News & Press Reports - 2018

Gloucester Athletic Club members tore themselves away from the festivities to compete in two of the events that were on offer over the holiday period.

 

Confusion reigned at Sunday’s Gloucester 10-mile road race when a marshalling error sent the leading runners off course, resulting in their running at least half a mile further than many of the other runners. The City contingent were awarded the following times, all of which were affected by the error:

 

3rd Steve Kenyon 62:04; 13th Owen Parry 64:42; 21st Mark Keeling 67:17; 33rd Dave Gresswell 69:41; 54th Anna Midgley 73:28.

 

At the Seven Sins Immortal multi-terrain event in the Forest of Dean, Nick Bishop clocked 2:27:31, Clive Poole 2:37:35 and Liz Usedon 3:05:39.

 

Over the next two weekends, the Club will be competing in the County Cross-Country Championships at Rendcomb College, Cirencester (5th January) while on the 12th, the Club’s senior men’s and ladies teams will be in action in their respective Birmingham and Midlands Women’s Cross-Country League fixtures at Droitwich.

 

Briony Bishop produced the best run of her career when she finished a best-ever 22nd placing in the senior ladies’ race in the latest round of the Gloucestershire Cross-Country League at Wotton-under-Edge on Sunday.

 

Bishop, who only turned 18 last month, has missed much of 2018 with a knee injury but since she returned to full training in the late summer as a member of Paul de-Camps’ middle distance squad she has made great progress and is now beginning to tap her undoubted potential, establishing herself as one of the leading performers in early cross-country races.

 

She made her intentions known right from the gun on Sunday, settling into a top 25 position as the large field headed off, but she had training partner Anna Midgley hot on her heels as the two worked together.

 

Working hard through to the end of the race, Bishop prevailed to come home in 26:23, just three places and four seconds ahead of Midgley, who also achieved a season’s best finish in this League.

Tina Wickens ran a well-judged race and produced a strong finish to out-sprint team-mate Emily Coyne as they finished 33rd and 34th in 27:20 and 27:21 respectively, with Wickens completing the ‘A’ team and Coyne leading home the ‘B’ team.

 

Charlotte McGlone ran strongly to place 40th in 27:39 while newcomer Sophie Hope, in her first race for the Club, took an encouraging 42nd place in 28:14 to complete the ‘B’ team.

 

Youngster Bethan Powell ran strongly to place 54th overall and 9th U17 in 28:51, leading the ‘C’ team home, ahead of Amy Walker who placed 60th in 29:35 and Nicola Waters who had her strongest run on the country for a couple of seasons, placing 72nd in 30:15.

 

Maisie Abbott, another runner new to the Club this season, led the ‘D’ team home as she placed 78th in 30:43, with Trudy Wells placing 97th in 32:27 and Emma Jeffery 120th in 34:43 to complete another good day for the City’s ladies.

 

The ladies race incorporated the M65 and M70 categories and saw Arthur Daley win the former age group in an excellent 28:25 and Chris O’Carroll place second in the latter category in 35:22.

 

The men’s team’s main focus for this winter is to regain their Division Two status in the Birmingham Cross-Country League and it was, therefore, a small but select group of runners who toed the line for the men’s race.

 

James Walters and Owen Parry have been involved in regular tussles on the country this season, with Parry having the better of his training partner, but this time it was Walters who took the honours and lead the team home as the pair placed 38th and 39th respectively.

 

Steve Haines was the next runner home, producing another consistent run to finish in a season’s best 69th place, while Dave Gresswell crept into the top 100 with a 94th place.

 

Clive Poole came home in 158th and the scoring team was completed by Aaron Bennett who placed 172nd.

 

Afterwards, Club spokesman Richard Blackwell said “This was an excellent result for the ladies’ teams and I’m especially pleased for Briony who is showing a massive improvement this season. While the leading men are concentrating on the Birmingham League this winter, it’s important that more of our supporting runners use these races to learn the art of cross-country racing.”

 

In the junior races, Jess Hill was determined to race even though she had been ill during the week and she came away with an excellent second place in the U15 Girls race.  Tilly Ashley placed 6th and the team was completed by Lucy Jeffery in 12th place. Amber Spackman produced a typically courageous run to come home in 15th place.

 

The U13 Girls race saw Millie Newell place 5th, Jess Stringer came home in 27th and Chloe Shephard 34th while in the U11 Girls race Winnie Margretts led the team home when placing 28th, ahead of Adelina Ducker in 44th, Matilda Farmer in 48th and Bailey Ward and Katie Mandeville who finished in 51st and 52nd places.

 

Ben Darlow was the Club’s only representative in the U15 Boys race, placing 13th, while the U13 Boys race saw Ollie Mitchell place 12th and Dylan Mends 21st. In the U11 Boys race, Ben Mandeville placed 8th, Piers Clutterbuck 16th and Lucas Simpson 24th.

 

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At Sunday’s Weston AC Christmas Cracker 10K event, Gloucester AC’s Chris Davis placed 185th in 47:39 and Neil Hobbs 319th in 51:50.

 

Gloucester Athletic Club’s senior cross-country teams produced excellent results on Saturday as they continued to push for promotion in their respective Birmingham Cross-Country and Midland Women’s Cross-Country League races.

 

Following their excellent start in round one, which saw them finish over 50 points clear of the second-placed team, Gloucester team captain Steve Millward was keen for his runners to take full advantage of the local Plock Court venue to consolidate their lead at the top of the table. As a result, the club fielded 19 athletes, their best for several seasons, but they were made to work hard for their victory by the Newcastle (Staffs) AC squad who finished just one point behind on the day.

 

The race saw a second successive individual League win for Harry Wells. He was a commanding winner of the first-round race from Millward, but this time round the City pair had Solihull & Small Heath’s Chris McLeod for company and it was he who forced the pace over the first two laps.

 

The third and final lap saw Wells and Millward work together to close the gap. With 400 metres to go, Wells was on McLeod’s shoulder and with a perfectly-timed sprint finish he pulled clear to win by one second.

 

Millward followed in a clear third spot and was backed up by Owen Parry and James Walters, who placed 12th and 16th respectively. Next in was Jeremy Mower in 25th with an excellent return to form while Glen Balmer, making a very welcome return to racing after a long injury lay off, came home in 29th place to complete the first team with a total score of 86 points.

 

The ’B’ team provided strong back-up. Mark Keeling placed 35th, an improvement of 16 places on the first fixture, Steve Haines had a typically consistent run to place 59th with promising newcomer Jordan Evans just behind in 61st. Great packing by Mike Mansfield in 66th, Steve Robbins in 77th and Dave Gresswell in 80th meant the B team closed on 378 points to top their category.

 

Further down the field, there were strong runs from John Nash (113th), Arthur Daley (148th), Mark Thrall (155th), Amar Patel (166th), John Miklausic (181st) and Clive Poole (184th) while just two days before his 75th birthday, local running legend Chris O’Carroll came home in 240th place to round off a hugely successful for the men’s team.

 

Race details:

1st Harry Wells (Gloucester AC); 2nd Chris McLeod (S&SH); 3rd Steve Millward (Gloucester AC).

Team: Gloucester AC 87 pts; Newcastle (Staffs) AC 88; Massey Ferguson 143.

 

Meanwhile, the Club’s ladies were producing another excellent team performance in round two race of the Midland Women’s Cross-Country League on the challenging slopes of Welcombe Park in Stratford-upon-Avon.

 

The team are back in this League following a 10-year absence and are relishing this opportunity to rub shoulders with some of the best runners in the region.

 

By her own admission, Hayley Winters is not a huge fan of cross-country racing, however, she might be having second thoughts after her performance on Saturday. Spurred on by team mates and training partners Anna Midgley and Briony Bishop, she made relatively light work of the steep climbs to produce one of the best runs of her career over the country to take an excellent 15th place.

 

Anna Midgley showed why she was the Club’s top cross-country runner of the year as she came through strongly over the closing stages to place 23rd. Just behind was youngster Briony Bishop who is clearly enjoying her racing with the senior team. The 18 year-old ran another assured race to come home in 28th place overall and 4th junior.

 

The team was completed by Tina Wickens who overcame a mid-race dip in form to finish well and place 42nd as the team placed 5th on the day.

 

Again, strong support was provided by Maisie Abbott and Liz Usedon, who placed 92nd and 105th respectively.

 

Two of the Club’s junior track & field athletes travelled down to the Cardiff National Indoor Athletics Centre to compete in the first indoor meeting of the winter.

 

Tricia Stanfield showed that her winter training is going well under the guidance of Ian Willoughby by placing 2nd in her first 300 metres race in the U17 Ladies age group in a new indoor personal best of 44.33 seconds.

 

Sulaiman Ouiles raised his personal best in the high jump to 1.60m when placing second in the U15 Boys event.

 

This Sunday, all of the Club’s cross-country teams will be in action at round three of this season’s Gloucestershire Cross Country League at Wotton Community Park, Wotton-under-Edge.

 

The achievements of a highly successful 2018 were celebrated at the Gloucester Athletic Club awards night at the Llanthony Secunda Priory.

 

Club Chairman Richard Blackwell was the MC for the evening and paid tribute to the hard work and effort put in by the athletes, coaches, officials and all of the volunteers behind the scenes during the year which had seen the senior track & field team win its second successive Midland League Divisional title and the junior team reach the Promotion Play-Off match in their National Youth Development League for the first time.

 

Blackwell also noted the performances of the cross-country teams which, after a disappointing 2017-18 winter season, had made encouraging starts in their respective competitions across all the age groups.

 

Special guests of honour for the evening were Alison George, who presented the annual Andrew George Memorial Middle Distance Award, and wrestler Justin Sysum, who presented the Terry Sysum Award for Athletics Achievement. The general awards were presented by the Club’s President and former Commonwealth Games Champion, Lorraine Shaw.

 

Award winners were:

 

Terry Sysum Award for Athletic Achievement: Joanne Willoughby;

Andrew George Memorial Middle Distance Award: Harry Wells;

Services to the Club, 2018: Aaron Bennett;

Para-athletes of the year: Charlie Denman; Sam Ivins;

U11s: Winnie Margretts, Oscar Wilson;

U13s: Chloe Sheppard, Scott Stanfield (track & field); Jessica Hill, Ethan Hood (x-country);

U15s: Tricia Stanfield, Sulaiman Ouiles (t&f); Tilly Ashley, Toby Scott (xc);

U17s: Ellie Wheeler-Smith, Oliver Keitley (t&F); Niamh Powell (xc);

U20s: Sophie Temple and Chloe Jones (joint winners), Joel Townley (t&f); 

Seniors: Kate Davies, Tim Williams (t&f); Anna Midgley, Steve Millward (xc);

Masters: Joanne Willoughby, Steve Millward;

Road running: Anna Midgley, Jeremy Mower.

 

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This Saturday sees the Gloucester club’s senior women’s and men’s cross-country teams tackle round two of their respective Midland Women’s and Birmingham cross-country leagues.

The men were convincing winners in round one and will be hoping to consolidate their lead in the race at Plock Court, while the women travel up to Stratford-upon-Avon following an impressive showing in their league opener at Coventry.

 

Two of Gloucester Athletic Club’s senior cross-country runners were competing at the British Masters Home Countries Cross-Country international fixture at Singleton Park in Swansea on Saturday.

 

Wearing the red vest of Wales, Jeremy Mower did not find the 8km course over undulating parkland to his liking and faded after a strong start to place 28th in the M50 category.

 

Afterwards, he said “I found that two marathons in the past 40 days really took their toll over the latter stages and I just had nothing left in my legs. My time of 30:41 would have been enough to place high up in local races but just wasn’t good enough in this top- quality company.”

 

Despite being one of the quicker runners on paper in the England M35 squad, Steve Millward was surprisingly left out of the scoring line up. He was determined to prove a point in the reserves race and, after settling into the lead on the first of three laps, he extended his lead on each lap to come home a clear victor in 27:00.

 

Afterwards, he said “I was disappointed not to be selected this year so I used that frustration as fuel to train hard and run a controlled race. I was over one minute faster than a couple of the England scorers in the main race, so I hope the selectors will take note.”

 

Three Gloucester club members competed in Sunday’s Broadway Trail Marathon over a testing course that included 3,000 ft of ascent and heavy mud which, accompanied by the very cold and windy weather, made for a very challenging time.

 

Clive Poole, Nick Bishop and Stephen Shields had made a pre-race pact to run as a group, mainly to support Bishop and Shields who were both tackling their first-ever marathon, and they came home together in 5:36:11.

 

Gloucester Athletic Club senior men’s team proved that they are the team to beat this season after a dominant team performance at the first Birmingham Cross Country League fixture at Coundon Hall Park in Coventry on Saturday.

 

After a disappointing 2017-18 campaign which saw the team relegated, the Club has targeted an immediate return back to the second division and under new team captain Steve Millward’s leadership they made the best possible start. 

 

With heavy rain falling throughout the day on an already saturated course, the Club ‘s leading middle-distance athlete Harry Wells and Millward went straight to the front of the 280-strong field to force a strong pace. Halfway around the second of three laps, Wells made his move and gradually pulled ahead, giving him the confidence to push on for the win.

 

Millward dropped back at this stage but rallied to pull back into second place to finish 40 metres down on his young team mate and give the City team a commanding one-two.

 

Steve Kenyon has had an impressive first summer’s competing on the road and in this, his first-ever cross-country race, he was clearly inspired by his team-mates as he came home in seventh place. Owen Parry also had a strong run to make the top ten in ninth, with team stalwart James Walters just behind in 11th place. The first team was completed by another newcomer Pete Haynes in 43rd for an excellent team score of 73 points.

 

Gloucester’s strength was evident as Mark Keeling continued his return from injury to place 50th, Mike Mansfield placed 53rd, Jason Tilley 59th, Steve Haines 61st, and Steve Robbins 77th, while completing the ‘B’ team and making a very welcome return to racing was Luke Herbert in 156th. Arthur Daley had a strong run for 190th despite a recent shoulder injury and Aaron Bennett completed a fine team performance to place 225th. 

 

Team captain Steve Millward commented afterwards “This was a very promising start to a hoped-for promotion campaign. The second round is at Plock Court in three weeks’ time and we’ll be hoping for more of our runners to compete as we aim to stamp our authority on this League.” 

 

Race details:

1st Harry Wells (Gloucester AC) 31:20; 2nd Steve Millward (Gloucester AC) 31:31; 3rd Scott Hazell (Massey-Ferguson RC) 31:57.

 

Team result:

1st Gloucester AC 73 pts; 2nd Massey-Ferguson RC 121; 3rd Newcastle (Staffs) AC 125.

 

Meanwhile, the City Club’s ladies team were making their first appearance in the Midland Women’s Cross-Country League after a 10-year absence.

 

Hayley Winters and Briony Bishop quickly established themselves among the leading pack and ran strongly to place 21st and 22nd respectively in the same time of 24:23. Behind them, Grace Vido and Tina Wickens ran well-paced races, gradually moving through the field to finish in 25:35 and 25:51 respectively.

 

Nicola Waters was next home, placing 87th in 27:54, Liz Usedon crept into the top 100 when placing 97th in 28:47 and Trudy Wells placed 134th of the 261 finishers in 30:48.

 

The team result saw the City A’ team place 6th, just 30 points off the third-place promotion position.

 

Team Manager Paul de-Camps said afterwards “This was a tremendous performance today from a relatively inexperienced team. Our most experienced member was probably 17 year-old Briony Bishop who ran with great maturity and led by example.” 

 

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At Sunday’s Sodbury Slog multi-terrain event near Bristol, the Gloucester AC trio of Clive Poole, Stephen Shields and Nick Bishop all finished in the same time of 1:37:55 as the final part of their preparations for a trail marathon next weekend.

 

Gloucester Athletic Club’s Jeremy Mower and Dave Gresswell were both satisfied with their efforts in Saturday’s Snowdonia Marathon Eryri after tackling the demanding course that circled Wales’ highest peak.

 

The race, which has been voted by runners as one of the best in the UK because of the scenery and history of the event, attracted nearly 3,000 runners from all over the world.

 

Mower started strongly and looked comfortable as he passed through the half-way stage. However, a tightening of a hip flexor at 16-miles slowed him down but, in typical gutsy fashion, he dug in over the final 10 miles to finish 60th overall and first Welsh M50 in 3:14:30, his slowest-ever marathon time. Afterwards, he said “The last 10 miles were very hard as the hip injury was causing a lot of pain, but I’m happy to have won the Welsh M50 prize despite this.”

 

By comparison, Gresswell rarely races the classic marathon distance, so this race was a new experience. Coping with the distance and terrain well, he came home in 301st place overall in 3:44:18. He said “I’m happy with that. I don’t consider myself a marathon runner but really enjoyed the race. For me, it was much better than London in many ways.”

 

Lorraine Shaw gave up her coaching role for a few days to compete in the Palma Half Marathon on Majorca where she clocked a time of 2:58:12.

 

This Saturday sees round two of the 2018 Gloucestershire Cross-Country League at Charlton Park, Malmesbury in Wiltshire where the Gloucester club will be hoping to build on their encouraging start in round one.

 

The Gloucestershire Cross-Country League 2018-19 season opened on Saturday as the Old Down Country Park in the south of the county played host to over 600 athletes from around the region.

 

This season promises to be an exciting one for Gloucester Athletic Club with athletes and teams challenging for medals across the age groups.

 

The Club’s senior men’s team main challenge for the season will be to win promotion from Division Three of the Birmingham Men’s League but with several of their leading athletes missing on Saturday, it was a new-look team that took on the challenging slopes of the course as well as Storm Callum that was battering the country.

 

The emergence of Owen Parry as a regular scorer was one of the highlights of an otherwise disappointing 2017-18 campaign for the team and he started off his season in fine style, placing 32nd to lead the City team home. Two athletes making their first-ever appearances in cross-country events were the next team members back. Jason Tilley has emerged as a regular scorer over the summer months in track and road races and came home a creditable 57th place, just ahead of another League first-timer, Peter Haynes in 60th place. Both admitted afterwards to having enjoyed the new challenge.

 

Dave Gresswell was the next runner home, placing 87th to secure a scoring place in the Club’s ‘A’ team for the 18th consecutive year, while another runner in his first League race for the Club, John Nash, came home in 111th place, with Mike Jenkins completing the team scoring with a 126th place finish.

 

The ‘A’ team solid support from the reserves, several of whom were also having their first run out in the League. Paul Corderoy placed 145th in his first outing, ahead of another newcomer David Mandeville in 159th. Experienced campaigner Mark Thrall came home in 172nd place and Clive Poole was just behind in 177th of over 200 finishers to complete the Gloucester finishers.

 

Overall, the team amassed 473 points to place 12th.

 

The senior ladies team started their campaign with an excellent fourth place. This year will see them compete in the Midland Women’s Cross Country League for the first time and Saturday’s race was a good warm-up for the challenges that lie ahead.

