nash 44th in 15.59, Kaleah Moulder 56th in 17.02, Amira Moulder 58th in 17.15 and Clara Butler-Montero 66th in 17.44. Placing the club in 5th.
And another win for the club in the U15 boys race for Fred Jones who crossed the line in 11.31, Will Hughes was 6thin 11.59, Lucas Fullwood 46th in 14.35, Aaron Guest 52ndin 15.12. Placing the club in 5th on the day.
In the U17 ladies race there was a 6th place finish for Zoleka Mzuku in 15.44, Megan White placed 13th in 16.49 and Scarlett Willoughby 24th in 17.49.
And in the U17 mens race there was a 43rd place finish for Aryan Pal in 21.03 and Kane Carrington was a place behind in 44th place in 21.14. Placing the club 3rd on the day. With only two athletes competing the club placed 10th, one more would have made a massive difference. Overall, the club finished 3rd on the day behind Rugby & Northampton AC and RSCAC.
Across all 5 races the club were runners up in the overall team results on 30829 points from Rugby & Northampton AC who were is 1st place with 31723. This is broken down into 4th for the U11 boys, with George Nicholls in 3rd overall, 3rd for the U11 girls, with Alba Jones taking the U11 girls title, 1st for the U13 boys, with Rocco Hawley in 2nd, Jonathan Yang in 4th and Seb Palmer in 5th, 2nd for the U13 girls, with Lila Pearce placing 2nd overall, 6th for the U15 boys, with Fred Jones winning the age group title, 4th for the U15 girls, with Grace Hendy bagging 3rd place, 7th for the U17 men, with Jack Stockton taking 4th place and 2nd in the U17 women.
There was some indoor action at Sheffield in the England Athletics 15/U17/U20 Indoor Championships where Aupromeyo Mukherjee placed 8th in the U15M 60 final in 7.49, having won his heat in 7.58 and then placed 4th in the semi-final in 7.44. Samantha Agomoh placed 1st in a PB of 7.95 in her heat of the U15W 60, she placed 4th in another PB of 7.90 in her semi-final. This places Aupro 11th in the UK for U15 boys and Samantha moves up to 9th in the UK in the U15 girls category.
The delayed cross country league results allows us to include the action from 48 hours ago where Danni Braine took part in the Village Bakery Half Marathon in Wrexham. Danni crossed the line in 1.52.35 in 1055th place. Greg Asbury was in indoor action competing in the English Masters Indoor Inter-Area Championships, where he was part of the winning M50 4 x 200 relay team, the team clocking 1.47.48 for victory, he also finished 2nd in the M50 triple jump with a leap of 9.62, making a significant contribution to the Midlands team winning both the men’s and overall competitions.
Dave Norman
