There was plenty of action for athletes from Wolverhampton & Bilston AC to get involved in at the weekend as they travelled far and wide looking for opportunities to compete both indoors and out.
Two athletes could have been spotted on the BBC red button (and can probably still be caught on IPlayer) competing in the UK Indoor Championships at the Utilita Arene (the old NIA) in Birmingham. As Adelle Tracey, the former World, European and Commonwealth Games attendee claimed the gold medal in 4.13.4 two of Wolverhampton’s finest were not too far behind. Louise Hackett showed that she can perform as well on the indoor boards as she can over a cross country course with 6th place in a personal best time of 4.25.52 and Issy Cotham chased her all the way to record a 9th place finish in a season’s best 4.27.63.
There was plenty of mud flying about in the National Cross Country Champions at Parliament Hill in London where the younger athletes were out in force. In the U13 boys race Fred Jones claimed a superb bronze medal crossing the line in 11.31, Oscar Davis was 23rd in 12.34, Sam Ball was 31st in 12.42, Will Hughes was 167th in 14.02 and Leon Asbury was 302nd in 15.18. The team just missed out on a medal in 4th place. The U13 girls were down to just two competitors with Elanor Simpson in 131st in 14.42 and Lucy Horton finishing 224th in 15.37.
In the U15 boys race Owen Ulfig placed 39th in 15.43, Theo Palmer 175th in 17.18 and Jared Richards was 354th in 19.24. In the U15 girls’ event Isobelle Jones came 13th in 17.25, Megan White was 113th in 19.24, Zena Asbury was 200th in 20.45 and Scarlett Willoughby finished 22.25 to take 293rd place. And in the U17 girls Isabelle Price placed 30th in 21.15, Beth Rawlinson was 45th in 21.46 and Sara Jones 131st in 23.44.
In the senior events Beth Tabor was the sole representative in the women’s’ race finishing in 36.41 to take 199th place. And it was similar story in the men’s event with illness, injury and other commitments bringing the clubs participants down from four to just one on the day with Greg Asbury flying the flag coming home in 1.00.40 in 1090th place and even then having to face the trauma of back and forth emails and reviewing video evidence to ensure his name appeared on the results as his chip failed on the day.
Elsewhere but no less muddy Dan Maskew claimed a notable win in the Dirty Dozen Trail Run, a “one of a kind trail running event” around Cannock Chase over 12k which appears to have involved lots of mud and an advertised water section, which the organisers claimed was “knee deep on an average sized person”. Dan was clearly in his element with a victory in 46.38.
Further afield Emily Symonds competed in the Rock & Roll Las Vegas 10k crossing the line in 48.39 to place 63rd overall, 10th lady and 3rd in her age group.
And finally, some housekeeping from last week and the results for the BUCS indoors championships are finally in, where Harry Dyall recorded a seasons best time of 4.10.66 to place 6th in the semi final of the 1500m. Despite not making the final this is still a great achievement as Harry’s season has been restricted by Achilles issues and his performance was achieved despite being restricted to cross training prior to the event.