 

Tracy Hinxman led the City contingent home. Running in her first Gloucestershire League race, she came home in 14th place, just ahead of team mate Anna Midgley who ran strongly to finish in 18th place. Charlotte McGlone placed 27th, her best League placing for three seasons, to complete the ‘A’ team.

 

Youngster Bethan Powell proved she is best suited to the country as she produced an excellent run to place 30th overall and 6th Junior Lady to lead the ‘B’ team home. Liz Usedon placed 70th with Nicola Waters just behind in 74th place to complete the ‘B’ team. Emma Poole placed 78th to lead the ‘C’ team back, with Emma Jeffery placing 105th and Aude-Nelly Grognet 124th. The ladies race also incorporated some of the masters men, with Chris O’Carroll placing 2nd in the M70 category.

 

The Junior Men’s race saw an excellent performance by Toby Scott who, following a year interrupted by injury, took 4th place overall and 1st in the U17 category.

 

The Club’s U15 Girls have been in outstanding form in recent road relays, culminating with a 9th place in the national championships, and were keen to set a marker in this League. Jess Hill showed she is going to be the athlete to beat this winter, coming home nearly a full minute ahead of her nearest rival. She was joined on the medal rostrum by her team mate Tilly Ashley who placed 3rd, while Katherine Mills achieved her best League placing of 6th to bring the team home to a convincing victory. Lucy Jeffery ran strongly to place 15th.

 

The U15 Boys race saw encouraging runs by Ethan Hood and Ben Darlow, who placed 22nd and 23rd respectively.

 

There was another team podium place for the U13 Girls team as Millie Newell (6th), Lyra Elliott-Jones (13th) and Jess Stringer (28th) secured 3rd place for the team. Chloe Shephard provided strong support when finishing in 33rd place.

 

There was a much-improved showing in the U13 Boys race by the City team as Dylan Mends (8th) led home team mates Oliver Mitchell (22nd) and Arnie Margretts (28th) for a 6th place finish. Backing up their colleagues, Ethan Robinson placed 49th and Scott Howley 64th.

 

The youngest age groups were the U11s and both girls and boys race featured City runners.

 

Ruth Brook placed 8th in the girls race, ahead of Winifred Margretts (17th) and Adelina Ducker (38th) as the team finished in 5th place. Katie Mandeville and Bailey Ward placed 45th and 46th respectively.

 

In the boys race, Piers Clutterbuck placed 21st and Ben Mandeville 23rd.

 

After the event, Club spokesman Richard Blackwell said “There were some good performances by our athletes today, particularly in the younger age groups where we clearly have some outstanding talent. The seniors have big challenges ahead this winter, so it was encouraging to see new athletes come through in this meeting. I must also thank our officials Paula Whitcher and Debbie Hardy who braved the conditions.”

 

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Gloucester’s Andy McKenzie won the bronze medal in the M55 category at the World Hammer Decathlon championships at Derby on Sunday.

 

The competition consisted of five different sizes of the weight and hammer throw, with the athletes allowed three trials in each category.

 

Afterwards, McKenzie said “this is the first time I have done an event like this and it was a great competition.”

 

Two weeks after winning the bronze medal in the Midland Area Road Relays, the Gloucester Athletic Club U15 Girls team of Jess Hill, Katherine Mills and Tilly Ashley returned to Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield and produced a stunning performance to place 9th in the National final against the best teams in the country.

 

Jess produced another outstanding run on the opening 3.88km leg in 13:58 to bring the team home in 6th place of the 77 teams. Katherine took up the running on leg two and clocked 15:22 as she came home in 9th place. Tilly produced a 14:49 leg to consolidate the team’s position, bringing them back in 9th place overall in an aggregate time of 44:09 for a splendid result.

 

Meanwhile, the Gloucester club’s two leading marathon runners were in fine form in events on either side of the Atlantic on Sunday.

 

Jeremy Mower was in Chester, representing Wales in the annual England v Celtic Nations Masters marathon that also incorporated the British Masters Marathon Championships. Passing through the half way point in 1:24:08, Mower dug in over the second half to place 94th out of the 2,820 finishers and 10th in the M50 category in a time of 2:51:28.

 

Slightly further afield, James Walters took his place among over 33,500 starters in the Chicago Marathon and placed a very respectable 697th in 2:53:03. He has now completed the big three US city marathons, Chicago, Boston and New York, over the past 18 months.

 

At the Shelton Striders 10K road race in Derby, Steve Kenyon knocked over a minute off his previous best when placing 4th in 34:27. Max Sheppard placed 17th in 37:07 and Jason Tilley 25th in 38:20. Wearing the Gloucester vest and, like her colleagues, running in memory of ex-Stroud & District AC runner Steve Price who sadly died earlier this year, Tracy Hinxman placed 31st overall and first lady in a new personal best time of 38:45.

 

This Saturday sees the Gloucester club open their 2018 winter cross-country season with the Gloucestershire Cross Country League fixture at the Old Down Country Park, near Alveston. There are races for all age groups from U11 upwards, starting at 1pm.

 

Gloucester Athletic Club members made the most of the early autumn sun to record several fine performances in half marathons at the weekend.

 

Steve Kenyon is proving to be one of the newcomers of the year having posted a series of fast times and race wins over the summer months and led the Gloucester contingent home in Sunday’s Cheltenham Half Marathon with a 1:16:04 clocking, less than 30 seconds down on his best time for the distance.

 

Jeremy Mower added another M50 category win to his collection when he placed 28th overall and first M50 in 1:20:40. Suzanne Harding stepped up from her normal 800 metres track distance to place 306th in 1:36:22, while Neil Hobbs ran his fastest time of the year, 1:44:54, in 670th place. Dave Spackman clocked 1:59:42 in 1,519th place and Amanda McPeake clocked 2:02:17.

 

A trio of Gloucester club members travelled up to Ashbourne in Derbyshire to compete in the Tissington Trail Half Marathon. Nick Bishop led the group home, clocking 1:32:14 in 41st place, ahead of Clive Poole who clocked his fastest time of the year, 1:37:23, in 66th place and Michelle Stark who placed 128th in 1:49:47.

 

Ian Summers took time out from a holiday to compete in the Six Moor Miles race, a multi-terrain event that took in parts of picturesque Dartmoor in Devon, and placed 27th in 48:22.

 

In their final track & field competition of the season, a group of the Club’s promising young athletes travelled down to Exeter to compete in their first combined-events competition.

 

Emma Tillott placed first of the group’s U15 Girls, producing some solid performances throughout which were capped by a strong finish in the final event, the 800 metres. Phoebe Jones was another to produce some strong performances and will have been pleased with her 800 metres personal best at the end of a long day. Chrissy Campion was tackling several of the events for the first time in competition and will have been delighted with five new personal best performances. Ella Mansfield and Emily Herron both worked hard throughout and should be proud of their efforts, while Ella-Grace Edwards suffered a fall in the 70 metres hurdles which cost her a lot of points. As the youngest of the group, she showed great character to continue and will learn from the experience. Of the boys, Kyle Neal acquitted himself well against boys who were a school year older and showed great potential for next season. Coach Matt Holloway said “This was a real test for the youngsters as they had never competed in a pentathlon before and I was pleased at how well they adapted to the competition. There were some good athletes from the south west competing here today and the group will have learnt a lot from the experience.”

 

Gloucester Athletic Club’s road runners enjoyed a successful weekend, winning age group bronze medals at the Midland Counties Road Relays at Sutton Park on Saturday before winning team prizes at Sunday’s Angels 10K Road Race at Ashleworth.

 

The weekend’s main event was the Road Relays meeting at the iconic Sutton Park in Sutton Coldfield, the scene of many of the best races the country has seen, and a firm fixture for many of the region’s Clubs.

 

The day started with the Young Athletes races, with the City club pinning their medal hopes in the U15 Girls event in which the squad were outside favourites for a medal.

 

Jess Hill gave the team an excellent start, coming home in 3rd place after clocking 14:23 for her opening 3.88km leg, the fifth fastest of the day. Katharine Mills then took over and ran a very solid 15:36 leg to hand over to Tilly Ashley in 4th place. Tilly ran a typically gutsy 14:54 leg to overhaul the Wolverhampton team and bring the team home in 3rd place in an overall time of 44:53, setting the standard for the senior teams.

 

Next up was the senior ladies’ race which saw three City teams toe the start line. Anna Midgley started for the ‘A’ team and clocked 17:09 for the 4.33 km leg in 26th place. Tina Wickens, like Anna, a new recruit to the Paul de-Camps training squad, made up two places as she clocked an 18:03 leg to hand over to Suzanne Harding who held on to 24th place with an 18:17 leg. Gemma Collier took up the running on the final leg and made up five places to bring the ‘A’ team home in 19th place overall with a 16:59 clocking.

 

The ‘B’ team was led off by Grace Vido who came home in 46th place with an 18:31 leg. Natalie Ashley-Towell struggled through illness so as to not let her team down and clocked 20:04 in 50th place. Briony Bishop took up the running on leg three and produced the best run by a City athlete all day as she made up a staggering 17 places with a sensational 16:49 leg. Laura McPeake made up a further place to bring the team home in 32nd place overall when she clocked 18:23 leg.

 

The incomplete ‘C’ team saw Nicola Waters lead off and come home in 82nd place with a 20:59 leg before handing over to Trudy Wells who completed her lap in 23:01.

 

The last race of the day was the men’s event comprising six stages each of 5.88 kms. Jeremy Mower got the ball rolling for the City ‘A’ team and came home in 59th place with a 21:11 leg. Team captain James Walters made up five places when he completed his leg in 21:25 to hand over to Harry Wells in his final race before taking up his studies at Cardiff University. The youngster showed his class as he stormed around in 19:42 for the team’s fastest leg of the day, handing over to Steve Robbins in 39th place. In his first area relay, Robbins completed his leg in 22:39 to bring the team back in 45th place. Dave Gresswell was next up and in the deteriorating conditions clocked 23:27 as he came back in 49th place. Owen Parry ran 21:02 for the last leg, making up seven places as he brought the team home in 42nd place overall. 

 

For the reserves, Aaron Bennett clocked 26:02 and Amar Patel 25:42 for their respective legs.

 

Steve Kenyon continued his winning ways when he won Sunday’s Angels 10K road race, incorporating the County Championship, at Ashleworth in 35:37. Jeremy Mower showed no ill-effects after racing for his Club in the previous day’s Midland Counties Road Relays as he came home in 3rd place overall and first M50 in 37:37, ahead of Max Sheppard who placed 7th in 384:0 and 9th placed Jason Tilley in 39:13 as the quartet stormed to the first team prize. Steve Robbins and Dave Gresswell had also raced the previous day and clocked 40:18 and 41:03 as they placed 14th and 16th respectively. Steve Haines came home in 17th place with 41:11 and Arthur Daley 43:19 in 31st place to secure 2nd place for the ‘B’ team.

 

Second-claim club member Tracy Hinxman placed 11th overall and second lady in 40:01, while other Club finishers were Peter Jeffery (36th in 44:55) and Dave Spackman (70th in 53:48).

 

In her final competition of the 2018 season, Gloucester Athletic Club’s Marion Loveridge secured a 6th place finish in the weight throw at the World Masters Track & Field Championships in Malaga when launching the 7.26kg weight a season’s best distance of 12.85 metres, the second-best throw of her career and the best by a British W55 this year. Earlier in the week, the Gloucester athlete had placed 8th overall in the W55 hammer throw.

 

Steve Kenyon was a convincing winner of Sunday’s Apperley Quarter Marathon, coming home in 36:29, over one minute clear of the second-placed finisher.

 

Gloucester club committee member Norman Wilson has been awarded the Careers Award by the world governing body of ultra-distance running. The award was established in 2014 to recognise those who have devoted many long hours to increase the profile of this aspect of the sport, both on a national and international level. Norman, a past winner of the Berlin Marathon, received the award during the 2018 IAU Congress that took place last week in Croatia.

 

This Saturday sees the Gloucester club compete in the Midlands Area Autumn Road Relays at Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield. The Club have entered teams in the senior men and ladies competitions.

 

Discus thrower Chloe Jones produced the stand-out performance as the curtain came down on Gloucester Athletic Club’s track & field season with the Avon League match at Blackbridge on Sunday.

 

The 19-year old has enjoyed the best season of her career, winning the Midlands U20s and Gloucestershire County titles, as well as placing 8th in the English Schools Championships but her winning throw at her home track on Sunday surely ranks on a par with those achievements as she launched the 1kg discus out to 41.21 metres, adding a massive three metres to her previous best and break the Gloucester U20 Club record set by her own coach Lorraine Shaw over 30 years ago.

 

Afterwards, an ecstatic Chloe said “I’m so happy to end the season with this personal best which ranks me 6th in the UK. I’m so proud and my coach Lorraine to thank as she has stood by me through my tough times and supported me through everything. Without her, I wouldn’t have been able to throw over 40 metres.”

 

The Gloucester club certainly ended the season on a high note, with several new personal bests being set across the age groups.

 

The Club enjoyed a successful evening at last Friday’s County Championships which included races over one mile, 10,000 metres and 4 x 100 metres relays.

 

Toby Scott was a convincing winner of the U17 Men’s one mile, front-running to a new personal best time of 4:58.6 while another youngster, Jessica Hill, won the silver medal in the U15 Girls event with 5:32.6.

 

The ladies races saw County titles and new track personal bests for Anna Midgley (W35, 5:41.3), Briony Bishop (U20W, 5:49.7) and Tina Wickens (W45, 5:50.8), while there was an M70 title for Dave Spackman who clocked 7:41.2.

 

The 10,000 metres saw Jeremy Mower run a well-judged race to place 4th overall and first M50 in a new track personal best time of 36:27.4 to rank 9th in the UK M50 category for the year. Clubmate Paul Corderoy placed 15th overall and 4th M50 in a new track best 42:37.9.

 

The Club’s ladies were a class apart in the sprint relays as the senior team of Kirstie Constable, Sophie Temple, Sophie Rowe and Ellie Wheeler-Smith and the U17 team of Ellie Luff, Tricia Stanfield, Shanika Nicholson and Isobelle Herbert both cruised to commanding wins to win their respective titles.

 

Two Gloucester club members competed at last week’s World Masters Athletics Championships in Malaga, Spain.

 

Competing in the W40 Heptathlon, Jacqui Holloway opened up with a 14.51 secs clocking in the 80m hurdles. This was followed by a 1.36m clearance in the high jump (her second-best of the season), a massive pb 8.81m in the shot putt and a 29.90 secs 200m into a strong headwind to finish day one in 6th place.  Day two saw Jacqui open up with a 3.89m long jump. She then produced a personal best and new Club age group record 25.34 metres in the javelin before finishing her competition with a 2:42.05 800 metres to finish in 5th place overall with a new personal best score of 3,824 points.

 

Marion Loveridge finished 8th overall in the W55 Hammer competition with a season’s best throw of 39.17 metres.

 

Hayley Winters and Briony Bishop, both members of Paul de-Camps’ training group, travelled up to Coventry to compete in the Midland Counties 3,000 metres track championships and both came away with medals. Hayley has enjoyed her best-ever track season over 1500 metres and, in her first race over the longer distance this year placed second in 10:55.1. Briony Bishop missed much of the summer with a knee injury but is starting to show signs that she is on the way back to full fitness. She placed third overall and first U20 in 12:02.4.

 

Gloucester Para-athlete Charlie Denman travelled up to Doncaster for the final of the CP Athletics Series and set an inaugural UK record for the women’s 1500 metres Racerunning event, clocking 7:21.18, the fastest time recorded by a female or male athlete in the UK this year. She followed that performance up with further gold medals in the 800m, 400m and 200 metres to confirm her standing as the leading exponent of the new sport in the country.

 

The Club’s athletes have also been busy in local road races. A last week’s Rose Inn Relays at Magor in south Wales, the trio of Briony Bishop, Natalie Ashley-Towell and Laura McPeake warmed up for this month’s Midland Road Relays when placing 37th overall of the 116 teams and 4th in the ladies category.

 

At the Meteor One Mile race held at the Gloucestershire airport in Staverton, Tina Wickens placed 33rd overall and 2nd lady in 5:51.5 and Peter Jeffery 45th in 6:16.1, while in Sunday’s Swindon Half Marathon, Chris Davis placed 1,016th of the 1,911 finishers in 2:07.47.

 

Gloucester Athletic Club members have been making the most of the final weeks of the 2018 track & field season as they attempt to achieve fast times before turning their attention to the autumn road and cross-country seasons.

 

Harry Wells has again been the Club’s leading middle-distance runner this season and while he has been concentrating on the 800 metres during the summer, he travelled down to Exeter hoping to revise his best 1500 metres time in the BMC Regional fixture. Competing in the ‘A’ race, he further demonstrated his progress this year as he came home in second place in a new personal best time of 3:57.53, a massive five-seconds improvement on his previous best.

 

At the same meeting, Harry’s sister, Beth, was just down on her season’s best when placing 7th in the women’s 1500 metres ‘A’ race in 5:16.62 while W40 Suzanne Harding placed 4th in the 800 metres ‘C’ race in 2:36.66.

 

Hayley Winters continued her consistent track season when clocking 5:04.10 for 1500 metres at the Charnwood AC meeting at Loughborough.

 

The Club concludes its 2018 track and field season with the final Avon League of the season at the Blackbridge track this Sunday.

 

There was a healthy attendance of Gloucester club runners at last week’s Severn AC-organised Pilot 5K road race, with the Club securing several age-group prizes. Owen Parry was the Club’s first finisher home, placing 6th in a new road best time of 16:48. Anna Midgley continued her recent run of good form to place 20th overall and first lady in her fastest-ever time of 19:24, just ahead of Arthur Daley in 22nd place overall and first M65 in 19:47, his fastest road time for two years. 

Laura McPeake placed 31st in 21:48 and Michelle Stark placed 33rd overall and first W40 in 23:01 as the Gloucester ladies secured the team prize.

 

Amber Spackman placed 42nd and first U17W in 26:43, ahead of her grandad Dave Spackman who placed 45th and first M75 in 27:17.

 

Gloucester’s men placed sixth team overall and third county team in last weekend’s County Road Relays at Elmore. Steve Robbins ran the lead-off leg, clocking 19:22 in 6th place. Dave Gresswell ran his leg in 19:56, Owen Parry ran the team’s fastest leg of the day, 18:04, and Paul Corderoy brought the team home with a 20:56 leg.

 

Nick Bishop was the first Gloucester runner home in Sunday’s Woodchester Park 8-mile multi-terrain event, placing 23rd in 62:36. In his first multi-terrain race in many years, Arthur Daley placed 30th and second M65 in 63:31. Clive Poole came home in 59th place in 80:43, Den Evans placed 64th in 72:33, just ahead of Liz Usedon who placed 66th in 73:22, while Steve Shield placed 77th in 76:43.

 

Gloucester Athletic Club’s Marion Loveridge and Steve Millward both won titles at last weekend’s British Masters Athletics Championships at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium.

 

Held over two days, this year’s Championships attracted over 800 entrants, the second highest in the history of the event.

