The weekly updates have been a little curtailed as we go into 2026, it’s not that athletes from the club haven’t been doing anything, it’s just that access to the information showing what they’ve been doing has been particularly hard to come by as the Power of 10 website giving results across the country at all major events has been down as UKA redesigned the site in an attempt to “improve functionality and performance.” Whilst is it now back up the revamp is not complete, results are missing and club details are limited, in fact it’s easier to find results from Limoges rather than Loughborough, or even Tiffin, Ohio or South Bend Indiana. Hopefully it will improve over time but in the meantime, I will do what I can, but if I do miss people I apologise in advance.
We’ll start by trying to catch up with news over the country. The senior fixtures that were due to take place at Worcester for the men and Burton Bassett for the ladies were both cancelled due to the weather after heavy snow in the week leading up to the fixtures. The West Midlands Young Athletes League, scheduled for the Sunday did go ahead, and although it was cold and incredibly muddy there were some great performances in gruelling conditions. Grace Hendy placed 3rd in the U17 ladies race in 15.44and Zoleka Mzuka was 11th in 16.38. In the U11 boys race there was a 16th place finish for Bertie Dixon in 7.55, Samuel Worrall placed 24th in 8.05, with Joshua Mzuka recording the same time but a place behind, Edison Bowden was 38th in 8.14, Joseph Blunt placed 39th in 8.17, Harry Mackay was 73rd in 8.57, with the club placing 5th in the age group. Sam Thursfield placed 6th in the U17 men’s race clocking 17.15, Will Hughes placed 37th in 20.04, Samuel Southall was 46th in 20.24, Lucas Fullwood was 48th in 20.28, good enough for 6th place. Abigail Evans was 10th in the U11 girls race recording a time of 8.10, Isla Gaunt placed 30th in 8.51, Clara Edwards was 32nd in 8.52, Holly Doody was 44th in 9.02, Isabelle Bowden 65th in 9.48, Harper Williams 73rd in 10.05, putting the club in 5th place. Rocco Hawley grabbed a 3rd place finish in the U15 boys race in 11.53, Harry Monkton was 10th in 12.22, Theo Ulfig placing 11th in 12.33, Jonathan Yang was 15th in 12.46, Nahum Worrall 28th in 13.28, Aaron Guest 49th in 15.11, the club finishing 1st in the age group. In the U13 girls race there was a 10th place finish for Chloe Cashmore-Jones in 10.43, Biba Guest was 21st in 10.56. Seb Palmer placed 2nd in 9.20 in the U13 boys race, missing out on the win by a single second, George Shaw clocked 11.00 for 45th place, Cameron Guest was 64th in 11.41, Finley Anslow was 70th in 11.59, with the club placing 8th. In the U15 girls race there was an 18th place in 15.38 for Kiki Guest, Erin-Mia Nash was 45th in 16.54, Phoebe Bridgen was 54th in 17.24, Amiyah Pal 61st in 18.00, Alice Cattell 62nd in 18.06, Clara Butler-Montero placed 66th in 18.27, Maya Rosa Jelic Ramesh was 69th in 18.44, Charlotte Rogers was 70th in 18.52, with the club coming 8th. Overall, the club placed 4th on the day and currently sit in 5th place.
We were at Warley Woods a week later for the West Midlands Schools County Cross Country Championships where Harry Monkton won the U15M race over 3k in 10.17, Nahum Worrall was 6th in 11.16. There was another win for the club in the U20W race with Megan White taking the honours in 11.04, from Grace Hendy who took the runners up spot in 11.14 and Zoleka Mzuku placed 4th in 11.23. Maya Rosa Jelic Ramesh was 28th in 14.43. And over 4.4k there was another win for Jack Stockton who bagged the victory in 14.33, Fred Jones placed 3rd in 14.38.
We moved on to Mallory Park in Leicestershire for the Midlands County Cross Country Championship where Rocco Hawley placed 5thy in the U15M race over 4k in 12.47, Nahum Worrall was 41st in 14.44. James Neilson finished 8th in 27.21 in the U20 race over 8k. The seniors men’s team finished a superb 7th with Jon Hart coming 64th in 47.37, Gary Worrall was 74th in 48.37, Derrick Milligan placed 94th in 50.32, Rob Sannwald-Dunn was 97th in 50.44, Joe Marples placed 112th in 52.46 and Dave Norman was 6th counter coming 157th in 59.45. Rob Edwards was 164th in 1.00.54. This combined the Midlands Master XC Championships so there were age group medals up for grabs, Jon Hart picked up a bronze medal in the M45 age group, Gary Worrall placing 4th and Dave Norman was 7th M55.
There was some action on the road in the Shrewsbury 5k, five laps of the cycle course on fresh tarmac under the floodlight, where Darren Owen-Jones clocked 21.36 for 141st place.
And indoors at Loughborough Aupromeyo Mukherjee placed 4th over 60m in 7.44, he also placed 6th in 7.51. In Sheffield at the RJT Series Indoor GP, La-Taunya Samuels was 4th in 7.85, and bagged a 7th place in 7.89 over 60m. Lattie also placed 1st over 200 in 25.74.
This should take us up to Friday 30th January, I apologise again if anything has been missed, and I will catch up with the weekend’s results when they become available.
Dave Norman