 

Marion was in action on the first day and made an excellent start as she won the W55 hammer throw with 36.65 metres, her second-best throw of the season, beating Deborah Murch, the mother of training partner Craig, into second place. Later in the day, Marion won the 7.26kg weight throw by just 9 cms with a throw of 11.54 metres.

 

Steve Millward continued his domination of the Masters steeplechase when he destroyed the opposition in the M35 3,000 metres event, winning by 300 metres in a season’s best 10:06.69, for his fifth consecutive title.

 

There was further success for the City Club when Anna Midgley won the silver medal in the W35 800 metres with a new personal best time of 2:31.04.

 

Elsewhere in the Championships, Tina Wickens finished just outside the medals in the W45 800 metres, placing 4th in 2:30.71, and there was another 4th place for Jeremy Mower in the M50 steeplechase in 11:23.30. The M60 discus saw Paul Karlsson place 10th in 25.55m with twin brother Philip one place back with 25.49 metres, while Arthur Daley placed sixth in the M65 5,000 metres in 20:03.15.

 

At the England U17s Championships at Bedford, Ellie Wheeler-Smith placed 3rd in her heat in a wind-aided 12.18 seconds before placing 7th in her semi-final in 12.34 seconds.

 

Away from the track, Mark Keeling continued his return to racing when he placed 11th overall and first in the M50 category at the Flying Monk Malmesbury 10K road race on Sunday in 40:17.

 

As the 2018 track and field season draws to a close, several Gloucester Athletic Club members continue to keep busy.

 

Last Tuesday evening several runners travelled to Tipton for the latest British Milers Club Regional meeting.

 

Hayley Winters has enjoyed the most successful track season of her career, having previously tended to concentrate on road races. Running in the 1500 metres D race, she missed out on her personal best by just 5/100th of a second when placing fifth in 5:03.56.

 

Sebastian Clarke, like Hayley, a member of the Paul de-Camps stable, has improved steadily since joining the Gloucester club last winter and, despite being just outside his best, displayed a new-found level of consistency to clock 2:07.69 when placing 7th in the 800 metres ‘D’ race.

 

The 800 metres ‘H’ race featured three Gloucester ladies. Tina Wickens led the trio home in second place, clocking 2:29.37, ahead of Suzanne Harding who placed 4th in 2:35.69 and youngster Natalie Ashley-Towell, who despite a strong cross-country background is still learning the art of track racing, in 6th place in 2:38.65.

 

Last Saturday, Harry Wells was in action at the British Milers Club Grand Prix Final. Such is Harry's improvement throughout the season that, for the first time, he was able to gain automatic entry into a BMC GP race and although slightly below par after a very busy season, he placed second in the ‘E’ race in 1:56.04, his second-fastest ever time.

 

Coach Paul de-Camps was happy with his athletes’ performances, adding “Although I’m not necessarily expecting the athletes to record personal bests at this late stage of the summer, there are still plenty of races around. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be contesting the Midland 3000 metres Championships at Coventry, a BMC Regional contest at Exeter and a BMC Gold Standard meeting at Manchester as well as putting in appearances at the Avon League and the final part of the Gloucestershire Championships."

 

Gloucester sprinter Tricia Stanfield is another athlete to have had a very busy season, competing in nearly 50 races during the calendar year. She travelled up to Nuneaton to compete in the Midlands U15 Championships where she won an excellent silver medal in the 300 metres in 43.85 seconds, just four-tenths outside her personal best.

 

Gloucester Athletic Club’s senior track & field team completed the formalities at their final Midland League match of the 2018 season to become Division Three Champions and win their second successive divisional title.

 

A dominant showing in the previous three matches had already clinched the title for the City team, but they did not want to sit back on their laurels. No, such is the spirit of this team they wanted to go out in a blaze of glory and win the final match as well. Whilst they narrowly failed, they still put up a very spirited performance to place third of the six teams on the day to crown one of their best-ever seasons.

 

On another blisteringly warm day, Kate Davies was in supreme form. Covering for absent athletes, she competed in no fewer than six individual events, winning the 100m Hurdles, long jump and high jump ‘A’ string events and the triple jumps and shot putt ‘B’ events and claiming a second place in the ‘A’ string javelin. For good measure, she ran a leg in the sprint relay team that took second place to complete an excellent day’s work.

 

Davies and her field event team mates provided the strong base for the team to build and even without Gareth Winter, who picked up a knee injury on the eve of the match, they were dominant as they swept aside the opposition to gain event wins and podium places almost at will.

 

The track athletes were clearly inspired by their colleagues, achieving their fair share of event wins in support.

 

Ladies team captain Sophie Rowe and training sprint partner Sophie Temple finished their League season wins in the 100 metres ‘A’ and ‘B’ races, while Harry Wells ran the most mature 800 metres of his career to win a very competitive 800 metres.

 

Men’s captain Steve Millward overcame the conditions and a strong field to win the 3,000 metres steeplechase ‘A’ race, with Jeremy Mower was just half a second outside his personal best when taking third place in the ‘B’ race. New track personal bests were set by Edgar Kibet and Scarlett Pegler (400 metres) and Jason Tilley (1500 metres) while the ladies 1500 metres saw massive new bests and Club age-group records for Hayley Winters (W35, 5:03.51) and Tina Wickens (W45, 5:20.42).

 

Victorious team manager was full of praise for the team, saying “This title is down to superb team work and a willingness to step up to fill gaps. Our leading athletes have produced the goods when it mattered and their example clearly rubbed off on the younger and less-experienced athletes who have all exceeded our expectations. Next year will present a huge challenge but we’ll enjoy this moment while we can.”

 

Match result:

Coventry Godiva 374 points; Telford 357; Gloucester 354; Tipton 315; Worcester 294; Leamington 223.

League result:

Gloucester 21 points; Coventry 17; Telford 13; Worcester 13; Tipton 11; Leamington 9.

 

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Two Gloucester Athletic Club members competed in Sunday’s Forest of Dean Trail Marathon. Steve Haines placed 31st in 3:47:33 while Clive Poole placed 98th in 4:29:33. Clubmate Paul Corderoy placed 5th in the Mendip Marauder 50km trail race in 5:16:21.

 

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This weekend, Gloucester Athletic Club’s Charlie Denman will be representing the England team at the World CP Championships in Barcelona in athletics’ newest discipline, RaceRunning.

 

Coach Bob Purcell takes up the story: “Charlie took up this event only two years ago when the trustees of the Blackbridge Track organised an All Ability Festival to show off their racing wheelchairs along with racerunners from the Chamwell Centre and adapted cycling from Leonard Cheshire.  According to her mum, Charlie had never been able to exercise properly or even to become out of breath. Now she is ranked 3rd in the UK at 100m, 2nd at 200m and No 1 at 400m and 800m.”

 

"We've really only been training together since the beginning of this season and we've had much to cram in. Not just working on her speed and fitness, but in understanding the different elements and tactics of her various events. Racerunning is so new that there hasn't been time yet to get sufficient other countries or athletes on board and, as things stand, we are unsure if racerunning middle distance events will feature in the next Paralympics. The focus presently is on the development of racerunning sprints but her will surely come."

 

There was a strong Gloucester Athletic Club representation in the men’s hammer event at Saturday’s English Senior Championships held at Manchester’s SportCity Stadium.

 

Tim Williams has enjoyed another consistent season as a cornerstone and leading points earner of the Club’s successful senior Midland League team. He went to Manchester ranked 6th in the field but knowing that a medal was always a possibility if he could perform up to his own high standard. A very strong headwind affected all throwers, meaning that distances were down but Williams produced a highly commendable throw of 59.86 metres to take the silver medal behind Gloucester-based Craig Murch of Rugby & Northampton, who took gold with 66.86 metres. Another member of Lorraine Shaw’s Gloucester-based group, Jacob Lange, placed 8th in the final with a best throw of 54.81 metres.

 

The meeting also incorporated the UK Para-athletics Senior Championships featuring for the first time, Race-running which is aimed at those athletes suffering from Cerebral Palsy or similar conditions. Charlie Denman has been making huge progress this season, achieving UK top three rankings from 100m through to 800 metres. In her final race before she flies out to Barcelona for next month’s World CP Athletics Championships, the Gloucester youngster won the silver medal in her least-favoured event, the 100 metres, in a new personal best time of 21.95 seconds.

 

At Saturday evening’s BMC Iffley Festival of Miles at Oxford’s famous Iffley Road track, Hayley Winters continued her excellent track form to clock the fastest-ever time by a Club master when running a new W35 best of 5:28.95.

 

There were new personal best performances for many of the Gloucester club members who travelled over to Cheltenham to compete in the final Midsummer Open Meeting of the season.

 

In the 800 metres ‘C’ race, Natalie Ashley-Towell and Hayley Winters both demonstrated their new-found enjoyment for track racing when clocking 2:33.8 and 2:36.3 respectively to knock considerable chunks from their previous best times.

 

Anna Midgley suffered from her fast early pace in the ‘D’ race but held on to place 5th in a new best time of 2:32.1, ahead of Suzanne Harding who clocked 2:35.3. The ‘E’ race saw youngster Amelia Newell dip under 2:40 for the first time, when clocking 2:38.7, while in the ‘F’ race her mum Kerry set a new best of 2:45.2 ahead of Sophie Johnson’s new best time of 2:54.8. Edgar Kibet was just outside his personal best in the ‘A’ race when he clocked 2:15.3.

 

In a hotly-contested 5,000 metres ‘A’ race, Steve Millward struggled to keep with the early pace but rallied to finish in a season’s best time of 15:48.9. The ‘C’ race saw Jeremy Mower place 6th and first M50 in a season’s best 17:46.8.

 

The 300 metres ‘B’ race saw Tricia Stanfield just hold on for a narrow win in 44.5 seconds, while Sophie Johnson clocked her second personal best of the evening, 57.7 seconds, in the ‘C’ race.

 

The rarely-run 150 metres saw another win for Stanfield as she clocked a personal best 20.6 seconds, while Richard Blackwell won the ‘D’ race in 21.6 seconds, 33 years to the day when he was a member of both teams that set the existing Club records in the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400m relays.

 

The Club enjoyed further success in the field events. Andy McKenzie won the M55 category in the hammer and then threw a season’s best 6.43m to win the M55 shot putt, while Ben Campion improved his 5kg shot putt best mark by 40cms to win the U17M event with 12.11 metres and there was also a personal best of 6.47m for Scott Stanfield in the U13B category.

 

In the ladies events, Christen Campion improved her five-day old personal best to win the U15G hammer with 31.73m, ahead of club-mats Amelia Clarke and Ella Mansfield who also improved their previous best throws. Clarke also set a new personal best in the U15G shot putt.

 

This Sunday will see the Club’s senior track and field team crowned as champions of Division Three in the final match of this seasons Midland Athletics League at Coventry. The team has dominated the Division this season to such an extent that they clinched their second successive title with one match to spare.

 

Gloucester Athletic Club’s 2018 track and field season is turning into one of the most successful in recent memory as the Club’s athletes continue to produce outstanding results across the country.

 

Sunday’s South-West Inter-Counties meeting at Exeter was a happy hunting ground, producing several medals for the City squad. Triple jumper Ollie Keitley has made steady progress this year under the guidance of coach Joanne Willoughby, increasing his personal best by small margins throughout the season to a pre-meeting best of 12.42 metres. On Sunday, he improved by a massive 60 cms, winning the U17/20M combined competition with a new personal best leap of 13.04 metres.

 

Discus thrower Chloe Jones has been one of the Club’s most consistent performers this year, the highlight of which was placing 8th in the English Schools Championships. She couldn’t quite match that form at Exeter but was still rewarded for her efforts with a bronze medal in the senior ladies’ event with a best throw of 35.24 metres. Brother and sister Ben and Christen Campion also made it onto the medal podium in their respective discus competitions. Ben won the silver medal in the U15 Boys event with 39.70 metres while Christen took the bronze medal in the U15 Girls event with 21.43 metres.

 

The Club’s sprint group, under the leadership of Garry Hunter, has enjoyed another strong season and there was a strong representation at Exeter. Ellie Wheeler-Smith achieved two second places in the U17W 100 metres and 200 metres, clocking 12.36 and 25.84 seconds respectively, while in the senior ladies 100 metres final Sophie Rowe clocked 12.74 seconds to win the bronze medal. Training partner Sophie Temple clocked 12.95 and 27.26 seconds in the U20W age group, while Tricia Stanfield missed out on a medal in the U17W 300 metres by the narrowest of margins, clocking 43.87 seconds.

 

The sweltering conditions may have suited the sprinters but they presented a real challenge to the middle distance runners. Nevertheless, Millie Porter ran a well-judged 3,000 metres to place 3rd in 10:49.79, just four seconds outside her best.

 

In the U13 Boys 75 metres hurdles event, Dylan Mends placed 8th in 15.91 seconds.

 

The Club’s youngest competitive team, the U13/U15s, travelled to Swindon to compete in Saturday’s South-West Midlands National Youth Development League promotion play-off final where, against composite teams and clubs from much larger cities, they battled bravely to place 6th of the seven teams in a closely fought match.

 

The standard of competition was a massive step up from that which the young City team was used to, but they responded well to produce a stack of personal best performances.

 

The team celebrated three individual wins on the day. Holly Attwool was a clear winner of the 100 metres U15 Girls ‘B’ race in a new personal best time of 13.2 seconds, while the U15 Girls pairing of Jess Hill and Tilly Ashley were a class apart in the 1500 metres as both took wins in 4:54.4 and 5:03.7 respectively.

 

Afterwards, team manager Matt Holloway was upbeat about his team’s achievement over the season. “We’ve had a great season, with over 40 athletes representing the team across the meetings. What has struck me is their willingness to try different events and that they discovered they were much better at those events than they thought. Our U15s were much younger than the opposition today, so we’ll be hoping for further improvement next season.”

 

The Club’s leading middle distance runner, Harry Wells, ran a massive personal best when placing 4th in the 800 metres ‘A’ race at Tuesday’s BMC meeting at Tipton in 1:54.13, an improvement of over two seconds on his previous best. Coach Paul de-Camps said “We have trained all year for a sub-1:55 800 metres so it is reassuring to see that his efforts have not been in vain.”

 

At last week’s Cheltenham Open Meeting, City athletes recorded the following performances:

600 metres (Race 1) 2nd Andrew Bowers 1:28.4 (pb); 6th Seb Clarke 1:31.5 (pb).

             (Race 2), 1st Edgar Kibet 1:35.5 (pb).

1500 metres (Race 2) 2nd Tilly Ashley (U15) 5:02.1 (pb), 6th Hayley Winters 5:11.5 (pb).

                (Race 4) 11th Sophie Johnson 6:06.4 (pb)

 

At last week’s Inter-Area Masters match at Solihull, Jo Willoughby set a UK W50 age best of 10.25 metres when winning the triple jump.

 

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At Saturday’s Bourton One Mile Road Race, youngster Toby Scott gave signs of his potential when he led the Gloucester contingent home, placing 13th overall and first U17 in 5:00.0. Jeremy Mower was next home, placing 17th and first M50 in 5:17.0 while Steve Robbins continued his improvement, placing 30th in a new personal best 5:29.0.

 

Hayley Winters led the ladies home, placing 35th overall and first W35 in a new Club age group best of 5:31.0, just ahead of Anna Midgley in 38th and second W35, in a personal best 5:33.0.

 

Beth Wells set a new personal best 5:45.0 in 43rd place, Suzanne Harding placed 56th in 5:58.0, Arthur Daley placed 65th in 6:15.0, Amber Spackman placed 107th in 7:01 ahead of grandad Dave Spackman who placed 118th in 7:27.0 with Chris O’Carroll completing the group in 131st place in 7:50.0.

 

For Mower, that was his second age group race win in three days as he placed 3rd overall and 1st M50 at Thursday’s Haresfield 5K in 17:55. Chris Davis placed 47th in 22:20 and Dave Spackman 68th and 1st M70 in 24:53.

 

Gloucester Athletic Club’s Joel Townley finished on the medal podium for the second consecutive year at last weekend’s English Schools Track & field Championships at Birmingham, when he won the silver medal in the Senior Boys Triple Jump.

 

Twelve months ago, the Gloucester youngster won the Intermediate Boys title but this year he had moved up an age group and was one of the youngest in the field. But once again he demonstrated his ability to perform on the big stage to sneak second place with his best legal jump of the season, 14.66 metres, behind event favourite Wesley Matsuka-Williams of Norfolk.

 

Another athlete to perform way above expectations was Chloe Jones in the Senior Girls discus. Going into the competition as the lowest-ranked of the 13 finalists, she opened up with a season’s best throw of 37.65 metres, the second-furthest of her career, and although she was unable to improve on that distance, she held on to finish a highly creditable 8th place.

 

Sprinter Ellie Wheeler-Smith was also competing in a higher age group this year, when she went in the Intermediate Girls 200 metres. She eased through Friday’s heat with a new personal best and club U17 record time of 25.27 seconds, which she improved by 2 one-hundredths when placing 4th in her semi-final. In Saturday’s final, she was drawn in the unfavourable inside lane but persevered to place 6th in 25.44 seconds.

 

Despite acquitting themselves well in their respective 100 metres and 800 metres heats on Friday, neither Rory Cawkwell nor Harry Wells were able to progress through to the next stage.

 

Club spokesman Richard Blackwell was full of praise for the youngsters, saying: “To qualify for these championships is every young athletes’ dream so to make it to Birmingham was a fantastic achievement for these athletes. The Gloucester club is hugely proud of each of them and we’re sure they will inspire the next generation of promising youngsters we have in the Club to strive for these heights.”

 

The Club’s youngest team, the U13/U15 age group, will be competing in the National Youth Development League promotion play-off match at Swindon this Saturday where success will earn them a place in the Midland Area Premier Division.

 

Multi-eventer Jacqui Holloway enjoyed a highly successful competition at the British Masters Combined Events Heptathlon at Sheffield at the weekend, setting six new personal bests in the seven events to secure the W40 age group title with a new best score of 3,823 in only her second full heptathlon. She’ll now turn her attention to next month’s World Masters championships in Malaga where she will be aiming for a medal.

 

Gloucester club members have been in action at the recent Cheltenham Open Meetings, securing the following results:

100m Race 5, Sulaiman Ouiles (U15B) 3rd 15.2

        Race 6, Natasha Schofield (U11G) 4th 17.2

300m Race 1, Gabriella Schofield (U15G) 5th 58.6

800m Race 2, Edgar Kibet (U20M) 4th 2:14.8

        Race 3, Tina Wickens (W45), 9th 2:28.5 (new Club age group record)

        Race 5, Sophie Johnson (U17W), 6th 2:56.4

              Natasha Schofield (U11G), 9th 3:10.2

3000m Race 1, Millie Porter (U17W), 2nd 10:59.7

              Hayley Winters (SW), 4th 11:09.0

Hammer       Andy McKenzie (M55), 1st 29.54 metres.

 

Gloucester Athletic Club’s senior track & field team won the Midland Athletics League Division Three title with an emphatic display in the third-round match at Telford on Saturday.

 

So dominant has the City team been this year that they have not only won back-to-back divisional titles but, unlike last year which went down to the wire, they have achieved the rare distinction of winning this title with one match to spare.

 

While the other Clubs faltered and wilted in the soaring temperatures, the Gloucester squad set about achieving their aim of another match win with ruthless efficiency.

 

Given another perfect start by hammer throwers Tim Williams and Gareth Winter and long jumpers Kate Davies and Julia Johnson, the team raced into an early lead which they held through to the end of the match.

 

Davies was unavailable for the early-season matches as she was taking her finals exams at Oxford University. Once they were out of the way, she was able to get back into full training and her performances on Saturday showed how much of an asset she is to this team as she took further wins in the 100m hurdles and the high jump.

 

As has been the norm this season, the team’s throwers were imperious with Williams and Winter, plus Ellen Thrall, Chloe Jones and Luke Coghill all recording event wins.

 

Elsewhere in the field events, Joel Townley and Oliver Keitley kept up their winning streak in the long and triple jumps while their coach Jo Willoughby made a timely return to competition following a serious training accident and won the ladies triple jump.

 

Although not as dominant as their field-event team mates, the track athletes produced a series of wins and personal best performances to seal the match win.

 

Ellie Wheeler-Smith defied a heavy cold to narrowly win the 100 metres and lead the ladies to a comfortable sprint relay squad, while ladies captain Sophie Rowe produced her trademark electrifying start to win the 100 metres ‘B’ race by a country mile. Sophie Temple set two new personal bests in the 200 and 400 metres while there was another 400 metres personal best for youngster Scarlett Pegler in only her second match for the senior team.

 

Harry Wells warmed up nicely for this weekend’s English Schools Championships with a win in the 800 metres and showed a good turn of speed when placing third in the 400 metres. Training partner Seb Clarke placed third in his 800 metres before lowering his personal best in the 400 metres and there were massive new personal bests for Natalie Ashley-Towell and Tina Wickens in the 800 metres and 1500 metres respectively.

 

The remaining middle-distance events demonstrated all that is good about the team and the Gloucester club this season. Stalwarts Dave Gresswell and Arthur Daley answered the team’s call for help to race in the 5,000 metres, with Daley also going on to run in the 1500 metres, Trudy Wells wasn’t going to allow her children Beth and Harry take all of the family glory and once again ran in the 1500 metres, while Briony Bishop cut short her recuperation period from a knee operation to race in the 3,000 metres. All won valuable points for their team and set a fine example for their Clubmates.

 

Afterwards, team manager Richard Blackwell said “To win the division title with one match to spare is a fantastic achievement and is certainly something that I can’t ever remember us doing before, so I take my hat off to everyone who has helped along the way. However, today’s match was a lot closer than we would have liked so we can’t ease off. We still have one match to go and I know that these athletes won’t be satisfied until they have completed the season unbeaten. We’ve had a couple of days off, now we’re setting about preparing for the final match at Coventry on 5th August.”

 

Match result: Gloucester 371 points; Telford AC 361; Coventry Godiva 331; Worcester AC 289.5; Tipton Harriers 222; Leamington AC 219.5.

 

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This weekend, five members of the successful track and field team will be competing in the English Schools Championships at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium.

Ellie Wheeler-Smith runs in the Intermediate Girls 200 metres, Chloe Jones competes in the Senior Girls discus, Rory Cawkwell goes in the Senior Boys 100 metres, Harry Wells runs in the Senior Boys 800 metres, while last year’s Intermediate Boys triple jump champion Joel Townley moves up an age group to contest the Senior Boys event.

 

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There was a strong Gloucester AC turn-out in Sunday’s Gloucester 10K road race which, like the previous day’s track event at Telford, was run in scorching temperatures.

 

The heat and the twisting nature of this course did not make for fast times, but there were still some very good performances by the Gloucester group.

 

Steve Kenyon is enjoying an excellent debut season since signing for the Club, winning several local road races. In this, his first official 10K event, he placed third overall and first City runner home in 35:30, just ahead of another first-timer Owen Parry who clocked 36:45.

 

Peter Haynes was the next runner home, placing 11th in a personal best 38:50, while Jason Tilley came home in 13th place overall and first M40 in 39:06, with Steve Robbins just behind in 18th place in 39:30 and Mark Keeling making a welcome return to racing following a prolonged spell out through injury, in 25th place with 40:27. Tracy Hinxman is a member of the Derby club, but a second-claim member of the Gloucester club led the ladies home, placing 28th overall in 40;39, one place ahead of Steve Haines who clocked 40:42.

 

Just one day after turning out for the Club’s track team over 5,000 metres, Dave Gresswell placed 35th in 42:15, one place ahead of second lady finisher Anna Midgley who stopped the clock at 42:30. Nick Bishop placed 50th in 43:43, Paul Loveridge placed 70th in his last race in the M55 age category with 45:20, Clive Poole placed 80th in 45:50 and Amar Patel placed 97th in 47:10.

 

Other Club finishers outside the top 100 were:

 

Charlotte Hall, 157th 51:07; Chris Davis 164th, 52:01 and Helen Haines 432nd.

 

Gloucester Athletic Club’s Gareth Winter produced one of the best performances of his career to place third in the shot putt at the British Athletics championships at Birmingham on Saturday with a season’s best putt of 17.28 metres.

 

The former Welsh international shot-putter, who represented his country at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, almost quit last year but has since returned to his home Club and re-discovered his appetite for the sport following a winter of playing local rugby.

 

“This is a crazy result!” He said afterwards. “12 months ago, I was working so hard at the event but seemed like I was getting nowhere and almost threw in the towel. I’m now in a much better place, we have a young daughter, and I’m back competing with my friends at Gloucester. So, to come away with a bronze medal, I couldn’t be happier.”

 

This Saturday, the Club’s senior track and field team head up to Telford for round three of the Midland Athletics League where they will be hoping to consolidate their lead at the top of the Division Three table. Team manager Richard Blackwell says “This is a huge fixture for the Club because although we are leading the table, a bad result here could jeopardise our promotion hopes. We’re on our longest unbeaten run since the League was re-structured 11 seasons ago and we won’t accept anything less than another match win.”

 

Away from the track, two of the Club’s endurance group travelled to Bristol to compete in the final race of the latest Filton Flyer 5K road races. In temperatures approaching 30 degrees, Steve Robbins placed 18th overall in 19:29 and Arthur Daley 27th in 20:45.

 

In Saturday’s Cotswold Way Relay event, again run in temperatures exceeding 30 degrees, the Gloucester club placed second in the mixed category, covering the 103 miles course in 13 hours, 31 mins 15 seconds.

 

While many of Gloucester Athletic Club’s track & field athletes were taking a break from competition last week following a tough schedule of Championship and League fixtures, two of the Club’s top performers were busy continuing their preparations for next month’s English Schools Track & Field Championships.

 

Rory Cawkwell is enjoying a successful 2018 campaign, establishing himself as the top sprinter in the county. He took advantage of last week’s warm weather to compete in the Welsh Athletics “Run With The Wind” Open Sprints meeting in Cardiff where he reduced his 200 metres personal best time by 35/100ths of a second when placing third in the ‘A’ race in 22.06 seconds. A sub-22 seconds clocking is not far away and the English Schools will be just the place to achieve that milestone.

 

Harry Wells travelled up to Tipton to compete in the latest round of BMC Regional Races, where conditions were less favourable as the runners had to face a very strong headwind on the home straight. He produced another combative run to place 6th in the 800 metres ‘A’ race in 1:58.72 which although outside his best, shows he now has the confidence and ability to break the two-minutes barrier at will.

 

Andrew Bowers was also in action at the Tipton meet and finally produced the sort of run which coach Paul de-Camps had been predicting for some time, when placing 4th in the 800 metres ‘C’ race in 2:00.61, a personal best by two seconds and certainly worthy of a sub-two minutes clocking in better conditions.

 

At the Bristol & West AC “Night of Fast 5,000 metres” Open meeting at Yate, Owen Parry placed 8th in the ‘D’ race in 17:01.23, ahead of Clubmate James Walters who came home in 12th place in 17:17.20. The ‘E’ race saw George Daly place 4th in a new personal best 18:34.30 while Arthur Daley placed 8th in the ‘F’ race in 20:17.34.

 

This Sunday sees the Club competing in the first round of this season’s Avon League. As team manager Nick Macfarlaine says “This League is the ideal introduction to competition for all of our younger and less-experienced athletes. It’s a great little meeting and caters for all age-groups, from the Under-11s right through to the Masters categories.”

 

On the roads, Clive Poole travelled down to south Wales on Sunday to run the Swansea Half Marathon and was pleased with his season’s best 1:39:41 in 501st place. Mark Perkins placed 978th in 1:48:44.

 

Gloucester Athletic Club members had an excellent day at last Saturday’s South-West Schools Track & Field Championships at Exeter as they continued their quest to qualify for next month’s English Schools Championships in Birmingham.

 

Ellie Wheeler-Smith has been in scintillating this season and travelled to Exeter full of hope following an impressive outing at the previous weekend’s County Schools Championships. Against girls who were mostly one year older, she didn’t disappoint as she took the bronze medal in the Intermediate Girls 100 metres in a new personal best and a Club age group electronically-timed record of 12.25 seconds. Ellie still had work to do, as she went in her preferred event, the 200 metres. Running in a straight final, she came home a clear winner in 24.80 seconds, the fastest time ever run by a Gloucester woman. Unfortunately, the time won’t count for record purposes as it was over the legal wind speed allowance of +2.0m/sec, at 2.4m/sec. The English Schools event will be the perfect time to beat the record.

 

Joel Townley was another City athlete to be robbed of a Club record by the blustery conditions. His winning 14.93 metres leap in the triple jump, which benefitted from a following 2.7m/sec wind, was not only the furthest he has ever jumped but beat the old Championship best held by a certain Jonathan Edwards. Again, he will have the Club age group record in his sights at Birmingham.

 

Tricia Stanfield will have to wait to find out if she has gained selection for the County team for the English Schools because she is just short of the qualifying standard in the 300 metres. However, she is top-ranked in the county by a considerable margin and set a new personal best when placing second on Saturday, so she can do no more.

 

Sophie Temple was outside her best time when placing 5th in her 400 meters heat, as was Harry Wells in the 800 metres and Millie Porter in the 3,000 metres, though the strong prevailing winds certainly affected those races.

 

Elsewhere in the field events, Chloe Jones is another athlete who has performed consistently well in recent weeks and will be going to the English Schools on the back of a season’s best throw of 36.62 in the Senior Girls discus, while training partner Ben Campion threw a new personal best 38.08 metres to place 5th in the Intermediate Boys discus final.

 

Julia Johnson was over 5 metres in the long jump for the first time, but the strong following wind negated her 5.07 metres leap for personal best purposes, while Beth Gardiner placed 7th in a competitive Senior Girls shot putt final.

 

Away from the Schools Championships, the Club’s youngsters were in action in the final National Youth Development League fixture at Newport on Sunday. Going into the match in second place overall, they needed a top three placing to qualify for the League promotion play-off. Despite fielding a depleted team, they achieved their target and will take their place in the regional play-off fixture at Swindon next month.

 

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After the previous week’s 100 mile road race, Gloucester's Jeremy Mower went off at a conservative pace at Sunday’s Bourton Hilly Half Marathon. Sitting behind a group of four runners after the first big hill at the one-mile point, he and rival Simon Campbell of Cirencester finally broke away from the group at the half-way stage. At mile 8 Mower made his decisive move and pushed on hard up the longest hill in the race in pursuit of the 4th placed runner. Although Mower closed the gap he was unable to catch Gary Payne(Nuneaton Harriers) and had to hold off a late challenge from former Gloucester runner James Head, now of Tewkesbury RC. Mower placed fifth overall and 1st M50 in 1: 24:17, to maintain his 100% record in this age group in the County Road Race Series. Gloucester's other representative was 74 year old and local ultra-racing legend Chris O'Carroll, who clocked 2:23:10.

 

At last week’s “Cirencester Sizzler” 10K road race, Peter Jeffery placed 59th in 43:48, Mark Perkins placed 97th in 47:30 and Austin Blackburn 117th in 48:34.

 

Gloucester Athletic Club’s youngsters were prominent at the County Schools Championships at Cheltenham’s Prince of Wales Stadium on Saturday, winning a stash of titles and medals in their quest to qualify for this weekend’s South-West Schools Championships.

 

The City’s athletes made a huge impact, winning titles in all track events from 100 metres up to 3,000 metres and in all the jumps and throws events, further underlining the developing talent within the Club.

 

The senior (U20s) age group saw convincing track wins for Rory Cawkwell in the 100 and 200 metres and for Harry Wells in the 800 metres, while Sophie Temple also took her recent good form into the Championships to win gold in the 200 metres and a silver in the 200 metres. In the 1500 metres, Natalie Ashley Towell battled with the heat to win the gold medal.

 

In the senior field events, Chloe Jones continued her domination in the girls discus while there was silver medal and a new personal best for Beth Gardiner in the shot putt. Luke Coghill also threw a new personal best when winning the bronze medal in the boys discus.

 

There was further success in the intermediate (U17s) age group events. Ellie Wheeler-Smith confirmed her UK top 5 ranking in the 100 metres as won the shorter sprint at her will, following up with a win in the 200 metres to head to the South-West Championships in top form. She was joined in both finals by training partner Shanika Nicholson who enjoyed her best day’s competition, setting two new personal bests. Also on the track, Millie Porter produced a strong run to comfortably win the 3,000 metres.

 

In the intermediate field events, Julia Johnson won the gold medal in the long jump and silver in the triple jump, both with personal best distances, while training partner Oliver Keitley won the silver medal in the triple jump. Ben Campion was also on top form, winning the discus with a new personal best throw.

 

The junior (U15s) age group saw more success coming Gloucester’s way. Sprinter Tricia Stanfield has made considerable progress over the 300 metres in recent weeks and she lowered her personal best again as she took victory over a strong field. She also won the 200 metres title, finishing ahead of training partner Kitty Tabaiwalu who set a new personal best in her first county final. The boys 800 metres final saw Ethan Hood finish just outside the medal, but setting a new personal best, while there were new personal bests for Jess Hill and Tilly Ashley in the 1500 metres final.

 

Phoebe Jones was just below her best when winning the silver medal in the long jump, but Serafeim Apostolakis improved his personal best when taking the silver medal in the boys triple jump and again in the discus where he placed fifth.

 

After the Championships, Club spokesman Richard Blackwell said “There were some excellent results for our youngsters today which is a great testament to the hard work put in by themselves and their coaches. There is a continuous wave of exciting talent coming through our junior ranks which is already bearing fruit for our senior teams.”

 

The Club’s leading jumper, Joel Townley, missed the schools event choosing instead to concentrate on the Midland U20s Championships at Nuneaton the following day. He made the right decision as he won the silver medal in the long jump with his second-best leap of the season, 6.56 metres. He then went on to his speciality and the event in which he is the reigning English Schools Intermediate Champion, the triple jump, which he won with a new Championship Best Performance jump of 13.85 metres.

 

Steve Millward was also in a title-winning mood at the Midland Championships. Disappointed with his run at the previous weekend’s Midland League fixture where he was strangely out of sorts, he dominated the opposition to win the 3,000m steeplechase by 40 seconds in a season’s best 9:58.7, a time that places him second in the UK M35 ranking list for the year.

 

Despite running a season’s best, Harry Wells finished just outside the medals in the U20 Men’s 1500 metres final, placing fourth in 4:04.40.

 

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The CP Sport Athletics Series at Blackbridge on Saturday saw three Gloucester Club members in competition. Charlie Denman in the race-running events had the best of the day winning all four of her races with a pb-equalling 100m time of 23.9 seconds. She slipped a little in the 200m in terms of her time but came back with a crushing 94.3 seconds clocking in the 400m, a performance which currently ranks her 4th in the World. Saving the best for last, she stormed the 800m - her favoured event - with a time of 3:13.2, reducing her previous best time by a huge 13.2 seconds off her best time.  This is the 3rd best time recorded in the world this year.

 

She has already been selected to represent England in the World CP Athletics Championships in Barcelona in August and these results set her up very nicely for this competition. Coach Bob Purcell said, 'Charlie is a delight to coach. She is working hard and enjoying the rewards that hard work brings'.

 

Two more of Gloucester's para-athletes were in contention at the event.  Although in different classifications and age groups, Josh Freeman went head to head with Daniel Morgan in the 100m and 200m wheelchair events. Both were a little shy of their best times in the 100 metres but Daniel shaved a full second of his previous best set at last month’s County Championships. Both hold onto their places as UK number 1s in their respective age and class.

 

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Away from the track, Gloucester ultra-distance runner Jeremy Mower was competing in the South Downs Way 100 miles event, finishing in 21 hours, 51 minutes 28 seconds.

 

The event, which was run in very warm conditions and involved over 4,000 feet of elevation, attracted over 350 runners of which 223 finished.

 

Afterwards, he said “I went through a bad patch where I struggled to hold food and drink down and had to walk for a while as I was low on energy. Fortunately, I overcame this and was able to start running again so, under the circumstances, I was pleased to have earnt the ‘one day buckle’ which is awarded to runners who complete the challenge in under 24 hours.”

 

Gloucester Athletic Club’s senior track & field team took full advantage of competing on home soil when they stormed to an emphatic win in Saturday’s Midland Athletics League second round match at their Blackbridge headquarters.

 

So dominant were the City team that their 77-points winning margin was their biggest since the League’s inception in 2008 and the Club’s fifth successive League win, putting them firmly on course for back-to-back promotions.

 

All successful sporting teams need a strong base and this Gloucester team is no exception as throwers Tim Williams, Gareth Winter and Luke Coghill, and jumpers Joel Townley, Tom Beckett and Ollie Keitley stamped their authority on the opposition. The ladies were not to be outdone, as hammer thrower Ellen Thrall and former Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Lorraine Shaw returned to join forces with Chloe Jones, Beth Gardiner and Marion Loveridge to record further victories. Youngster Julia Johnson and multi-eventer Jacqui Holloway both set new personal bests and wins in the jumps to tighten Gloucester’s grip in the field.

 

Sprinter Ellie Wheeler-Smith enjoyed a successful debut for the senior team, winning the 100 and 200 metres ‘A’ string races in personal best times to further underline her growing reputation. Training partner Rory Cawkwell was also on top form, lowering his personal best times for both sprints while Justin Smith, a member of the Club’s sprint coaching team, also set season’s bests.

 

However, it was another member of the Gloucester sprint group, Sophie Temple, who stood out as she produced her best performances since progressing to the senior team. She started her afternoon by equaling her personal best in the 200m, followed that by lowering her personal best in the 400m by over two seconds and then set another new personal best when winning the 100m. That would be enough for many, but she was far from finished as she then featured in the victorious 4 x 100m relay before running a classic “glory leg” in the most exciting race of the day, the 4 x 400m, overhauling the very strong Coventry runner in the final strides.

 

The middle-distance races saw League debuts for several runners, with Tina Wickens, Anna Midgley, Natalie Ashley-Towell, Edgar Kibet, Sebastian Clarke, Owen Parry and James Walters all acquitting themselves well in the sunshine.

 

Afterwards, team manager was cautiously optimistic of his team’s chances, saying “We had to make the most of home advantage today and I’m really pleased with the way the team responded. However, we must repeat this performance in round three at Telford next month, otherwise all of the good work so far will count for nothing.”

 

Match result: Gloucester 392 points; Worcester 315; Tipton 308; Leamington 282; Coventry 270; Telford 268.

 

League placings after two matches (of four): Gloucester 12 League points; Worcester 8; Coventry 7 (606 match points); Leamington 7 (603 match points); Tipton 6; Telford 2.

 

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At Sunday’s Midland Masters Championships at Nuneaton, Suzanne Harding ran her fastest time over 800 metres for many years when winning the W40 title in 2:34.9.

 

Chloe Jones made the mid-week trip up to Loughborough for last week’s Charnwood AC Open meeting worthwhile when she won the ladies discus with a best throw of 35.51 metres.

 

Less than 48-hours before making his track League debut, Owen Parry was the first Gloucester club runner home in Severn AC’s Pilot Inn 5K road race, placing 4th in a road-best time of 17:16. Clubmate Jeremy Mower finished one place back and first M50 in 17:31, with Dave Spackman placing 29th overall and first M70 in 24:46. Mower was back in action on Sunday, placing 17th overall and first M50 in the Fairford 10K race, clocking 38:03.

 

It has been quite a week for Gloucester Athletic Club’s Harry Wells. Last Tuesday night at Tipton, he lowered his personal best for 800m by half a second, clocking 1:56.84. Then, on Saturday night he stepped up in class to take part in his first British Milers Club Grand Prix at Watford. Despite the high temperatures and a strong headwind on the home straight he acquitted himself with distinction lowering his 800m personal best by a further half a second, recording a time of 1:56.23.   So far, this season, the 17-year old has competed in four races and recorded personal bests on every occasion.

 

Harry’s coach, Paul de-Camps, said “Harry was unlucky with the conditions at Watford but showed great maturity in the way he coped with the pressures at this higher level. There is much more to come before the season is over.”

 

Two other members of the de-Camps stable were also in action at the Tipton meeting. Scott Carpenter is making a welcome return to athletics after some years’ absence and his early season form bodes well for the future.   Running in the 3000m, he recorded a time of 9:37.73 for 14th in the British Milers Club ‘A’ race.   Hayley Winters, who has been hampered by injury problems of late, turned in a gutsy performance to finish 11th in the women's 1500m A race in a time of 5:23.00.

 

Beth Wells, sister of Harry, has also been in impressive form this spring, producing her fastest times since 2007 when she was one of the top 10 young runners in the country. So far in 2018, she has set a personal best over 800 metres on the track and recorded the second-fastest one-mile road time by an U23 in the UK. Her latest exploit was a new 5K personal best time of 19:35 when placing 21st overall and second lady in the Swansea Bay 5K road race.

 

Gloucester multi-eventer Tom Beckett competed in the England senior decathlon championships at Bedford at the weekend.

 

He opened up day one with a personal best 11.86 seconds in the 100 metres and followed this up with a 6.20m leap in the long jump. He then threw 8.86m in the shot putt, cleared a season’s best 1.59m in the high jump before clocking another season’s best time of 56.05 seconds in the 400 metres to close the first day in 32nd place on 2,740 points.

 

The first event on day two was the 110 metres hurdles which saw Beckett clock 18.76 seconds. He then set two more personal bests, 20.51m in the discus and 2.32m in the pole vault. The penultimate event, the javelin, saw him record a season’s best 27.93m before he clocked 6:15.95 in the 1500 metres to finish on 4,152 points in 33rd place overall.

 

At last week’s Yate Open Meeting, sprinter Ellie Wheeler-Smith ran an electronically-timed personal best for the 200 metres when she stopped the clock in 25.83 seconds. Earlier she ran 12.81 seconds for the 100 metres into a strong headwind. Training partner Rory Cawkwell clocked 11.53 in the 100 metres.

 

Away from the track, the Club’s athletes have also been busy. Kirsty Reid travelled down to the Forest of Dean to compete in last week’s challenging Fountain Five Mile trail race, placing 56th in 46:31.

 

Just one week after his win in the Tewkesbury Half Marathon, Steve Kenyon was back on the victor’s podium when he won the Bredon Cricket Club Tower 10K road race in a personal best 40:36. Liz Usedon clocked 57:15. At the Boddington 10K race, Tina Wickens was just outside her personal best time when crossing the line in 43:36.

 

Jeremy Mower had a successful outing at Sunday’s Dymock Half Marathon, placing 3rd overall and first M50 in 1:21:58. Mike Mansfield ran 1:26:54 to follow up his 3rd place in the recent Hereford 10K where he ran 37:15, and Graham Davis clocked 1:32.09.

 

This Saturday sees the Gloucester club host the second round of this season’s Midland Athletics League at the Blackbridge track in Podsmead.

 

The team got off to a perfect start when winning the first match at Leamington Spa and will be hoping to take full advantage of a home fixture to put them firmly in the driving seat and on course for a second successive promotion.

 

Team manager Richard Blackwell is upbeat about his team’s chances, saying “I honestly think this is the strongest team we have fielded for many years, with a very exciting mix of experience and some promising youngsters beginning to make an impact. There is a real buzz around the Club after the win in round one and the athletes are all aiming to back that up with another win on home soil.”

 

Gloucester Athletic Club members made hay while the sun shone as the Club won a record haul of over 120 medals across two days of competition at last week’s Glos County Track & Field Championships on the Blackbridge track.

 

The City athletes took advantage of the warm, sunny conditions to post a stack of early-season and personal bests in this, the first championship meeting of the season to give warning to their rivals that an exciting season lies ahead for many as they prepare for the challenges ahead.

 

In recent years, the County AAA has pioneered the inclusion of para-athletic events in its Championships and this year saw race-running making its debut on the programme for another first for Gloucestershire.

 

Club spokesman Richard Blackwell said after the championships: “This was the Club’s most successful Championships for many years and the fact that we won medals across all of the age groups and events suggests we are heading in the right direction as we aim to be a recognised athletics force in the region once again. It would be unfair to single out any individual performances, but the efforts of all the athletes and the Club’s coaches cannot go without mention.”

 

The Club’s youngsters built on their excellent start to their season when they took second place in the YDL Lower Age Group fixture at Worcester. The U15 Girls 4 x 300m relay team of Tricia Stanfield, Emma Tillott, Darcey Barton and Isobelle Herbert produced the outstanding performance of the day, winning their race in 3:06.8 to break the existing Club record by a massive 10 seconds. Young sprinter Ella-Grace Edwards is also making waves on the local scene this season and won the U13 Girls 75 metres in 10.2 seconds to equal Shya Pinnock’s seven year-old Club record.

 

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Bethan Moor took a break from her medical studies at Plymouth University to compete in Sunday’s “Britain’s Ocean City Half Marathon” in her current base. In her very first half marathon, she placed 134th in 1:32:38, the second fastest time by a city lady this year. Afterwards, she said “I’m surprised with that time as I hadn’t done any specific training for the event and had no expectations. I really enjoyed the race.”

 

Steve Millward led a strong Gloucester club contingent home in the Berkeley 10K road race when placing second in 33:09.

 

In ideal racing conditions, Jeremy Mower placed 12th overall and second M50 in 36:28, his second fastest time of the year, ahead of Max Sheppard whose 36:51 in 16th place was a personal best time for the distance and Jason Tilley who also recorded a personal best, placing 27th in 37:58.

 

Dave Gresswell placed 38th in 39:07, Steve Robbins knocked three minutes off his previous best time when placing 40th in 39:13, just holding off Austin Blackburn who placed 41st in 39:17. Matt Powell came home in 47th place in 39:37, just ahead of Peter Haynes who, in his first race for the Club placed 48th in 39:40.

 

Anna Midgley had the best race of her career as she placed 54th and first W35 in a new personal best 40:09, Gary Fraser shaved 15 seconds off his personal best when clocking 40:36 in 56th place, Mike Jenkins ran a road-best time of 41:07 in 61st place, Arthur Daley clocked a 2018-best of 41:24 in 64th overall and 1st M65, Paul Loveridge clocked a personal best 43:20 in 89th place and Charlotte Hall placed 154th in 47:32.

 

Gloucester’s latest signing Steve Kenyon secured the biggest win of his fledgling career when he won the Tewkesbury Half Marathon. Leading from the gun, and only with Clevedon’s Jed Bartlett for company, he not only contended with the extreme heat but also with the lead car with whom he collided in the final metres, to come home in a new personal best 1:15:37.

 

Another newcomer, Jordan Evans, placed 14th in 1:26:49. Steve Haines placed 56th in 1:34:33, Neil Hobbs placed 188th in 1:48:44 and Andrea Preedy placed 203rd in a personal best 1:50:51.

 

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Gloucester Athletic Club’s Beth Wells is currently enjoying her best form for many years, having run excellent times over 800 and 1500 metres in early season track races. Last week, she proved that she can carry that form onto the roads when she ran a personal best 19:35 in the Swansea Bay 5K Summer Series event, finishing second lady.

Gloucester Athletic club’s senior track and field team made an excellent start to their 2018 Midland Athletics League campaign when they took a hard-earned victory in the sunshine and blistering heat at Leamington Spa on Sunday.

 

With temperatures reaching 26 degrees at trackside, conditions were always going to be challenging but the team remained cool and calm in the face of some very stiff opposition.

 

The Gloucester team were going into this Division Three match as the unknowns after their promotion as Division four champions last year, but it was not long before the other competing teams were very aware that this new-look City team meant business.

 

Throwers Tim Williams and Gareth Winter both made a welcome to the team and immediately set out their stall with a double victory in the men’s hammer to give the team a perfect start. Williams’s winning throw of 61.70m was a season’s best and only 15cms down on his own League Divisional record. The pair took another double victory later in the afternoon in the shot putt, with Winter breaking the Divisional record with a best putt of 15.69 metres. Winter then won the ‘A’ discus and Williams the ‘B’ javelin, and with youngster Luke Coghill placing third in the ‘B’ discus, the men’s throwers set a strong platform for the rest of the team.

 

The ladies throwers were not to be outdone, as Chloe Jones, Beth Gardiner and Marion Loveridge all earned valuable points. Jones’s target for the year is qualification for the discus at her final English Schools Championships in July and was just 1cm short of the qualifying mark as she placed second in that event with 35.99m.

 

The team’s policy of introducing the Club’s promising youngsters was again evident in the match. Millie Porter is clearly a runner of great promise, taking her encouraging cross-country performances from the winter onto the roads. She has now set an early marker for the rest of the track season as she stormed to victory in her first-ever 3,000 metres track race. Following the sensible pace set by team-mate Hayley Winters, the youngster showed maturity beyond her years to move to the front and extend her lead to win comfortably in 10:57.6. Despite fading, Winters held on to take victory in the ‘B’ string in 11:28.9.

 

Two more youngsters made their senior debuts in the long and triple jumps. Julia Johnson and Ollie Keitley both only took up the events last year, but under the watchful eye of coach Jo Willoughby they have made considerable progress and comfortably acquitted themselves at this new level of competition. Training partner Joel Townley opened his season with wins in the ‘A’ string long and triple jumps and second place in the high jump.

 

The fourth debutant to have progressed from the Club’s junior ranks was Scarlett Pegler who showed great composure in her first ever 400 metres race to place second in the ‘B’ string in 66.3 seconds. LJ Phillips ran her fastest one-lap race for two years to place third in the ‘A’ race and both joined forces with Sophie Temple and ladies team captain Sophie Rowe to take second place in the 4 x 400m relay.

 

Rowe and Temple opened their season in fine style as they both placed third in their respective 200 metres races before storming to victory in the 100 metres ‘A’ and ‘B’ events. Training partner Rory Cawkwell was also happy with his sprint times as he took third place in the 100m (11.1 secs) and the 200 metres (22.7 secs). Sprint coach Justin Smith took third place in the 100 metres and fifth in the 200 metres.

 

There were more encouraging runs in the middle-distance races. Harry Wells finished strongly to take second place in the ‘A’ string 800 metres with a personal best 1:57.3, while sister Beth ran her fastest-ever 800 metres and first track personal best for 11 years when placing second in 2:27.0. Mum Trudy stepped into the 1500m breach at short notice to earn points and was rewarded with a personal best 6:50.2.

 

Suzanne Harding is showing good early-season form, running her fastest time for three years when winning the ‘B’ string 800 metres. Arthur Daley was another to plug a gap, running the ‘B’ string 800 metres, while there were valuable runs from Scott Carpenter and Jason Tilley in the men’s 1500 metres. Steve Robbins ran his first-ever track race and in the difficult conditions ran 19:19.1 for the 5,000 metres, just beating team-mate Dave Gresswell who clocked 19:22.4.

 

Men’s captain Steve Millward earned valuable points as always, the highlight of his afternoon being a Club age-group record 6:16.9 when winning the ‘A’ string 2,000m steeplechase, beating the previous record by six seconds. Jeremy Mower had raced in the Great Birmingham 10K race in the morning but then showed his commitment to his Club by dashing across to Leamington to place second in the ‘B’ string steeplechase.

 

Multi-eventer Jacqui Holloway made an impressive debut and made a massive contribution with top three placings in the hurdles events, including a new club age group record in the 100m hurdles, and further points in the high jump and javelin. Husband Matt was another to fill gaps in the mean’s team, including a second place in the 400m hurdles. Both are preparing for the World Masters Championships in Spain later in the year.

 

Team manager Richard Blackwell was delighted with his team’s performance, saying “We needed a good start to the season – and got it! Our leading athletes produced the goods and I was really pleased with the contributions made by the newcomers. The youngsters were outstanding and this result has set us up for an exciting year. That said, we know that some teams were below strength today and there was enough quality on show to suggest there will be some very challenges ahead, so there will be no room for complacency.”

 

Match result (provisional): 

Gloucester AC 356 pts; Coventry 336; Leamington 321; Worcester 296; Tipton 279.5; Telford 215.5.

 

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Jeremy Mower competed in the Celtic Nations v England Masters International event that was part of the Birmingham 10K race on Sunday.

 

On a tough undulating course, with an uphill finish, and in hot conditions, he placed 66th overall and 8th in the M50 age group.

 

Immediately after the race, he made his way over to Leamington Spa to represent his Club in the Midland Athletics League match, placing second in the ‘B’ string 2,000m steeplechase.

 

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The Club’s successes continued into Monday’s Brewer Games at Cheltenham, when the hot conditions brought out the very best in many of the Gloucester athletes present.

 

Details as follows:

300m Hurdles – Ian Willoughby (M60) 50.4 seconds.

800m – Race 2 Ethan Hood (U15B) 2:30.3 (pb)

800m – Race 3 Edgar Kibet (U20M) 2:22.1 (pb); Evie Green (U17W) 2:27.4 (pb)

       Race 4 Tina Wickens (W45) 2:34.8 (pb); Scarlett Pegler (U17W) 2:40.8;

   Amelia Newell (U13G) 2:46.3 (pb).

       Race 5  Amber Spackman (U15G) 2:42.4 (pb); Jessica Stringer (U13G) 3:05.5 (pb).

100m – Race 3  Ellie Wheeler-Smith (U17W) 12.6.

       Race 5  Tricia Stanfield (U15G) 13.8.

       Race 6  Isobelle Herbert (U15G) 14.0 (pb).

       Race 7  Malika Ouiles (U17W) 14.6.

300m -  Race 2  Evie Green (U17W)  44.3 (pb)

       Race 3 Tricia Stanfield (U15G) 45.0

       Race 4  Isobelle Herbert (U15G) 46.9 (pb)

       Race 6  Ethan Hood (U13B) 46.1 

400m   Race 3  Suzanne Harding (W40) 70.1; Vicky Broom (Wheelchair) 2:39.5

1500m  Race 1  Beth Wells (SW) 5:15.7

      Race 2  Tilly Ashley (U15G) 5:03.9(pb); Natalie Ashley-Towell (U20W) 5:26.8       

                 (pb); Lucy Jeffery (U15G) 5:41.3 (pb).

      Race 3 Vicky Broom (Wheelchair) 9:07.7 (pb and club record)

80m H   Race 1  Sulaiman Ouiles (U15B) 14.3.

200m    Race 1  Ellie Wheeler-Smith (U17W) 25.3 (pb)

      Race 2  Tricia Stanfield (U15G) 28.7

Long Jump Fin Waller (U15B) 4.45m

Hammer Chrissy Campion (U15G) 21.29m (pb)

Discus Ben Campion (U17M) 35.33 (pb)

       Chrissy Campion (U15G) 22.68 (pb)

High Jump Sulaiman Ouiles (U15B) 1.55 (pb)

Shot Putt Ben Campion (U17M)  11.26 (pb)

 

Gloucester Athletic Club had a successful day at the British Masters Road Relays at Sutton Park in Birmingham on Saturday, fielding four complete teams across different age groups.

 

The ladies were involved in a competitive opening race and saw Suzanne Harding come home in 15th place on the opening leg with a strong 21:23 clocking on the undulating 5km course. Team captain Anna Midgley produced a characteristically gutsy performance to bring the team up to 8th place with a 20:42 leg, to hand over to Tina Wickens who ran 21:32 on the third leg to hold onto 8th place. Nicola Waters had been in London Marathon action just the week before but answered a last-minute call-up to bring the team home in 13th place of the 33 teams with a 25:35 leg before dashing back home to watch Gloucester take on Bath in the west country derby game at Kingsholm.

 

The men’s M35 race saw Steve Millward give the team an excellent start, coming home 9th with a 16:36 leg, the 13th fastest time of the entire day. Owen Parry took up the running on leg two and clocked 17:36 to keep the team in the top 10. Max Sheppard continued his good form of the spring to clock 18:06 and come back in 9th place, handing over to Mike Mansfield who ran 19:00 for 12th place. Austin Blackburn was isolated on leg five but still ran a 19:42 leg to come home in 14th place while James Walters made up two places to finish 12th in 17:58, an excellent run after his run in London last week.

 

The M45 team was led off by new signing Jason Tilley who clocked 18:51 in 21st place. Dave Gresswell clocked 19:38 to come home in 26th place, handing over to Clive Poole who clocked a personal best course time of 22:05 as he handed over to Paul Corderoy who ran a 21:38 leg to bring the team home in 28th place.

 

The M65 event was contested over three legs and saw Arthur Daley give the squad a strong start as he came home in 5th place in 21:28, the day’s 6th fastest time in the category. Dave Spackman clocked 25:36 for his leg to hand over to Chris O’Carroll in 9th place.

 

Afterwards, team captain Steve Millward said “This is the first time we have entered four teams in these relays and, judging by the runners’ reactions, we’ll definitely be back again next year as it’s a great competition for our older members.”

 

Jeremy Mower placed 7th overall and first M50 in the Butcombe Trail Ultra, a 50-miles event that included over 19,000 metres of ascent around the Mendip Hills in Somerset. Mower was using the race as a warm-up event ahead of this weekend’s Great Birmingham 10K road race when he will be lining up for a combined Celtic Nations Masters squad against an English team.

 

Graham Davis produced an excellent evenly-paced run to smash his previous best when clocking 3:20:46 at Sunday’s inaugural Newport Marathon in south Wales.

 

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Members of the Gloucester club’s developing para-athletics squad travelled over to the Stoke Mandeville Athletics Track to take part in the British Wheelchair Racing Association's British Championships meeting where they were mixing it with some of the UK's top wheelchair athletes, including the likes of Hannah Cockroft.

 

First up was U15 Josh Freeman who smashed his personal best and club record for the T33 100m in a time of 47.94 seconds, nearly five seconds faster than his previous best time from last year. He then went on to establish a new club record for the T33 400m in a time of 4:26.78.

 

Newly classified (at T34) Lewis Mundy and Damian Taylor (T54) also set six new club records between them. U17 Lewis' haul included 100m in 28.68 seconds, 400m in 2:03.13 and 1500m in 8:40.03. Damian's times were 100m in 21.55 seconds, 400m in 89.56 and the 1500m in 6:31.38.

 

Vicky Broom was the only one of the squad to qualify for finals, although her 100m time was down on her performances from last season which was hardly surprising given the cold, wet conditions that faced the athletes during the meeting. She clocked 33.99 seconds for the T34 100m and a new club record of 2:27.65 for the 400m T34 category.

 

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Gloucester senior track & field team manager Richard Blackwell is under no illusion of the magnitude of the task the team faces when they begin their Midland Athletics League Division Two campaign at Leamington on Sunday.

 

The City squad, which won the Division Three title by the narrowest of margins last summer, will be up against some of the strongest clubs in the region, including Midlands giants Coventry Godiva and Tipton Harriers.

 

“This League will be a stern test for our athletes this year as we are up against some quality opposition. However, we have some exciting talent in our ranks and it will be very interesting to see how they cope with the pressure.”

 

Gloucester Athletic Club’s James Walters was the Club’s first runner to cross the finish in Sunday’s Virgin London Marathon when placing 466th in 2hrs 50 minutes and 43 seconds.

 

Much of the pre-race hype was about the extremely warm weather conditions and Sir Mo Farah’s aim to break the UK-best which had stood since 1985, and as things turned out, Farah bettered the record previously held by Steve Jones and the weather was as warm as predicted.

 

Walters coped well with the conditions and ran a very evenly-paced as he passed through the half-way point in 1:22:50 and maintained the tempo to record a time just 40 seconds slower than his previous best set in New York last autumn.

 

Sue Higgins led the handful of Gloucester ladies home, crossing the line in 7,694th overall and 23rd in the W55 age group in a commendable 3:50:43, just ahead of M55 Nigel Nash who crossed the line in 3:51:09. 

 

Kathryn Purcell’s preparations had been going well, as demonstrated in her personal best times at both Half Marathon and 20-miles in recent weeks, but a calf injury sustained in the week leading up to the event caused her to run conservatively for the first half before she was able to pick up the pace over the latter stages and finish in 3:57:25.

 

The next two Gloucester finishers had gone into the event in apprehensive moods due to interrupted training programmes but driven on by their naturally competitive instincts and a burning desire to finish for their respective chosen charities, both ran way above their expectations as Nicola Waters crossed the line in 4:15:33 and Tania Hamilton in 4:27:44.

 

Unlike their Club mates, the three remaining City runners were marathon first-timers and all took on their new challenge with great determination to not only complete the course but to enjoy the unique ‘London experience’. Kirsty Reid crossed the line in 4:37:31, Russell Kirby in 4:44:18 and Mark Fenwick in 4:54:02.

 

As in previous years, there were supporting young athletes races as part of the programme. In the Mini Marathon 5k event which was won by former club member Alex George in 2013, Millie Porter placed 137th in 19:00 while there was a Gloucester club ‘first’ for Lewis Munday when he became the first athlete from the Club to compete in the 5k wheelchair event.

 

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Gloucester club members have been busy preparing for the forthcoming outdoor track & field season in recent open meetings.

 

Heptathlete Kate Davies has been in impressive form in early-season competitions and at the Bath Fieldfest competed in two of her favoured events the high jump and javelin in which she recorded 1.55 metres and 37.36 metres respectively.

 

Hammer thrower Ellen Thrall has been showing signs of rediscovering her best form following a difficult 12 months out with a back injury. At the Bath meeting she threw a solid 45.00m and at the Bill Whistlecroft Spring Festival in Yeovil on Sunday, she set a new personal best of 47.07m to set her up nicely for the new season.

 

Craig Murch opened his season at Bath with an impressive 64.53m, while W55 Marion Loveridge was also happy with her 35.80m effort. The discus event saw Luke Coghill throwing the 1.75kg implement for the first time following his progression to the U20 age group and ended with a best throw of 26.63m. Chloe Jones opened her season with a consistent series with all of her throws landing around the 34m mark. She finished with a best of 34.89m.

 

At the Kidderminster & Stourport open meeting, Oliver Keitley opened up his season with an 11.89m triple jump and a personal best 18.0 seconds in the 150 metres. Training partner Julia Johnson was also in impressive form, recording new personal bests in the long jump (4.54m) and triple jump (9.54m).

 

The Club’s youngest competing League team, the U13/15s, opened their season in the National Youth Development League fixture at Braunton in north Devon on Sunday and produced a host of new personal best performances to take an excellent second place behind a strong Swindon team.

 

Team manager Matt Holloway said “There was a great spirit among the whole team today as we carried on the successes of last year. Second place in the opening match is a great start and we’ll be looking to build on that during the season.”

 

In his first half marathon for 10 years, Gloucester Athletic Club’s Steve Millward placed second in Saturday’s re-arranged Forest of Dean Spring Trails Half Marathon which incorporated the UK Short Course Trail Running Championships.

 

The race started and finished at the Speech House and included challenging climbs at the six miles and 12 miles stages which tested the strength and resolve of the 830 runners.

 

Millward, who was the Club’s leading performer on the cross-country during the winter and is now in heavy training for his forthcoming summer track campaign, led the field for the first eight miles before being overtaken by eventual winner Jon Barnes of Cheltenham & County Harriers and despite finding the going tough over the closing stages, he held on for second place in 1:15:50.

 

New signing Steve Kenyon showed that he is going to be a valuable asset to the Club when he came home in fifth place in 1:17:42.

 

Andrew McPeake placed 239th in 1:47:19, Andrea Preedy placed 378th in 1:57:38 and Amanda McPeake crossed the line in 497th place in 2:04:11.

 

Clubmates Clive Poole and Colin Westbury headed down to Devon to compete in the Exe to Axe race, a 22-miles multi-terrain event along the picturesque east Devon section of the South West Coast Path between Exmouth and Seaton. Described by fell-running aficionados as a ‘brute of a race’, the route includes 4,500 feet of climbing.

 

Westbury ran steadily throughout and crossed the line in 163rd place in 4:55:23.

 

For Poole, this was his first competitive race in over five months following a knee injury and this was probably not the race in which to make a comeback due to the uneven terrain. He ran comfortably over the first half of the race but aggravated the injury during a series of steep ascents and descents before struggling through to the finish in 181st place in 5:16:49.

 

Sprinter Sophie Temple made the short trip down the M5 to compete in the Yate Sprints and Hurdles Challenge, the annual track & field season curtain-raiser in which athletes can blow away some of the cobwebs following a long winter’s training programme. Despite the wind and rain, she recorded 8.28 seconds in the 60 metres and 13.2 seconds in the 100 metres.

 

On Saturday, the Gloucester club held an open track & field meeting for members of its 365 Academy, giving many of the Club’s youngest members their first taste of competition. Club spokesman Richard Blackwell said “This was a great success and the youngsters all seemed to enjoy the opportunity of competing. In many cases, this was their first competition, so we’re all really pleased how they got on.”

 

At the recent ‘Filton Flyer’ 5K road race in Bristol, Steve Robbins placed 38th in 19:28 in his first race over the distance. Arthur Daley placed 53rd overall and first M65 in 20:38 and Suzanne Harding 60th in 21:05.

 

One of the very latest categories to be added to the athletics programme is Race-Running, in which athletes with balance or mobility issues run within a supportive wheeled frame, not unlike wheelchair racing but in this case the athletes propel themselves through their legs rather than the arms.

 

Gloucester Athletic Club’s Charlie Denman has already been selected to represent England in the World Cerebral Palsy Athletics Championships in Barcelona this August and began her preparation by competing in a CP Sport fixture at Kingston-upon-Thames last weekend. Competing in the U20 age group, she won her favoured 800 metres comfortably in 3:46.2 before taking second places in both the 200 and 400 metres events in 45.35 seconds and 1:37.72 respectively.

 

Bob Purcell, lead Para-Athletic Coach at the Gloucester club says “Gloucestershire was the first county in the UK to include race-running as a demonstration event in its track & field county championships two years ago and this year will feature the event as an integral part of the Championships in its own right. The para-athletic squad at the Club is growing all the time and we’re keen to point out that we offer coaching and competition for people with all forms of disability.”

 

Anyone interested in finding out more about the Club’s para-athletic group should e-mail enquiries@gloucesterac.co.uk

 

As if having to race 100kms wasn’t tough enough, the runners in Saturday’s Anglo-Celtic Plate event in Newport, south Wales this year also had to contend with the difficult weather conditions in the area.

 

Gloucester Athletic Club’s Jeremy Mower was making his 14th consecutive appearance for his native Wales in this event, thus extending his own record of the number of times he has appeared in this race.

 

The race was held over 32 laps of a course that took in the roads around the village of Redwick and although the rain held off, such was the design of the course that there was a strong headwind that blew into the runners’ faces for much of each lap.

 

Mower passed through the half way point in 4 hours seven minutes but an old hip injury plagued him during the second half, slowing him down to a final finish of 9:07:29 in 9th place overall and first Welshman home.

 

Afterwards he said: “The recurring hip injury made it a tough race for me today, but I’m please to have finished. Perhaps I could have pushed a bit harder, but we weren’t going to win a medal in the team event and as I have three more ultra-races this year, I concentrated on finishing.”

 

Mower’s Gloucester club mate Dave Gresswell was enjoying racing in far better conditions when he competed in the annual Algarve challenge meeting near Monte Gordo on the Portuguese coastline.

 

On Good Friday, Gresswell competed in a 4.5kms cross-country event in warm but windy conditions which although creating a mini dust storm, was certainly more favourable than his recent cross-country races which have seen him ankle-deep in mud and rainwater. The Gloucester athlete found himself in a small group of runners and try as he might, he couldn’t shake off a local runner who stayed on his shoulder throughout the race before moving ahead of Gresswell in the final stages. Gresswell finished third in the M50 age group.

 

On Monday, he took part in the Altura Half Marathon over a very challenging and hilly course which was not surprising given that “Altura” is Portuguese for “Height”. Again in warm conditions, Gresswell settled into a sizeable group and although he slowed over the final three miles, he still finished second in the M50 age group with a time of 1:30:00.

 

Closer to home, and racing in heavy rain on Bank Holiday Monday, Harry Wells retained his crown in the revamped Severn AC Easter Monday Gloucester/Tredworth Road Race when he held off Chris Brown of the host club to win in 24:09. Owen Parry placed third in 25:11 while Mike Jenkins placed fourth in 27:03. Laura McPeake placed 16th overall and first U17 Lady in 33:33, Dave Spackman placed 22nd overall and first M70 in 36:33, ahead of Trudy Wells who placed 23rd overall and first LV50 in 36:58.

 

At the Bushley One Mile Road Race near Tewkesbury, Beth Wells placed 14th overall and fourth lady in 5:51, just ahead of team mate Emma Tillott who placed 15th in 5:52 and Suzanne Harding, who placed 17th overall and sixth lady in 5:57. All three performances were personal best times for the course and show good speed work ahead of the summer track season.

 

One of the more unusual races on the local calendar is the ‘Beat the Bore’ race which took place around Elmore on Easter Sunday. As the name suggests, the runners take on the world-famous wave and saw 63 runners take part this year. Gloucester AC’s Emma Poole placed sixth lady and second in the LV45 category.

 

Gloucester Athletic Club’s Joanne Willoughby produced possibly the best performance of her long and illustrious career when she obliterated the opposition and her own British age group record to win the W50 triple jump at the European Masters Athletics Indoors Championships in Madrid last week.

 

Already on a high from setting a new personal best in the long jump in which she placed 4th with 4.80 metres, the former Welsh long jump international leapt 10.75 metres in the very first round to improve the British record of 10.37 metres that she set earlier in the month. The silver medal went to Finland’s Kirsi Spoof-Tuomi with 10.57 metres with the bronze going to Valentyna Krepkina of the Ukraine.

 

After the meeting, Joanne was clearly delighted, saying “I am so pleased with that triple jump as it was a massive new personal best and British record. I found out later that it was just 4cms short of the world record, but I can’t complain.”

 

For good measure, she was part of the British ladies team that won the bronze medal in the W50 4x200 metres relay behind the host country and the Italian squad.

 

Husband Ian placed fourth in his heat of the M60 200 metres in 29.53 seconds.

 

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Perfect racing conditions greeted the 550 runners who started the Gloucester 20-mile road race from the Waterwells estate on Sunday.

 

This event has been a firm favourite on the racing calendar for many years as it fits in perfectly with the training programmes of many runners who are preparing for spring-time marathons. This popularity was confirmed with the entry limit being reached several weeks before race day.

 

In stark contrast to the heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures of the previous weekend, Sunday’s race started in glorious sunshine with cool temperatures that gradually rose as the morning wore on.

 

Swansea’s Matthew Harvey excelled, leading from the gun to win in 1:54:43, 67 seconds ahead of second-placed Kieron Summers of Weston AC, with Gordon Pearce of Thames Hare & Hounds finishing third in 1:56:03.

 

Nigel Nash led the small group of Gloucester AC runners home, placing 88th overall and third M55 in 2:30:29 while Graham Davis produced a strong run to place 135th in 2:37:08. Kathryn Purcell has been in heavy training recently, preparing for next month’s London Marathon, and improved her week-old personal best by 10 minutes when placing 178th in 2:44:35. Paul Katsiva-Corderoy was just over five minutes behind, placing 223rd in 2:49:46, Colin Westbury placed 227th in 2:50:05 with Russell Kirby placing 257th in 2:54:00 to complete the Gloucester contingent.

 

As a support to the 20-mile race, several members of the Gloucester club’s Para-athletic squad took part in a wheelchair demonstration competition over a course of 1.33 miles, with the athletes completing between one and three laps.

 

In the group’s first attempt at a road race, Damian Taylor completed three laps in 34:17, ahead of Lewis Munday in 45:45 while Vicky Broom completed two laps in 49:26. Youngsters Josh Freeman, Joe Skidmore and Daniel Morgan completed one lap each in 34:02, 36:45 and 41:09.

 

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At Sunday’s Pendock Chicken Run multi-terrain races, Peter Jeffery ran 49:09 in the 10K event while daughter Lucy clocked 24:04 for the 5K race.

 

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Several of the Gloucester club’s sprinters headed up to Birmingham to compete in the final Midland Counties indoor meeting of the winter, coming away with the following results:

 

(60m)

Senior Women - LJ Phillips, 8.89 seconds

U20 Women – Sophie Temple, 8.29 seconds

U17 Women – Ellie Wheeler-Smith, 8.13 seconds

U15 Girls – Tricia Stanfield, 8.59 secs, Isobelle Herbert 8.77 secs, Grace Manley 8.93 secs.

U13 Boys – Scott Stanfield 9.60 seconds.

 

(100m)

Senior Women – LJ Phillips, 14.34 seconds.

U20 Women – Sophie Temple, 12.89 seconds, (pb)

U17 Women – Ellie Wheeler-Smith 12.68 seconds

U15 Girls – Tricia Stanfield 13.57 secs, Isobelle Herbert 14.18 (pb), Grace Manley (14.73)

U13 Boys – Scott Stanfield 15.50 secs (pb).

 

 

Gloucester Athletic Club’s senior ladies produced an excellent team performance to place 11th in the Women’s Midland Area Road Relays Championships at Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield on Saturday.

 

The freezing temperatures and swirling snow showers that deteriorated to a near-blizzard as the day went on had an adverse effect on all performances, so it was to their great credit that the ladies could produce such a result.Kim Millward gave the team an excellent start. The opening leg is always the most competitive with all the teams aiming for a good start and Millward covered the 5.38 miles leg in 35:40, coming home in 12th place.

 

Suzanne Harding, who has produced some strong performances during the winter over a range of distances, took up the running on leg two and made up one place as she completed her 3.17 miles leg in 21:39 to hand over to team captain Anna Midgley on another long leg. Despite running the first section of the leg into a blizzard, she ran a personal best 36.10 over this course to make up another place and put the City team into the top 10.

 

Charlotte McGlone took over on the fourth leg and maintained the team’s position, covering the short leg in 22:24 as she handed over to Beth Wells who recorded the team’s fastest short leg when clocking 21:18 when coming home in 10th place. Nicola Waters interrupted her London Marathon preparations to run the final leg for the team and clocked 24:39 to bring the team home in 11th place.

 

The men’s team, by comparison, were struck by last-minute injury drop-outs which meant that they could not complete a team in their Championship, run over four legs of 5.38 miles followed by eight legs of 3.17 miles.

 

Jeremy Mower ran the opening leg and put in a typically solid run to come home in 33rd place with a 32:27 clocking. Max Sheppard was running in his first relay championship after spending much of the last two years suffering with injuries, but also put in a strong run to hold onto 33rd place with a 32:54 leg.

 

Team captain James Walters took over the baton on leg three and pulled the team up three places to 30th with the team’s fastest long leg of the day, 30:56, before handing over to another debutant, Owen Parry, who made up a further place with a 31:26 leg. Dave Gresswell ran leg five, the first of the shorter legs, and pulled another place back with a 19:49 clocking, to hand over to ultra-distance specialist Paul Katsiva-Corderoy who put in a 22:33 leg to bring the team back in 30th place.

 

The seventh leg saw Gary Fraser clock a 21:27 leg in 32nd place, a position maintained by Russell Kirby who recorded 23:46 on leg eight. Austin Blackburn made up one place with a 20:05 clocking on the ninth leg, while the team’s final runner, Aaron Bennett, ran 22:10 to come home in 33rd place.

 

Men’s team captain James Walters said afterwards: “It was a shame that we were let down by the last-minute injuries but I’m really grateful to all of our men and ladies who turned out in terrible conditions to run for the Club in a very prestigious event, and I know from talking to the first-timers on the teams, they all really enjoyed the race.”

 

Not only was the weather equally as inclement for the Club’s youngsters who were representing their county in the English Schools Cross-Country Championships at Leeds, but the underfoot conditions were as one would expect after several weeks of heavy snow and rain. However, the City’s youngsters acquitted themselves well against the very best young athletes in the land and came away feeling very cold but generally satisfied with their performances.

 

First on among the Gloucester club’s runners was Tilly Ashley who has enjoyed another consistent winter. Running in the Junior Girls race, she came home in 70th place and third county runner of the 300 finishers just 10 seconds off a top 50 place.

 

Millie Porter has made a big breakthrough this winter and put in another solid run in the Inter Girls race to place 70th and first county runner in the 340-strong field.

 

The Senior Girls race saw Jade Gough lead her Clubmates home in 204th place, while Natalie Ashley-Towell in 227th turned the tables on Laura McPeake who placed 275th of the 323 finishers.

 

Harry Wells’ cross-country season has been disrupted by injury and although he has been back in training for several weeks, his attention has turned to the outdoor track season. Taking that background into account, he should be satisfied with his 155th place in the Senior Boys race.

 

Two Gloucester club runners were struggling against the snow and ice as well as 1,270 other runners in the ‘Grizzly’ event in Seaton, Devon on Sunday. Because of the adverse conditions, the race was reduced from 20 miles to a 10 miles multi-terrain event. Mike Jenkins placed 29th overall in 71:49 and Ian Summers came home in 106th place in 79:25.

 

Arthur Daley travelled up to Forres in Scotland to compete in the British Masters Cross-Country Championships and with temperatures approaching a balmy three degrees, he probably enjoyed better conditions than his Clubmates competing south of the border. Running strongly over the initial stages, before settling into a more conservative pace, he rallied over the final kilometre to place 25th overall and second in the M65 category.

 

Club spokesman said after weekend, “I’m immensely proud of all of our athletes who represented their Club and their county in what could best be described as character-building conditions this weekend. Let’s hope that spring is just around the corner.”

 

Gloucester Athletic Club’s Joanne Willoughby continued her run of good form when winning the gold medal in both long and triple jumps at the British Masters Indoors Championships at Lee Valley in London at the weekend.

 

Although down on her personal best performances set at the previous weekend’s Inter-Area Match, she was still a class above the opposition and recorded best leaps of 4.60 and 10.25 metres respectively.

 

Afterwards, Joanne said “That was a very tiring weekend as I had to officiate other events as well as compete. I’ll be taking a few days’ rest before preparing for the European Masters Indoors in Madrid at the end of the month.”

 

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A group of runners from the Gloucester club represented the County in the Inter-Counties Cross-Country Championships at Loughborough on Saturday in conditions that many described as a mud-bath after the heavy snow in the region had melted onto what was already a quagmire.

 

The senior men’s race saw Owen Parry gaining his first county vest, coming home in 265^th place, just ahead of clubmate James Walters, in 274^th place. Afterwards, Parry said that it was probably the most challenging and high-quality field he had raced in the winter.

 

The U17 Women’s race saw Natalie Ashley-Towell just finish outside the top 200 when placing 201^st, while Tilly Ashley secured the highest position by a Club athlete in the meeting, when taking an excellent 95^th place in the U15 Girls race. In the U13 Girls race, Emma Tillott placed 164^th.

 

There were no such problems with the underfoot conditions, though the steep inclines made the going tough for the 470 runners at Sunday’s Minchinhampton 10K road race.

 

Simon Fortnam used his extensive knowledge of the local terrain to place 6^th overall and first M40 in 39:08. Next Gloucester runner home was Anna Midgley who placed 33^rd overall and first in the F35 category in 44:02, with Charlotte McGlone coming home in 43^rd place and second in the senior ladies category in 45:37.

 

Tina Wickens took another age group prize when she crossed the line in 52^nd place overall and third F45 in 46:23, with Amy Walker placing 54^th overall and second F35 in 46:35 and Sue Higgins, who had run in the Berkeley 20-miler the previous day, placing 118^th and third F55 in 51:56.

 

In Saturday’s 20:20 Fission Berkeley 20-mile road race, Sue Higgins placed 107^th overall and 1^st in the F55 category in 2:41:03 while Chris Davis placed 228^th in a personal best 3:01:43.

 

 

Meanwhile, Nick Bishop took part in his first ever ultra-distance race, the Green Man Ultra race, a 45-mile event that follows the Community Forest Path in the woodlands around Bristol over a very muddy course that included tackling the River Frome that had burst its bank in places along the route. He completed the course in 10:23:00.

 

Bethan Moor and Millie Porter produced outstanding performances for Gloucester Athletic Club as both enjoyed their best-ever runs at Saturday’s ECCA Saucony English National Cross-Country Championships at Parliament Hill in London.

 

In glorious sunshine, but with a biting cold wind that chilled runners and spectators alike to the core, there were record entries for many of the races which are the highlight of the winter cross-country season and the pinnacle of many athletes’ careers.

 

Bethan made the trek from Plymouth University where she is currently studying medicine to compete in the Junior Womens race run over 6kms of challenging hills and mud. Starting off steadily, she made her way through the field to finish strongly in 47th place of the 146 finishers in 28:11, her best-ever finish in these Championships. Afterwards she said “I’m very pleased with that run as it was my best-ever National placing. It was great fun and I really enjoyed putting the Gloucester club vest on again.”

 

Millie has had an excellent 2018, placing 4th in the South-West Schools cross-country Championships and a best-ever 2nd place in last week’s Gloucestershire League race but these pale into comparison against her performance at Parliament Hill where, against the very best runners in the country, she came home in 56th place of the 464 finishers in the U15 Girls 4kms race in 15:59, just 20 seconds off a top 30 placing to give an idea of the competitive nature of the Championships.

 

A busy day’s racing had started with the U17 Women’s race run over 5kms, which saw Laura McPeake and Natalie Ashley-Towell lining up among the 280 starters. Both produced typically gutsy performances as Laura came in 167th place in 22:55 with Natalie crossing the line just six seconds behind in 175th place to give the Gloucester club a good start to the day.

 

The 8kms Senior Ladies race saw a quartet of City runners making their debut in the Championships. Beth Wells ran her best race of the winter to place 399th of the 1,113 finishers in 38:59, an excellent performance given that she had only returned to training in recent weeks after a spell out through injury. Kirsty Reid was next home, running strongly to place 595th in 41:56, Liz Usedon placed 732nd in 44:17 while Nicola Waters placed 796th in 45:25.

 

Harry Wells lined up in the Junior Mens’ race but found the going tough as he struggled to get a foothold in the conditions and trailed home in 125th place. He will be hoping for better luck at the English Schools event at Leeds in two weeks’ time.

 

The Senior Mens’ race, run over 12kms, saw a host of best performances from the Gloucester squad. James Walters continued his recent good form to lead the group home, while in his first National, Andrew de-Camps ran strongly to come home in 772nd place in 51:43. Owen Parry was also running in his first Championship and clocked 52:03 in 799th place with another first-timer, Scott Carpenter, coming home in 874th place in 52:46. Steve Haines was the next home, clocking 55:40, ahead of Dave Gresswell who placed 1398th in 57:46, Ian Summers 1746th in 61:55, Aaron Bennett 1814th in 63:03 and Chris O’Carroll who placed 2299th in 81:27.

 

After the event, Club spokesman Richard Blackwell said: “We know that we don’t currently have anyone in our ranks who is going to get among the medals at these Championships but by entering we are, at least, stating our intentions and giving our members the opportunity to pitch themselves against the very best in the country, and talking to them all afterwards, it is clear they all enjoyed this great experience.”

 

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Jeremy Mower led the Gloucester contingent home in Sunday’s Bourton 10km road race which, like the previous day’s National Cross-country Championships, was run in sunny but very cold weather. Despite clocking his fastest 10km in over 14 years, 36:17, Mower failed by just three seconds to catch M50 category winner David Williamson of Tadworth AC, placing 27th place overall and 2nd M50.

 

Simon Fortnam was next runner home, placing 42nd overall and 3rd M45, with a 37:22 clocking. Simon Meadows made a cautious start but ran an evenly-paced race to finish in 50th spot in 37:46. Max Sheppard took 20 seconds off his personal best when clocking 38:05 in 55th place, with Matt Powell placing 72nd in 38:49, his fastest for two years and Gray Davis clocking a new personal best of 40:37 in 111th place.

 

There next followed three of the Club’s leading female distance runners, all vying for the honour of first Club lady home. That honour went to Kim Millward who followed up her fine run in the previous week’s Gloucestershire Cross-Country League race by placing 115th in 40:59, her fastest since 2010.

 

Just one second behind was Chrissie Horak who placed 116th in 41:00, with Anna Midgley a further place down in 41:06 to earn the ladies team third place in the team competition behind Cirencester and Bourton.

 

Arthur Daley had stayed with the ladies for the first six kilometres before fading over the latter stages to place 127th overall and first M65 in 41:33. Amy Walker was needlessly disappointed with her run, despite clocking her fastest time since the 2015 edition of this event, 43:22 in 157th place, while Tina Wickens finished in 161st place and 2nd W45 in a personal best 43:28.

 

Chris Davis placed 174th in 43:51 and Dave Spackman placed 350th and second M70 in 52:22.

Also on Sunday, Gloucester U17M Sebastian Clarke placed 17th in the Oulton Park 10K event in Staffordshire in 41:02.

 

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This Sunday sees the final running of this season’s Gloucestershire Cross-Country League races at the Katherine Lady Berkeley School Sports Centre in Wotton-under-Edge. The first race, for U11 Boys, is scheduled to start at 11:00am.

 

Sunny, mild weather plus a course that was firm underfoot – apart from the infamous Pittville ditch – greeted the competitors at the latest round of the Gloucestershire Cross-Country League at Cheltenham’s Pittville Park on Saturday.

 

The perfect conditions brought out the best in the Gloucester Athletic Club runners with the ladies producing one of their best performances of the season.

 

Kim Millward has raced sparingly this winter but produced a well-judged run to come home in 15th place, her best League placing. Afterwards she said “I’m pleased with that run today. I gave it everything and had absolutely nothing left at the end.” Just how it should be.

 

Ladies team captain Anna Midgley had another good run, crossing the line in 21st place, her second-best League placing of the season, while Charlotte McGlone continued her return to racing with a solid 31st placing to bring the ‘A’ team back in 6th place overall.

 

Tina Wickens led the ‘B’ team home, placing 38th, a massive improvement on her previous runs this season and her best-ever League placing. Beth Wells, taking the first tentative steps following injury, placed 42nd while Charlotte Hall completed the ‘B’ team when coming home in 44th place.

 

After a strong start to the season, Niamh Powell has had a wretched time with injury, but she also made a cautious return to racing and while her lack of training and racing was evident, but she put in a typically gutsy performance to finish in 49th place, with no ill-effects. Liz Usedon came home in 74th place in her first-ever League race while Trudy Wells bettered her previous League best finish by some 40 places when coming home in 92nd place.

 

Owen Parry led a weakened men’s team home, producing his best run since returning to the sport following a 20-year break, to place 32nd while another athlete new to the Club this winter, Michael Jenkins, also enjoyed his best League outing when coming home in 55th place.

 

In his first League outing of the season, Dave Gresswell placed 80th, Steve Robbins had his best League run in a City vest to place 114th, as did Gary Fraser in 116th, while the team was completed by newcomer Peter Burton in his first Club race in 124th place.

 

The Senior Ladies race incorporated the men’s M65 category event which saw Arthur Daley take victory, despite setting up the course during the morning and over-seeing the Clubs’ youngsters race preparations.

 

If the performances of the runners in the U15 Girls race are anything to go by, the Club’s ladies team has a very bright future indeed. Millie Porter is emerging as a strong contender for the Club’s most improved young athlete of the year with strong performances in the South-West Schools and South-West Inter-Counties cross-country events last month and she followed up her third place in the previous League race with a fine second place. Excellent support from Tilly Ashley and Katherine Mills in 5th and 8th places ensured a convincing win for the ‘A’ team. Bethan Powell, still recovering from a virus, and Lucy Jeffery were breathing down the necks of their team-mates, coming home in 9th and 10th respectively, while Amber Spackman just held off the fast-finishing Sophie Johnson for 18th place to bring the ‘B’ team home in 3rd place overall.

 

There were equally encouraging performances in the U13 Girls race as Jessica Hill held off Emma Tillott as they placed third and fourth, while Chloe Shephard came home in a League-best 25th place as the team took second place overall. Emily Herron continued her endurance development when placing 34th, while in the youngest age group, the U11 Girls, youngster Ruth Brook came home in 23rd place.

 

There has been a dearth of young male runners in the Gloucester club in recent years but there are signs of shoots starting to appear.

 

Seb Clarke joined the Club in the autumn following a family move from Staffordshire and is settling into Paul de-Camps training squad at Blackbridge where he has been improving steadily. Unfortunately, he turned an ankle early into Saturday’s race but carried on and placed 10th in the U17 Men’s race. There were further encouraging signs in the lower age groups as debutant Dylan Mends in 14th, Ethan Hood in 17th and Ben Darlow in 20th all ran well to secure 4th place overall in the U13 Boys race. Behind them, William Roberts persevered to come home in 38th place. Finally, in the U11 Boys race Lucas Simpson and Finlay Roberts placed 22nd and 71st respectively.

 

Afterwards, Club spokesman Richard Blackwell said “There were some very encouraging signs for our Club today. The ladies continue to run well and we have some great young female talent coming through. It was good to see some newcomers come to the fore in the senior men’s race, as well as having some youngsters competing in the boys’ races which is something we haven’t managed in the past few years. There’s a long way to go, but I hope these lads will give distance running in our City the kick-start it needs.”

 

Elsewhere, Chris Davis placed 110th of the 600-plus finishers at Sunday’s ‘Chilly 10K’ race at Castle Combe in 44:35.

 

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At their recent Annual General Meeting, Gloucester Athletic Club appointed the following officers for 2018-19:

 

Chair – Richard Blackwell; vice-Chair – Jo Willoughby; Secretary – Paul de-Camps; Treasurer – Andrew Beckett; Membership Secretary – Helen Hoy; Press Officer – Richard Blackwell; Coaching Co-ordinator – Garry Hunter; Officials Co-ordinator – Ian Willoughby; Volunteers Co-ordinator – Helen Hoy; Track & Field Rep – Steve Millward; Road Running Rep – Aaron Bennett; Cross-Country Rep – Kirsty Reid; Social Secretary – Hannah Bennett; Properties Member – Chris Stanfield; Webmaster – Andy McKenzie;  Members without Portfolio – Tim Williams, Norman Wilson.

 

Gloucester Athletic Club’s senior men’s cross-country team faces an agonising wait to find out if they have retained their Birmingham Cross Country League Division Two status following their best league result for many years in the final race of the season at Ullenwood on Saturday.

 

The City club placed 6th of the 17 teams to haul themselves up to 15th place overall in the final league standings and would normally face relegation to Division Three as one of the bottom four Clubs. However, they may yet avoid the drop due to a League rule that says any team which finishes in a top four place may not be eligible for promotion as a result of not completing scoring teams in a match during the previous season, and as that is the case this year, the team may be safe. Team spokesman Aaron Bennett said “It’s all very confusing, but we’re clinging onto the very slim chance that the League applies the letter of their law and gives us a reprieve.”

 

The Club knew that they had to call on all of their available resources if they were to achieve the near-impossible and escape relegation and the athletes responded accordingly with 16 runners completing the new, challenging course made no easier by persistent rain throughout.

 

Saturday’s race saw Steve Millward confirm his position as the Club’s outstanding League performer by gaining his second podium finish of the winter when coming home in third place on the day and third overall in the League standings, following second and fourth place finishes in previous races.

 

Harry Wells continues his comeback following a winter of illness and injury and put in an encouraging performance to place 23rd overall and second junior man. James Walters produced another strong run to come home in a season’s best 56th place, while Owen Parry achieved a career-best 65th place. Glen Balmer just held off team mate Jeremy Mower as they came home in 72nd and 73rd places to complete a season’s best team score of 292 points.

 

Two of the Club’s leading distance of recent years led the ‘B’ team home. In his first cross-country race in three years and his first of any description in 18 months following injury, Andrew de-Camps placed 86th just ahead of 87th placed Simon Fortnam who was running his first league race in four years. Steve Haines has been a mainstay of a struggling team this year and he came home in 103rd place, ahead of squad newcomer Michael Jenkins in 104th. Mike Mansfield came home in 135th place with Dave Gresswell completing the reserve team in 137th place.

 

Matt Powell was the next City runner home, placing 160th, Ian Summers came in 177th, Steve Robbins 199th and Amar Patel 226th to complete the City squad.

 

Gloucester’s fate is now in the hands of the League’s committee to decide at their Annual General Meeting at the end of next month, but the squad certainly put up a long-overdue fight.

 

Team result:

1st Worcester 87 pts; 2nd Cannock & Staffs 130; 3rd Telford 147; 6th Gloucester 292.

‘B’ team placings, Gloucester 3rd, 652 pts.

 

Final League positions:

1st Telford 416 pts; Worcester 504; 3rd Cannock & staffs 554, 15th Gloucester 2172.

 

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Sprinter Ellie Wheeler-Smith was the Gloucester club’s star performer at Sunday’s Midlands Indoors Championships at the Alexander Stadium, securing the silver medal in the U17 Women’s 60 metres. Qualifying comfortably from her heat and then semi-final Ellie, who is a member of the talented sprint group at the Gloucester club, ran the race of her young life to place second in the final with a new personal best time of 7.97 seconds.

 

Sophie Rowe was strangely out of sorts in the Senior Women’s event, placing 6th in the final in 8.06 seconds after comfortably qualifying from her semi-final. The performance shouldn’t detract from an otherwise excellent indoor season, however.

 

In the U20 Men’s event, Rory Cawkwell improved on his one week-old personal best when placing 3rd in his heat in 7.24 seconds.

 

Other City results from the Championships were: U20W, Sophie Temple 6th heat 8.26 seconds; U17W, Malika Ouiles 6th heat, 9.04 secs; U15G, Tricia Stanfield 3rd semi-final, 8.58 secs (personal best); Isobelle Herbert 6th semi-final 8.88 secs;  U15B, Sulaiman Ouiles 6th heat 9.04 and 4th heat 60m Hurdles 10.71 secs.

 

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In Sunday’s Leicestershire Half Marathon held at Prestwold Hall in very wet and windy conditions, Gloucester veteran Dave Spackman placed 498th overall and 2nd in the M70 category in 1:56:00.

 

Nick Bishop led the Gloucester Athletic Club squad home in Sunday’s Dursley Dozen, a multi-terrain race over a challenging wet and very muddy course, placing 78th in 1:50:16. Kirsty Reid placed 266th in 2:16:52, Aaron Bennett 267th in 2:16:53, Colin Westbury 304th in 2:23:41, Amy Walker 322nd in 2:27:15 and Liz Usedon placed 343rd in 2:30:09.

 

Christina Horak travelled down to Melksham to compete in the Wiltsshire 10-mile road race and placed 83rd in 73:00.

 

Finally, in the South West Counties Schools cross-country Championships at Newton Abbott, Jessica Hill placed 25th overall and 7th Gloucestershire scorer in the Junior Girls race.

 

Gloucester Athletic Club members were in scintillating form at Sunday’s Welsh Athletics Indoors meeting at the Cardiff indoor arena, setting a series of personal best times on a successful afternoon for the Club.

 

For several years, Sophie Rowe has been the yardstick against whom the Club’s female sprinters have measured themselves; a supreme starter out of the blocks, she has been in consistently impressive form this winter and even though she was still suffering the after-effects of a bout of flu, Sophie still managed to dip under 8 seconds again in her 60 metres heat, placing 4th in 7.99 seconds.

 

The Gloucester flyer needs to keep a keen eye out for her younger Club mates and training partners, however, as U17 Ellie Wheeler-Smith and U20 Sophie Temple both enjoyed excellent days racing by lowering their personal bests, first in the 60 metres to 8.05 and 8.19 seconds, before setting new indoor best marks for 200 metres of 26.42 seconds and 27.12 seconds respectively.

 

Gloucester men’s sprinting has been in the doldrums since the heady days of the mid-1980s when the Club boasted one of the finest squads in the country, however youngster Rory Cawkwell is doing his best to single-handedly haul the standard of local sprinting back up to respectable levels. He enjoyed an excellent outdoor 2017 season and, judging by his performances in Cardiff, looks set to improve further this year as he set new personal bests of 7.31 seconds for 60 metres and 23.90 seconds for the 200 metres.

 

One of the members of that successful sprint squad of the 1980s, Richard Blackwell, has dusted his spikes off frequently over the past couple of seasons and here he made his first indoors appearance for 30 years to contest the Masters’ 60 metres event, where he won the M55 event in 8.35 seconds. Club-mate Ian Willoughby aggravated a hip injury mid-race, crossing the line in 8.96 seconds.

 

Joanne Willoughby made a rare appearance over 60 metres as part of her preparations for the long and triple jumps at next month’s European Masters’ Indoors Championships in Madrid, and set a new personal best time of 8.79 seconds.

 

Suzanne Harding clearly has a liking for the Cardiff track. Just weeks after running her fastest indoors 800 metres, she returned to run her fastest-ever 400 metres, 69.86 seconds.

 

In the field events, Oliver Keitley opened his 2018 competitive year in impressive style, when setting a new personal best distance in the triple jump of 11.97 metres, just 12 months after he first tried the event. A member of Joanne Willoughby’s talented jumps group at Blackbridge, he looks certain to go over 12.50 metres before too long.

 

At the Midland Counties Indoors Open meeting at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium, sprinter Ellie Luff lowered her personal best for 60 metres to 8.75 seconds.

 

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Whilst their track & field colleagues were competing in the relative warmth and comfort of the Cardiff indoor arena, four Gloucester club members were tackling the May Hill Massacre, a challenging nine-miles multi-terrain event made all the more arduous by the incessant rain of the previous 24 hours.

 

Nick Bishop led the intrepid quartet home, completing the course in 1:22:20. Anna Midgley was the third lady to finish, crossing the line in 1:24:19, Tina Wickens clocked 1:29:53 and Adrian Fishpool 1:39:19.

 

In much warmer climes, Graham Davis clocked 1:37:13 in the Torremolinos Half Marathon, some 31 minutes faster than the time he set 12 months previously.

 

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The previous day, several Gloucester Athletic Club youngsters were competing in the South West Schools Cross-Country Championships at Newton Abbott, hoping to secure a place in the Gloucestershire team that will head up to Leeds next month for the National Schools event.

 

In the Senior Girls race, Jade Gough produced her best run of the winter to cross the line as the third county runner with team mates Laura McPeake and Natalie Ashley-Towell, who soldiered on despite losing a shoe mid-race in the heavy mud, placing 5th and 9th county scorers respectively. 

 

Millie Porter produced a strong run to place 4th in the Intermediate Girls race, while Tilly Ashley placed 17th overall and third county scorer in the Junior Girls race.

 

The Senior Boys race saw a welcome return to racing for Harry Wells following three months on the side-lines due to illness and injury. After missing so much of the season, the Gloucester youngster set himself a realistic aim of making the county squad for the Nationals and achieved this by finishing third county scorer to book himself a place on the bus to Leeds.

 

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Gloucester Athletic Club members are minded that the Club’s Annual General Meeting takes place next Monday, 12th, at the Royal British Legion Club, Green Lane, Hardwicke, Gloucester, 7:30pm start.

 

Gloucester Athletic Club’s Jeremy Mower put his error at the previous week’s Linda Franks 10K road race behind him as he placed 15th overall and first in the M50 category at Sunday’s Staverton 10-mile road race. Mower had committed the cardinal sin of not paying sufficient attention to his nearest age group rivals in the 10K event but made sure he did his homework on his M50 rivals ahead of Sunday’s race.

 

Sunny conditions but with a biting wind greeted the 180 runners as they made their way around the lanes of Churchdown, with Mower keeping his closest M50 rivals, Dennis Walmsley (Bourton) and Ian Smith (Forest of Dean) in check and settling into a race-long battle with Rob Bowery of Black Pear Joggers who he only managed to pull away from in the final half mile to clock 61:11.32.

 

Simon Meadows was the next city runner home, placing 33rd in 64:54.5, while Steven Haines just crept into the top 50 by placing 49th in 67:53.55. Christina Horak led the City ladies home, placing 61st in 69:49.78, ahead of Graham Davis whose 70:48.85 in 64th place was a 17-minutes improvement on his previous best set two years ago.

 

Anna Midgley was the second City lady home, crossing the line in 70th place in 70:35.00, a personal best by some four minutes, while Chris Davis shaved two seconds off his previous best in 73rd place with 74:11.30. Just behind was Tina Wickens who, in her first 10-miler, placed 80th in 76:03.32, with Dave Spackman placing 84th overall and first M70 in 83:07.84. Laura Nicholson was also running her first 10-mile race and came home in 145th place in 94:26.38 to complete the City entry.

 

Meanwhile, a small group of the Club’s young sprinters were competing in the second Midland Counties Indoors Open Meeting at the Alexander Stadium. Ellie Wheeler-Smith placed second in her 60 metres heat, clocking a new personal best 8.12 seconds in the process. Tricia Stanfield clocked 8.64 seconds in her first run and followed this up with an 8.62 seconds run while younger brother Scott clocked 9.74 and 9.85 seconds.

 

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Sulaiman Ouiles had an excellent afternoon at Sunday’s Midland counties Open Meeting, setting new personal best performances in the 60 metres (9.40 seconds), 60m Hurdles (10.59 seconds), high jump (1.40m) and the javelin (24.20m) which was held outdoors.

 

His sister Malika was just outside her 60m best time, with a 9.04 seconds clocking. 

 

A biting cold wind and persistent rain put paid to fast times for the 230-plus runners who took part in Sunday’s 24th annual running of the Linda Franks 5-mile Road Race around the Reddings area of Cheltenham.

 

Gloucester Athletic Club’s Jeremy Mower was aiming for a top 10 finish and victory in the M50 category but a recent knee injury hampered his progress on the twisting course and he could only place 14th overall and 2nd in his age group in 29:34. A frustrated Mower said afterwards: “I did not recognise the runner who beat me in the M50 category as he was not from the area. Had I realised, I may have been able to close the 13 seconds gap at the end. I only have myself to blame.”

 

Simon Meadows produced a strong run, placing 25th in 30:36, while in his first race of the year, Graham Davis knocked 30 seconds off his personal best for the distance when placing 53rd in 32:44. Graham’s brother, Chris, placed 69th in 33:57, while Suzanne Harding continued her run of good form by placing 72nd in 34:22, her fastest time for over two years. Just behind, ultra-distance runner Paul Corderoy placed 73rd in 34:34.

 

Kirsty Reid set a personal best time of 37:12 when placing 113th, while Dave Spackman celebrated his 73rd birthday and win in the M70 category of last year’s county road Race series by placing 161st overall in 43:08.

 

Despite producing their strongest all-round performance of the winter so far in Saturday’s race at Cofton Park in Birmingham’s Kings Heath, Gloucester Athletic Club’s senior men still remain firmly entrenched in the relegation zone of Division Two of the Birmingham & District Cross-Country League.

 

The team placed 13th of the 17 competing clubs, their best position of the season, but it still leaves them in 16th place overall with one match remaining and relegation staring them in the face.

 

Saturday’s course included several long, drawn-out climbs and sharp descents and with firm underfoot conditions, fast racing was guaranteed and once the field down after the massed start, a leading group of around 10 runners including the City club’s Steve Millward began to exert their authority on the record field of 290 entrants.

 

Chris Perrin of Cannock & Stafford has been the dominant force in this season’s League and he gradually opened a lead that the rest of the pack were powerless to resist. Millward was working hard throughout, battling with Will Ferguson of CLC Striders for third place, but try as he might, the Gloucester runner just couldn’t overhaul his local rival as the Cheltenham-based Ferguson took third place with Millward placing fourth, just 13 seconds behind. Afterwards, the Gloucester runner said “I’m pretty satisfied with that race today. Will Ferguson ran a quick 10K last weekend so I knew he was in good form. My training at the early part of the season was geared towards the Masters International Cross-country event in November and I’ve gone off the boil slightly since then but I’m putting in the long training sessions and building up the mileage so I’ll be looking for a top three finish in the final race.”

 

The Gloucester squad welcomed back several runners who were unavoidably absent in the earlier races and it was three of those, James Walters, Glen Balmer and Mike Mansfield, who showed their worth to the team as they filled the next two scoring spots placing 66th, 84th and 108th respectively.

Next home for the team was newcomer Scott Carpenter. The Paul de-Camps coached youngster who only joined the Club in the autumn, started strongly before his lack of racing fitness caused him to fade over the latter stages, but he rallied to put in a strong finish to pip his team mate Steve Haines on the line as they placed 113th and 114th and complete the scoring ‘A’ team with a season’s best total of 489 points.

 

Lee Smith put in another consistent run to place 127th and lead the ‘B’ team home, while birthday boy Dave Gresswell celebrated his 52nd birthday by placing a season’s best 151st. Another newcomer making his League debut, Michael Jenkins, ran strongly to place 156th with Simon Meadows placing 178th. Matt Powell 200th and Arthur Daley 203rd to complete a ‘B’ team for the first time this season.

 

Additional back-up support for the team came in the form of Gary Fraser, who placed 235th, Chris Davis 239th, Aaron Bennett 245th and Steve Robbins who came home in 255th place.

 

The team will now re-group and prepare for the final fixture at the Star College in Ullenwood on 10th February knowing that a monumental effort is required if they are to make up the places and retain their Division Two status.

 

Club spokesman Richard Blackwell said “We welcomed several runners back today and had a few runners making their League debuts and they all played a big part in helping us achieve our best result of the season. We’ll be working hard to make sure we get a bigger turn-out for the Ullenwood race which just might be enough to keep us safe, but I fear we’ll rue that poor result in the opening round.”

 

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Sprinter Sophie Rowe continued her excellent start to the indoor season by clocking the second-fastest 60 metres time of her career in the Grand Prix meeting at Cardiff on Sunday. The Gloucester speedster won her heat in a scintillating 7.92 seconds, just three 1/100th of a second outside her lifetime best set in 2011. She later placed 8th in a high-quality final in 7.95 seconds.

 

The Cardiff meeting incorporated part one of the Welsh and South-West England Masters Indoors Championships and saw further successes coming the way of the Gloucester club as Suzanne Harding ran her fastest time for two years to win the W40 800 metres gold medal in 2:37.32. Jo Willoughby had a busy afternoon, winning three golds in the W50 age group. She won the long jump with a best jump of 4.52 metres, followed this up with a win in the 200 metres in 30.45 seconds before producing the best triple jump of her career, a new masters best distance of 10.24 metres, seven cms further than her outdoor British record set in Denmark last summer. Afterwards, she said “I’m really pleased with the results, especially the triple jump as it was the first time that I had jumped off the 9m board and I haven’t done a huge amount of specific technical or speed work yet. I’m aiming for the European Indoors championships in Madrid in March and will be aiming for the UK indoors record of 10.32m.”

 

Jo’s husband, Ian, won the silver medal in the M60 200 metres in 29.37 seconds.

 

Gloucester youngsters Malika and Sulaiman also met with success at the Welsh and South West England Junior Championships at Cardiff. Malika set a new personal best and Club U17 ladies indoor record when winning the pole vault with 2.02 metres, while younger brother Sulaiman won the silver medal in the U15 Boys pole vault with a new personal best clearance of 2.22 metres. Both set new personal bests in the 60 metres, clocking 9.00 and 9.52 seconds respectively.

 

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Gloucester Athletic Club’s Jeremy Mower continued his preparations for the Anglo Celtic Plate International 100K road race in March when placing 8th overall and first M50 in the Gloucester 50K event on Sunday. Mower’s time was 3:46:32.

 

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Gloucester Athletic members were recipients of awards at last week’s annual Gloucestershire AAA Awards evening.

 

In the County Road Race Series awards, Jeremy Mower won the M50 age group category and placed second in the open category, while Dave Gresswell was third in the M50 category.

 

Pride of place for the evening went to Harry Wells who became the latest member of the Club to receive the Bob Hussey Memorial Award, which recognises the best track performance during the year by a County athlete.

 

Harry (17) who lives in Quedgeley and is currently studying for his “A” levels at the Crypt enjoyed a significant breakthrough season in 2017 as he set personal bests at 400m, 800m, 1500m and one mile.   He broke 2 minutes for 800m, a major milestone for young athletes, for the first time with a time of 1:58.16 and lowered his 1500m time by 12 seconds to 4:02.7.   As well as his achievements on the track, Harry is also prolific at cross country having represented both County Schools and County AAAs.   In 2017 he also “toyed” with road running and was rewarded with a personal best of 17:30 over 5k in a race run in April 17 in near blizzard conditions.

 

He is the third athlete from Gloucester AC to be so honoured in recent years and the second coached by Paul de-Camps following the success of Alex George in 2013.

 

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The Gloucester AC Annual General Meeting will take place on Monday 12th February at the Royal British Legion club in Green Lane, Hardwicke GL2 4QA, starting at 7:30pm.

 

Gloucester Athletic Club opened the 2018 calendar year with some strong performances in all of the age groups in last Saturday’s county cross-country Championships at the Old Down Country Park near Thornbury.

 

The combination of a tough, hilly course and heavy underfoot conditions from the snow and heavy rain of the previous two weeks meant that this was going to be an event for the cross-country purists and resulted in some excellent racing across the board.

 

James Walters made a welcome return to cross-country racing after concentrating on the New York Marathon during the autumn, and led the Club home in the senior men’s event, placing 18th just two places ahead of the improving Owen Parry. Jeremy Mower came home in 24th place and first M50, while there was another consistent run from Steven Haines in 28th place. George Daly placed 38th in his first cross-country race of the season while the ever-reliable Dave Gresswell completed the scoring ‘A’ team, crossing the line in 50th place.

 

Matt Powell was another to make a welcome return to cross-country racing. By his own admission, it’s not his favourite surface as he prefers the roads, but he worked hard to chase his old adversary Gresswell through to the line, placing 56th and first of the Club’s ‘B’ team. Arthur Daley ran strongly to place 65th, just ahead of Andrew McPeake in 67th while Gary Fraser came home in 75th place. Chris Davis and Amar Patel placed 87th and 88th respectively to complete the ‘B’ team.

 

Bethan Moor took advantage of being on a break from her studies at Plymouth University where she is studying medicine to lead the Gloucester club’s ladies home in the senior ladies race, taking second place behind her long-time rival and clear winner, Zoe Wassell of Stroud & District AC. Anna Midgely showed few ill-effects from a recent heavy racing programme as she placed 14th, ahead of Charlotte McGlone in 15th place to complete the Club’s scoring three ‘A’ team runners. Tina Wickens ran strongly to place 22nd overall for her best-ever cross-country result, while Michelle Stark placed 25th and Charlotte Hall 39th to complete the ‘B’ team.

 

The U17 Ladies race saw Natalie Ashley-Towell take a well-earned third place, finishing just four seconds ahead of 4th placer Laura McPeake, as both enjoyed their best races of the winter. Tilly Ashley led the U15 Girls to the team silver medal, placing 2nd overall with strong support from Bethan Powell in 5th and Emma Jeffery in 8th place. Katherine Mills placed 9th and Sophie Johnson 13th to complete a good day for the squad.

 

Emma Tillott ran a well-paced race in the U13 Girls event, gaining several places and seconds on her rivals up the steep hills in the second half of the race to take 3rd place. Jessica Hill was just outside a top 10 finish as she placed 11th, while Chloe Shephard placed 24th.

 

In U17 Men’s race, Sebastian Clark placed 10th in his first championship race since joining the Club from Telford AC, while the U13 Boys race saw Ben Darlow place 23rd ahead of club mates Ethan Hood in 25th and Ben Davis in 26th, all three boys competing against runners at least one school year older than themselves. Finally, Arnie Margretts ran a strong first half of the U11 Boys race before fading over the closing stages to place 5th.

 

Afterwards, Club spokesman Richard Blackwell said: “Although we were missing a few athletes today because of injury, this was a pleasing result for many sections of the Club and shows that we are starting to move in the right direction. The seniors turned out in numbers and paved the way for the younger members coming through. It will be interesting to see how they all perform in the various Club and schools Championship races in the coming weeks.”

 

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Gloucester Athletic Club’s top lady sprinter, Sophie Rowe, opened up her 2018 indoor season with a win at Midland Counties Open Meeting at Birmingham’s High Performance Centre on Sunday. She won her first round of the senior ladies 60 metres in 8.05 seconds, her fastest indoors time for seven years. In round two, she went even faster, clocking 8.03 seconds when finishing in 4th place.

 

Training partner Sophie Temple dropped down from her normal 200 metres and showed a good turn of speed for this time of the year, clocking 8.48 seconds in her first round, before improving to 8.45 seconds in round two.

 

Youngster Tricia Stanfield, ran a personal best 8.60 seconds in her first round and again improved, to 8.59 seconds in her second round, while her younger brother Scott knocked half a second off his personal best when clocking 9.58 seconds in his first race. He followed that up with a 9.82 run in his second race.

 

Max Sheppard placed 5th in Severn AC’s New Year’s Day Four Mile Road Race, beating his previous course best with a 24:34 clocking. Dave Gresswell placed 6th in 25:59.

 

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This Saturday (6th) sees the Gloucestershire County Cross-Country Championships taking place at Old Down Country Park in the south of the county. There are races for all ages from U11 upwards and the Gloucester club will be looking to set down a marker for the important races over the coming weeks.

 

Meanwhile, on Sunday several of the Gloucester club’s talented young sprinters will be competing in the first Midland Counties indoors open meetings at the High-Performance Centre at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium.