Congratulations to our U15G team who finished second in the North Staffs Cross Country League after winning the final meeting of the season at a cold Rodbaston Campus on Saturday (15th).

 

Jasmine Lovatt came second in the race with Lucy Richardson 5th, Olivia Ball 9th and Emily Pearce 13th. Olivia just missed out on a top three position overall, finishing fourth.

 

Well done also to Nina Skilton and Sue Kneill-Boxley who came first and second respectively overall in the W50 age group. They helped our SW team to 5th place overall in Division One with Nina in 16th and Sue 19th supported by Emily Griffiths (29th), Kate Pearce (73rd) and Lucy Berry (78th).

 

Delilah Dempsey came 14th in the U11G race and Ella Beeson 19th. In the U13G, Daisy Aspinall was our highest placed athlete in 9th followed by Isabelle Beckett 23rd and Lucy Wain 25th.

 

Jake Weavell came home in 8th and Callum Wason 10th in the U11B race and in the SM race, Matt Bonney finished an excellent 11th, Craig Pearson 32nd, Tom Orton 59th, Pedro Havelock 127th, Chris Metcalfe 133rd and Geoff Kitching 194th leaving the team second on the day but, due to not having sufficient athletes in the first meeting, we were unplaced overall.

 

Thank you to everyone who has renewed their membership for 2019 already. I will be sending out the 2019 membership cards in early January, once I have organised my family Christmas!

 

If you have any queries re your payment, I am happy to answer emails, although you should be able to see payments on your LoveAdmin account.

 

Thank you for your continued support and have a very happy Christmas.

 

Helen Walker

 

The last club track training session will be on Thursday 20th December and the first track session back is Wednesday 2nd January 2019.

 

The track opening times over the Christmas period are:

Friday 21st December	Track open during day
Saturday 22nd December	Track open during day
Sunday 23rd December	Track open during day
Monday 24th December	No evening training. Track open during day (staff on site 10-5pm)
Tuesday 25th December	No evening training. Park unsupervised
Wednesday 26th December	No evening training. Park unsupervised
Thursday 27th December	No evening training. Track open during day (staff on site 10-5pm)
Friday 28th December	Track open during day (staff on site 10-5pm)
Saturday 29th December	Track open during day (staff on site 10-5pm)
Sunday 30th December	Track open during day (staff on site 10-5pm)
Monday 31st December	No evening training. Track open during day (staff on site 10-5pm)
Tuesday 1st January	No evening training. Park unsupervised
Wednesday 2nd January	Track open as normal

 

If you do train at the track anytime from 21st December to the 1st January, please remember that these are not club nights so you have to pay the Rangers for use of the track.

 

The throwing area is not to be used outside of supervised hours. Under no circumstances should throwing take place without first obtaining the authorisation of site staff.

 

Please speak to your own coach regarding when they are taking training sessions over the period between Christmas and the New Year.

 

 

Thando Hart and Harrison Hardy-Smith remain in contention for top three finishes after the latest WMYACCL meeting at Perry Park on Sunday (9th).

 

Thando again finished third in the U17W race and is currently third in the overall standings and, despite Harrison finishing sixth in an U17M race dominated by Rugby & Northampton athletes, he also remains in third place overall.

 

In his first race of the season, Oliver Dieppe finished 25th in a large U11B field and Delilah Dempsey came 53rd in the U11G race.

 

Our largest representation came in the U13G race where Daisy Aspinall came home in 29th, Louise Gathergood 33rd, Isla Fraser 71st and Isabelle Beckett 89th.

 

Harry Beckett finished 60th in the U13B and Jasmine Lovatt 24th in the U15G

 

We are sad to announce the death of a former C&S coach, Dave Crutchley. Dave has been ill for a number of years and passed away yesterday morning (9th).

 

Before his illness, Dave managed our successful disabled section and, along with Jon Ross, was mine and Nat's first coach when we joined the club. I have much to be grateful to Dave for.

 

Our thoughts and best wishes are with his wife Ann and his sons, Paul and Martin.

 

A small team of four of our senior women travelled to Welcombe Hills in Stratford on Saturday (1st) to compete in the second meeting of the season in the Midland Women’s Cross Country League.

 

Allegra Soutar came home in 40th place with Nina Skilton 41st, Sue Kneill-Boxley 62nd and Emily Griffiths 69th. The team finished tenth of the 15 teams taking part.

 

Well done ladies and thanks to Peter Brown who took care of the team, Fiona Russell for timekeeping and the others who travelled and helped and supported the team.

 

Our senior men’s cross country team came tenth at the second meeting of the Birmingham & District Cross Country League at Warley Woods on Saturday.

 

Chris Perrin was our first athlete across the line in 12th place to lie in 10th place overall after the first two meetings. Bill Chesters was 59th out of the 293 athletes to complete the race and is now 9th in the Junior Men standings. Phil Wolfe followed in 79th, James Perrin in 93rd and Connor Mills in 98th.

 

Craig Pearson finished 112th and Tom Orton (180th), Sam Bagley (199th) and Mark Green (240th) all gave good support.

 

Once again, I must start my report by thanking all of the volunteers without whom there would be no club.

 

It’s great to have full confidence that the main members of the Committee are excellent at what they do. I really appreciate the support given.

 

Without officials at meetings, there would be no competitions. Not many of you will know that officials earn a large amount of points for the club at each meeting so our group of officials are becoming more and more important to the success of the club. I’d like to thank all of our officials for turning out so that our athletes are able to compete. This is an area that I think we, as a club, can improve and I would like more people to get involved with. I will be issuing a message soon on our social media platforms with more information about this.

 

Thank you also to all of our coaches who spend a great deal of their own time and money to train and support their athletes at Rowley and at meetings across the country and to all of the other people who volunteer in areas such as assisting training groups, collecting money on training nights, organising our presentation evening, organising teams and giving out Bob’s sweets after the sessions.

 

My final thanks go to my wife, Alyson, who not only spends hours preparing athlete’s numbers before each YDL and Senior meeting and helps record athlete’s performances at my training sessions, she also lets me out to play five days/ nights a week!

 

The past year has been a very successful one for the club beginning with our Senior Men finishing third in Division 2 of the Birmingham & District Cross Country League and gaining promotion back to Division One with Chris Perrin winning the individual title.

 

On the track and field, our team performances stood out. Our U17/U20 team won their Upper Age Group Division, our Senior team won the Division 2 title and promotion back to the top division and our Veteran’s Men and Women both won their respective Divisions.

 

There were also a number of individual success stories. Bethan Rees took a fantastic bronze at the British Championships as well as gold at the England Athletics U20 Championships and Welsh U20 and Senior Champs. Beth also represented GB U20s and U23s along with Wales during the campaign.

 

This year we had six athletes who were invited to compete at the British Indoor or Outdoor Championships:- Beth, Olivia Walker, Megan Davies, Amy Pye, Natalie Ainge and Gabi Burton – a tremendous achievement and reward for their hard work.

 

We had ten athletes selected to represent Staffordshire at the English Schools Cross Country Championships and four at the English Schools Track & Field Championships, numbers that were down on previous years. Amy and Chloe Wilde represented Staffordshire at the Senior Inter Counties and Chloe also represented England Midlands in the Welsh International. Carl McMullen defended his M35 World Icosathlon Championships (double decathlon) title and Nina Skilton won the W50 English Fell Running Championships. A number of our athletes also won medals in Midland and County Championships in track & field, road running and cross country.

 

Our veteran (Masters) athletes really are a good example to our younger athletes in regard to their dedication to training, their effort and their enjoyment of the sport. Carl, Paul Edwards, Chris Hollinshead, Craig Pearson, Per Kristian Lundby and Martin Roberts all won individual British medals at either road running or track and field events and Sue Kneill Boxley, Chris, Paul and Terry Faulkner represented the Midlands in the Inter Area competition in Solihull.

 

I hope our cross country runners have a good end to the year and wish everyone a happy and healthy Christmas and New Year.

 

Shaun Ainge

Chairman

 

 

Our U15G are in second place in the team standings following the third meeting of the NSCCL which took place at Park Hall Country Club on Saturday (17th).

 

Olivia Ball finished in an excellent third place and great support from Lucy Richardson (7th), Emily Pearce (11th) and Dawn Riley (16th) gave the girls a joint second place finish on the day.

 

Our Senior Women came fifth on the day in their Division One fixture and lie fifth overall with one fixture of the season remaining. Nina Skilton was the highest of our finishers, and first W50 across the line, in 13th place with Sue Kneill-Boxley less than a minute behind in 21st. Emily Griffiths came 31st, Natalie Boswell 66th, Kate Pearce 99th and Lucy Berry 111th.

 

Callum Wason ran well to finish 9th in the U11B, Ethan Eisenhauer 29th in the U13B and Thomas Brownshill 12th in the U15B.

 

In the U11G Ella Beeson came home in 27th and Delilah Dempsey in 32nd.

 

In the Senior Men’s race, Mark Green came 132nd, Pedro Havelock 142nd, Jamie Graham 148th and Geoff Kitching 228th.

 

Harrison Hardy-Smith and Thando Hart both boosted their chances of finishing in the top three of their age groups this season with excellent runs in the second WMYACCL meeting at Warley Woods on Sunday (18th).

 

Harrison came second in the U17M race to move up into third in the overall standings. Thando also lies in third overall after a third place finish on the day.

 

The U13G had a good turnout for the meeting. Louise Gathergood finished 9th in the race and is 9th in the overall standings and was well supported by Mia Wainwright (74th), Isla Fraser (89th), Lucy Wain (99th), Isabelle Beckett (109th) and Charley Keyte (116th).

 

In the U11G, Isla Williams came 47th and Libby Martin 69th. Jasmine Lovatt came 56th in the U15G race.

 

Harry Beckett finished 51st in the U13B and Luke Powell 27th in the U17M race.

 

 

 

The AGM of Cannock & Stafford AC will take place at Rowley Stadium at 7.30pm on Thursday 29th November 2018. All members are entitled to attend.

 

The meeting will receive the annual report of the club's activities in 2017/18 as well as the audited accounts. This will be followed by the election of members to fill vacant positions. These are Chairman and Secretary. Please contact Karen Moody by email on kazmoody@yahoo.co.uk to request a nomination form for anyone willing to stand for the vacant committee positions. Please note that the Chairman and Secretary roles are of a two year tenure.

 

On Saturday (10th), our senior athletes were involved in the first meetings of the season in the Birmingham & District and Midland Women's Cross Country Leagues.

 

Unfortunately, especially for Bob, the Men's and Women's meetings were at different venues so Peter Brown looked after the women in the Midland Women's Cross Country League at Coundon Park in Coventry.

 

Giorgia Chattwood had a brilliant 15th place finish (7th in the Junior positions) and was well supported by Megan Huxley in 41st, Allegra Soutar in 47th and Sue Kneill-Boxley came 63rd out of the 201 runners in the race. This gave C&S seventh place overall out of the fifteen teams taking part.

 

Four athletes are required to score in the women's league and any less would lead to automatic relegation so well done to the ladies who turned up. if you are available for any of the other women's cross country fixtures, please let Bob know.

 

Our Men's team had their first race back in Division One of the Birmingham & District Cross Country League at Cheltenham. Chris Perrin was our first athlete home in 20th and Bill Chesters had a good run on his senior debut in 93rd place (20th in the Junior age group). James Perrin came 105th with Phil Wolfe not far behind in 108th. Another making his senior debut, Matthew Bonney, came 122nd, Craig Pearson 137th, Tom Orton 208th and Ryan Ashforth 219th out of the 300 athletes who took part.

 

The team finished 13th overall out of 16 teams and are currently lying one place above the relegation positions.

 

A great turnout of ten of our Senior Women boosted their hopes of remaining in the top division of the North Staffs Cross Country League on Saturday (27th).

 

Nina Skilton finished in 17th place, closely followed by Megan Huxley in 19th. Supported by Sue Kneill Boxley (28th), Emily Griffiths (35th), Natalie Boswell (62nd), Lucy Berry (69th), Kate Pearce (80th), Christine Kilkenny (91st), Dot Fellows (103rd) and Jeanne Bryan (227th), the team finished in fourth place on the day and have moved up to 6th overall.

 

Our U15G lie second after two meetings with Lucy Richardson finishing 7th, Olivia Ball 9th, Emily Pearce 15th, Dawn Riley 25th and Lorna Weir 26th.

 

In the U11G, Isla Williams is currently in 6th position in the overall standings after an 11th place finish. Libby Martin came 21st and Ella Beeson 24th.

 

We had one competitor in the U13B race, Ethan Eisenhauer in 28th. Thomas Brownsill came 11th in the U15 and Harrison Hardy-Smith came 6th in the U17M race followed by Luke Powell in 16th.

 

In the Senior Men's race, Jamie Graham came 171st, Pedro Havelock 187th and Geoff Kitching 239th out of the 308 strong field.

 

We had seven teams in action at the Midland Counties Cross Country Relays on Saturday.

 

Our Senior Men's A team came 9th and the B team 14th out of the 63 teams taking part. Bill Chesters led the way for the A team, handing over to Chris Perrin in 13th after a 19.55 leg. Chris then ran the equal fastest leg (18.43) of any athlete in the race to lift the team to 4th before James Perrin ran 20.42 to hand over to Josh Ward in 5th. Josh completed his leg in 22.56.

 

The B team were pretty consistent in their performances. They were led off by Connor Mills (20.29) and he was well supported by Phil Wolfe (20.55), Craig Pearson (20.58) and Sam Bagley (21.52).

 

We also had two teams in the SW event. Our A team came 10th and B team 18th of the 55 teams taking part. Giorgia Chattwood gave the team a great start by finishing in 23.04 to handover to Megan Huxley in 5th. Megan's 25.12 left Allegra Soutar in 6th and Allegra brought the team home with a 25.12 leg. The B team also gave a good performance with Becky Brown running 25.54, Nina Skilton 24.05 and Lucy Berry 29.10.

 

The C&S Masters Women's team came 11th out of 28 teams. Sue Kneill-Boxley ran 25.20, Kate Pearce, in her first run for the club, 30.14 and Natalie Boswell 28.46.

 

The U13G team came 12th with Melissa Cannon running 15.10, Isabelle Beckett 14.22 and Lucy Wain 14.42 and the U15G finished 6th with Olivia Ball 12.20, Emily Pearce 13.36 and Lucy Richardson 13.54.

 

On Saturday, Dot Fellows became the first athlete in the history of the Walsall Park Run to achieve an age grade performance of over 100%.

 

73 year old Dot's time of 23.04 for the 5km race gave her an age grade performance of 101.52%

 

Thando Hart and Harrison Hardy-Smith were top five finishers in the WMYACCL races at Hatton Country Park on Sunday (14th).

 

Thando was our only competitor in the U17W race and came third. Harrison came fifth in the U17M event with Luke Powell finishing 35th in the same race, leaving the lads in 8th in the team positions.

 

Isla Williams was the highest C&S finisher in the U11G race and, supported by Libby Martin in 73rd, Grace Pollitt in 85th, Evelyn Pollitt (121st) and Zeina Hashish (125th), the team came 10th.

 

Daisy Aspinall had an excellent 13th place finish in the U13G race, closely followed by Louise Gathergood in 14th. With Isla Fraser in 84th, Lucy Wain 87th and Isabelle Beckett 96th, the team finished 10th.

 

In the U15G, Jasmine Lovatt finished 39th, Emily Pearce 50th and Dawn Riley 85th placing the team in 13th.

 

Congratulations to Dot Fellows who has been selected to represent England in the British & Irish Masters Cross Country International in Swansea on the 17th November.

The Welsh Athletics Hall of Fame and Awards Dinner was held in Cardiff last weekend and Bethan Rees was presented with the Junior Female Track and Field Athlete of the Year.

 

Well done Beth!

 

Congratulations to Giorgia Chattwood who won the women's race in the Stafford 10k on Sunday (23rd). Giorgia's time of 29 mins 11 seconds also obviously gave her the female U21 winners prize.

 

John Cooke came second in his age category in the race and Neil Pollitt, Geoffrey Kitching and Hazel Cane all came third in their respective age groups. Well done also to Owen Hurcombe, who was our fastest finisher with 38:45, and Ryan Ashforth, Mark Green, Peter Brown and Natalie Boswell who all represented the club.

 

Cannock & Stafford AC had a number of teams in action in the Midland Area Road Relay Championships at Sutton Park on Saturday (22nd).

 

In the Young Athletes Championships, our U13 Girls team came 20th with Louise Gathergood running a 16.49 first leg, Lucy Wain 19.36 on the second and Isabelle Beckett 19.26 on the final leg.

 

The C&S U15 Girls team came 27th in their race. Emily Pearce led the team off with a 16.58 leg, Lucy Richardson ran a 16.56 second leg and Jasmine Lockett 17.17 on the final leg.

 

In the Senior Women's 4 Stage Championships, we finished in 25th out of the 104 teams that completed the race. Sally Gray handed over to Iris Davies in 27th position after a 17.10 leg over the 4.33km course, Iris ran 18.49 to hand over to Sue Kneill-Boxley in 32nd. Sue's 18.35 leg put Allegra Soutar into 28th at their handover and Allegra ran a 17.38 to bring the team home.

 

Our Senior Men came 38th out of 107 complete teams in the Men's 6 Stage Championships. Phil Wolfe took the lead leg and ran 20.30 to hand over to Bill Chesters in 48th. Bill ran the team's fastest leg (19.54) to put the team in 35th and Connor Mills improved the position to 30th after a 20.25 leg. Craig Pearson's 20.26 put the team in 28th and Sam Bagley ran 22.48 to leave Darrell Wilde in 34th at their handover. Darrell completed the 5.88km course in 24.16 to finish in 38th following the disqualification of the Tipton 'C' team.

 

Congratulations to Nina Skilton who became the W50 English Fell Running Champion on Saturday (15th).

 

The English Championships consist of a series of six races of which an athlete's top four finishes count towards the final positions. There are two short courses, two medium and two long.

 

Nina began her season by finishing 2nd in a race on 6 May at Clough Head in the Lake District, a 4.5 mile course with a 550m climb. Her second race was the Buttermere Horseshoe in the Lake District on 23 June where Nina won a 22.1 mile race with a climb of 2,515m!

 

Nina also won her third race, this time on the Isle of Man on 17 July. This was a 9 mile sea to summit race from Laxey Promenade to the summit of Mullagh Ouyr with a climb of 1129m. The final race of the series saw Nina finish third at Cautley Horeshoe in the Yorkshire Dales, a 4.7 mile run with a climb of 805m.

 

Well done Nina!

 

Paul Edwards just missed out on qualifying for the M50 100m final as a fastest loser by 0.08 seconds at the World Masters Championships in Malaga. In his semi-final, Paul finished third out of a field of seven in a time of 17.82.

 

In the M35 Half Marathon, Craig Pearson came 26th in 1:24.01.

 

What a fantastic weekend and a great race!

 

Chris Hollinshead said "We had the lot. Sunshine, strong winds and low cloud and rain over the Orme. Never before have I, or anyone else on the first leg, ran 13 miles into a 16 mph head wind!"

 

In the race from Rhyl to Llandudno via the Great Orme, the winning team was 'Germany' (Craig Pearson, Stephen Terry-Short, Emma Hollinshead) in a close finish that came down to the last climb of the Orme.

 

Second was 'USA' (Neil Pollitt, Rebecca Brown, Geoff Kitching) followed by 'Spain' (Chris Hollinshead, Natalie Boswell, Andy Weetman). There was nothing between 'France' (Lucy Berry, Megan Huxley, Peter Brown) and 'Great Britain' (Lauren Turley, Lyn Clare, Sue Kneill-Boxley) with a fantastic sprint finish between Peter and Sue.

 

After the race, the athletes adjourned to a local pub for a great Sunday dinner and then chocolate trophies were presented to the winning team on the prom and there were local Conwy beers all round.

 

Chris would like to thank all of the runners that took part and also thank Paul Lester and Andy Bird, who provided cycle support, and race director, Laura Bird.

 

Carl McMullen retained his M35 World Double Decathlon title at the Championships held in Delft, Holland last weekend.

 

With 20 events to be completed over the two days of competition, Carl began with a 12.40 100m quickly followed by a 5.99m long jump. He completed the 200m hurdles in 27.95, threw the shot 8.58m and completed the 5000m in 21:04.23 - all before dinner on the first morning!

 

After a short break, the afternoon began with Carl running a 2:26.48 800m before clearing 1.55m in the high jump and sprinting a 57.35 second 400m. The first day was completed with a 16.51m hammer throw and a 12:51.87 3000m steeplechase which gave Carl an almost 800 point lead after 10 events.

 

The following morning, Carl started with the 110m hurdles (18.47) and the discus (20.93m) before clocking 24.42 in the 200m. A 2.00m pole vault and a 3000m run in 12:41.91 were followed by 65.72 in the 400m hurdles and Carl's weakest event, the javelin, where he threw 17.10m.

 

He then ran 5:36.75 for 1500m and jumped 11.04 in the triple jump before beginning the final event, a 10000m, which he completed in 48:42.03 to finish exactly 800 points clear of the silver medalist.

 

Congratulations Carl. Well deserved!

 

Kristian Lundby won gold with a 8.97m triple jump in the M70 category at the British Masters Championships at Alexander Stadium at the weekend.

 

Martin Roberts won silver in the M55 hammer  with a throw of 39.34m. Martin also just missed out on a medal in the 11.34Kg weight, finishing fourth with 11.16m.

 

Paul Edwards added to his British Champs medal collection with a bronze in the 100m hurdles in 17.04 and Sue Kneill-Boxley came fifth in the W50 800m in a time of 2:45.10.

 

In wet conditions at Bedford on Sunday, Jack Turner threw 57.60m to finish 5th in the U17M hammer in the England Athletics Championships.

 

Joe Taylor, taking part in his first National Champs, came 4th in his 100 hurdles heat in 14.89. Sydney Davies had much drier conditions for her 300m hurdles heat on Saturday and finished 6th in 55.71.

 

Being in the top 100 athletes in the whole of the UK for an event that you compete in is an outstanding achievement.

 

C&S have 10 athletes who are in the top 100 of their event as of today's date. Many more of our athletes are in the top 100 in their event for their age group but the list below is for rankings across all age groups.

 

On the field, Beth Rees is our top ranked athlete currently standing in 3rd place in the javelin with her best throw of 51.18m. Jak Carpenter is 74th in the shot with a 13.31m effort with the 7.26kg implement and Jak Turner moved to 79th in the hammer in his first competition with the senior weight, throwing 45.55m. Despite having jumped only three times this season, Dan Fitzhenry's 1.95m in the high jump puts him in 84th place.

 

Our top ranked track athlete is Amy Pye with a non wind assisted best of 14.26 in the 100m hurdles placing her in 39th position. Amy is closely followed by Natalie Ainge with 42nd in the 400m hurdles with 62.4, Olivia Walker's 49th in the 100m hurdles (14.38) and Chloe Wilde's 52nd in the 400m hurdles (63.41).

 

Megan Davies is ranked 86th in the 400m with a season's best 56.53 and Allee Rigby has two top 100 rankings, 80th in the 400m hurdles (57.3) and 94th in the 110m hurdles (16.1).

 

To complete the list, our U20 women's 4 x 100m performance of 49.37 at the Diamond League on Saturday moved them into 100th position in the UK.

 

At the Diamond League meeting in Birmingham, our U20W team of Charlie Peters, Amy Pye, Chloe Wilde and Hannah Malpass won the Club Connect 4x100m relay with a season's best 49.37 to win a cheque of £250 for the club.

 

Megan Davies took part in the Scottish U20 Championships in Aberdeen on Sunday. After winning her 200m heat in 25.68, Meg finished fourth in an extremely close race with only 0.17 seconds separating the first five athletes. Remarkably, Meg ran exactly the same time in the final as in her heat with exactly the same windspeed (0.5)!

 

Josh Ward (1:54.71) and Bradley Haycock (1:56.63) both ran 800m pbs at a BMC meet in Manchester and Jack Turner threw 58.11m in the hammer at an open meeting in Rugby.

 

Representing Wales, Beth Rees threw her fifth longest throw ever (48.62m) to finish third in the Manchester International today (15th)

Four C&S athletes were in action at the Midland U15 / U17 Championships at Nuneaton last weekend.

 

We had two medal winners, Jack Turner won silver in the hammer with a 57.95m throw and Harrison Hardy-Smith bronze in the 1500m with 4:23.96.

 

Millie Peters threw a season's best 26.96 to finish fifth in the U17W javelin and Joe Taylor came fourth in his 100m hurdles heat in 15.14.

 

The Cannock & Stafford AC Senior team became Division 2 Champions last Saturday (4th) with victory in the final meeting of the season at Stoke.

 

Jack Turner began the ball rolling with victory in the hammer. Throwing the senior weight for the first time, Jack won with a throw of 45.55m. Martin Roberts came second in the 'B' with 34.08. Jack also came 5th in the shot and 4th in the discus, again using these weights for the first time in competition.

 

Natalie Ainge started the first of her seven events with victory in the 'B' long jump with 4.91m. Nat also won the 'A' 400m hurdles in her second best time of the season (62.5), the 400m 'B' in 59.5 and the 100m hurdles 'B' in 17.3 as well as jumping a season's best 10.12 in the triple jump.

 

Chloe Wilde won the 400m hurdles 'B' in 64.6 and then came second in the 100m hurdles with a pb of 16.1. Chloe Boulter came equal first in the high jump (1.55) and won the 'B' triple jump with 9.98.

 

Our women sprinters continued to rack up the points with Amy Pye winning the 100m and 200m 'A' races in 12.3 and 25.4 respectively and Megan Davies won the 'B' races in 12.9 and 26.4. Hannah Malpass easily won the 400m 'A' race in 60.3.

 

Allee Rigby won the 400m hurdles (59.4) and 110m hurdles 16.3 and finished second in the 100m 'B' in 11.6. He also won the 'B' high jump with a 1.75m clearance. Dan Fitzhenry won the 'A' event clearing 1.90m.

 

Cara Brown won the women's pole vault with 2.50m and Darrell Wilde the 3000m steeplechase 'B' in 12:54.8. Ryan Ashforth came second in the 'A' steeplechase with 11:52.7.

 

There were also wins for Jack Longmore in the 'B' 800m (2:03.7) and Chris Perrin and Josh Ward won the 'A' and 'B' 1500m races in 4:07.4 and 4:09.2. Shortly after the 1500m, Chris ran in the 3000m and came second in 9:05.0.

 

There were second place finishes for James Russell in the 'B' 110m hurdles (21.0), Sam Bagley in the 400m hurdles 'B' (69.3), Nina Skilton in the 3000m 'B' (11:38.1) and Thando Hart in the high jump 'B' (1.45m) and useful contributions from James Taylor, Ross Goode, Harrison Hardy-Smith, Rebecca Brown, Allegra Soutar, Sally Gray and Charlotte Hall.

 

To cap off an excellent day of performances, all four of our relay teams won their races. The 4x100m women (Meg, Amy, Chloe W, Hannah) came home in 50.7 and the 4x400 team (Allegra, Leah Aldred, Hannah, Chloe W) in 4:10.5. The Men's 4x100 (James T, Jack L, Allee, Ross) won in 46.9 and the 4x400 (Jack L, Allee, Harrison and Josh) in 3:36.1

 

Beth Rees represented GB U20s at an International meeting between GB, Germany and France last Sunday (5th)

 

Beth came second in the competition with a best throw of 46.97m

 

Bethan Rees and Chloe Wilde both took part in the Welsh International at Swansea on Wednesday night.

 

Beth, representing Wales U20s, won the javelin comp with 46.79m and Chloe, representing England Midlands U20s, came 7th in the 400m hurdles with 66.86.

 

The Cannock & Stafford AC disability squad is now open to new members who are looking to participate in athletics. Training takes place on a Thursday evening 6.30-7,30 at Rowley Park. Please either call down to the track and ask for Jon Ross or email me for contact details

Please note that from 1st September 2018, training fees for non members will be £2.50 / session. Fees for members will currently remain as they are presently (£1.50)

Four Cannock & Stafford athletes represented Staffordshire at the English Schools Championships at Alexander Stadium.

 

There was a third successive English Schools gold for Bethan Rees in the Senior Girls javelin with a 47.29m throw and a first English Schools appearance for James Malpass who jumped 5.42m in the U15 long jump.

 

Amy Pye ran a wind assisted pb of 14.21 to qualify for the 100m hurdles final where she ran 14.65 to finish fifth.

 

Jack Turner had a great hammer competition with four of his throws beating his previous pb. He finally finished fifth with 59.14, more than 3m over his previous best.

 

Beth Rees had a busy day today (Friday) as, after winning the Senior Girls javelin title at English Schools, she rushed to Cardiff where she won the Welsh Senior title, throwing 45.75m

 

Four Cannock & Stafford athletes represented the Midlands at the England Athletics Inter Area Challenge at Solihull on Sunday (8th).

 

Sue Kneill-Boxley was selected in both the W50 3000m and 800m and she continued her excellent season with victory in the longer event in 12:07.19, finishing over a minute ahead of her nearest rival. In the 800m, Sue came second with her second fastest time of the season, 2:45.04.

 

Chris Hollinshead came third in the M50 3000m in 10:27.00 and Paul Edwards third in the M50 100m hurdles in 17.24. Terry Faulkner was part of the Midlands M70 4x100m team that came second in 62.49.

 

As an interesting footnote (to me anyway), Dr Steve Peters, who wrote the fantastic psychology book The Chimp Paradox, took part in the 100m and 200m finishing in 12.48 and 25.14. You may not think this is anything special until you realise he's just turned 65 years old!

 

A depleted Senior League side of only 18 athletes travelled to Abingdon with the aim of remaining with a chance of winning the division and they did just that, finishing in second place.

 

The track events started with our 400m hurdlers doing well as usual. Allee Rigby equalled his pb to win the men's A race in 57.3, Natalie Ainge won the women's A in 63.3 and Chloe Wilde won the B race in 66.7.

 

Allee, much to his surprise, won the 100m A race in 11.6 and also came second in the 110 hurdles (16.5) and high jump (1.80m). Nat also won the 400m A in 58.6 and the 100m hurdles B race in 17.2 and Chloe won the 100m hurdles A in a pb of 16.2 and came second in the high jump B (1.30m).

 

Josh Ward and Jack Longmore doubled up in the 400m and 800m and won each race. Josh ran a 52.1 pb in the 400m and 1:59.8 in the 800m and Jack equalled his pb in the 400 (53.5) and ran 2:02.8 in the 800.

 

Hannah Malpass comfortably won the 400m B race in 59.1 and then ran 12.8 to finish second in the 100m and Charlie Peters also dipped under 13 seconds with 12.9 in the 100m A race. Ross Goode came second in the 100m B in 12.1 and Leah Aldred second in the 200m B in 27.9.

 

Chloe Boulter was another busy athlete winning the high jump with 1.60m and shot put B with 6.81m as well as finishing second in the long jump B, Triple Jump (10.05m) and hammer.

 

Allegra Soutar continued her great season by smashing her 800m pb to finish second in 2:23.7 and then ran just outside 5 minutes to come second in the 1500m.

 

Once again our women's 4x400m team of Allegra, Leah, Hannah and Chloe W won their relay and their were useful contributions from Darrell Wilde (who did 5 events), Martin Roberts, Shaun Ainge, Craig Pearson, Sam Bagley, Nina Skilton and Millie Peters, along with our team of officials (Bob Hughes, Derek Fellows, Sandi Thompson, Jayne Wilde, Shaun and Gary Myles) that ensured  the second place finish in a very close meeting.

 

Congratulations to Bethan Rees who won a bronze medal at the British Championships on Sunday. Her final throw of 48.30 moved her up into third place at a scorching Alexander Stadium.

 

Amy Pye competed in the 100m hurdles on Saturday finishing seventh in her heat with 14.60.

 

Unfortunately, our other three athletes who had received invitations, Natalie Ainge, Megan Davies and Olivia Walker all had to withdraw.

 

Beth Rees retained her Welsh U20 title with a throw of 47.22m in Newport on Saturday (23rd)

Beth Rees took gold in a close U20 javelin competition on Saturday, throwing 47.87m to win by 31cm. This was Beth's first England U20 title after taking silver in last year's event.

 

Amy Pye came agonisingly close to the British Championships standard in the 100m hurdles with a great run of 14.26, beating last years 80m hurdles champion and British record holder, Pippa Earley to finish fifth in her heat.

 

Bill Chesters came 5th in the 2000m steeplechase final in 6:32.66 and Chloe Wilde just missed out on a place in the 400m hurdles final finishing fifth in 66.77 in her heat.

 

A number of Cannock & Stafford athletes represented Staffordshire Schools in the Mason Trophy at Alexander Stadium on Saturday.

 

Jack Turner had two third place finishes in the IB discus (37.72m) and hammer (54.63m) to be the highest placed C&S athlete at the meeting.

 

Thando Hart also had a great day, with a pb in the IG 800m (2:24.26 to finish fourth) and  an equal pb in the high jump 1.51m. Harrison Hardy Smith was another athlete to finish fourth, this time in the IB 1500m with a season's best 4:13.52.

 

Joe Taylor ran 14.83 in the IB 100m hurdles and training partner Nathaniel Sackey ran 62.99 in the 400 hurdles. Sydney Davies ran a pb of 47.96 in the IG 300m hurdles.

 

Isaac Lewis jumped 5.91m in the IB long jump and Fadia Hashish 4.29m in the JG long jump. Fadia also ran 28.18 in the 200m and Beth Lewis ran 29.17 in the IG race

 

It was a successful day for our veteran athletes at the Midland Masters Championships with all six C&S athletes that entered coming away with medals.

 

Paul Edwards won gold in the M55 100 hurdles in 16.75 and bronze in the 400m in 63.71. Paul also came 4th in the 100m (13.89) and 200m (28.11).

 

Terry Faulkner won three golds in the M75 age group, winning the 100m (18.02), 200m (35.73) and 400m (88.97) and Stephen Terry-Short won golds in the M45 100m (13.01) and 200m (26.89).

 

Sue Kneill-Boxley won the W50 800m in 2:46.00 and Chris Hollinshead took silver in the 5000m in a season's best 17:07.02.

 

Martin Roberts found himself in very competitive M55 throws competition but won the hammer with 43.01m and came 6th in the shot with 8.44m.

 

Our athletes picked up three gold, three silver and a bronze at the Midland U20 / Senior Championships at Nuneaton on Sunday (10th).

 

The first track event of the day gave us the first C&S medal winner with Natalie Ainge taking silver in the SW 400m hurdles in 63.35. This was quickly followed by Chloe Wilde taking gold in the U20W 400m hurdles, smashing her pb with a time of 63.41. This will give Chloe the opportunity to represent England Midlands at the Welsh International in July.

 

Bill Chesters took gold in the U20M 2000m steeplechase in a time of 6:27.40 and Amy Pye won silver in the U20W 100m hurdles finishing just six one hundredths of a second behind the winner.

 

Beth Rees threw 46.67m to win the U20W javelin gold and Cara Brown equalled her previous day's pb to win silver in the pole vault with 2.60m.

 

Josh Ward was involved in a great scrap for second place in the U20M 1500m but, in the end, had to settle for bronze with a time of 4:02.33.

 

Elsewhere, Charlie Peters finished fourth in the U20W long jump with 4.74m and fifth in the 100m with 13.27. Millie Peters threw 22.67m in the javelin and Allegra Soutar ran 5:03.60 in the 1500m.

 

Megan Davies (58.61) and Hannah Malpass, with a season's best 59.05 both qualified for the 400m final in third place in their heats with Meg missing a medal by two one hundredths of a second despite a season's best 56.53.

 

Chloe Wilde (27.13) and Hannah (26.74) also both qualified from their U20W 200m heats and, in the final, Hannah ran 26.86 to finish fifth with Chloe in seventh with a time of 27.02.

 

Per Kristian Lundby became the M70 British Masters Pentathlon champion at Oxford (3rd June) with 3288 points which moves him to 3rd on the all time rankings. 

 

Kristian jumped 4.22m in the long jump and then threw the javelin 33.40m. He ran 31.89 in the 200m before recording a distance of 30.96m in the discus. His final event was the 1500m where he ran 7:20.96.

 

Carl McMullen won bronze in the M35 age group. A 5.71m long jump was followed by a 15.04 javelin that left Carl out of contention for the top 2 medals. He did run the fastest 200m time of the day out of all the age groups though (23.99) and followed this with a 24.39m discus and 5:16.78 1500m.

 

On a surprisingly warm day in Worcester, our Senior team gained a convincing victory in the second meeting of the Midland Senior League season.

 

Martin Roberts and Jak Carpenter led the way with wins in the hammer 'A' and 'B' with throws of 37.04 and 20.67 respectively. Jak also won the shot with 12.78m and the javelin (47.53m) and Martin won the shot 'B' with 7.52m and came second in the discus 'B' (19.07m).

 

Natalie Ainge won the 400m hurdles in 63.6 and the 400m 'B' in 58.2. Chloe Wilde won the 400m hurdles 'B' race in her second fastest ever time of 64.0, the 100m hurdles B (17.7) and finished second in the high jump 'B' with a pb of 1.45m.

 

Cara Brown was another to gain a pb with a 2.52m pole vault clearance and Dan Fitzhenry won the high jump with a season's best 1.95m.

 

Allee Rigby won the men's 400m hurdles 'A' in 60.1 with James Russell taking victory in the 'B' race with 69.7. Allee and James also came second in the 110m hurdles races with 17.6 and 22.0 respectively and Allee won the high jump B with a 1.75m clearance.

 

Josh Ward won the 800m in 1:58.1 with Harrison Hardy-Smith second in the 'B' race (2:04.1). Sam Bagley was a convincing winner of the 3k steeplechase, finishing over a minute ahead of the second placed athlete in a pb of 11:08.5. Darrell Wilde won the B race with an excellent 13:27.8.

 

Amy Pye and Charlie Peters won the women's 100m with 12.7 and 13.3 respectively, Rebecca Brown won the 'B' 800m with 2:31.4 and Sally Gray the 'B' 3000m in 11:11.6.

 

Our women's 4x100m team (Charlie, Meg, Chloe W, Amy) won their race in 50.4 and the 4x400m team (Becky, Leah, Chloe W, Meg) also won in 4:09.5.

 

Giorgia Chatwood ran pbs in both the 1500m (5:28.6) and 3000m (11:04.7) and there were second place finishes for Leah Aldred (200m 'B' in 28.1), Megan Davies (400m, 58.2), Chloe Boulter (high jump with 1.55m and long jump B with 4.68m), Josh Richards (long jump, 5.35m) and our 4x400 men's relay team.

 

Millie Peters, Sam Parr, Ross Goode, Iris Davies, Ryan Ashforth, Allegra Soutar, Craig Pearson and Matt Bonney all added valuable points to contribute to the teams success.

 

Congratulations to Bethan Rees who broke her own U20 javelin club record with a throw of 51.18m at Loughborough today. The throw is also the club's furthest senior throw with the new spec javelin and a new Welsh U20 record.

The BMAF Road Relay Championships took place on 28 April 2018 and we had nine athletes taking part.

 

Sally Gray, Nina Skilton, Natalie Boswell and Sue Kneill-Boxley entered as a team in the over 35s race. Sally led off, completing her leg in 20:34 and handed over to Nina in 9th position. Nina moved up to 6th with a 21:06 leg and Natalie Boswell ran 25:54 to pass to Sue Kneill Boxley in 14th. Sue maintained this position with a 21:46 leg.

 

Hazel Cane, Emma Hollinshead and Ann Robinson ran in the over 45s race. Hazel completed the first stage in 17th with 26:16, Emma moved to 15th after running 22:52 and Ann kept this mosition with 28:05.

 

Our over 65s were unfortunate to miss out on a gold medal due to being a runner short, with Christine Kilkenny absent. Chris Rollason handed over to Dot Fellows in third place after running a 25:49 leg and Dot moved up to first at the end of her run with 25:12 finishing 25 seconds clear of the opposition at that point.

 

Five C&S athletes took part in the BUCS Championships in Bedford last weekend (5 to 7 May).

 

Jack Longmore and Bradley Haycock both took part in the 800m. Jack ran a pb of 2:01.65 to finish 7th in his heat and Brad ran just outside his pb to finish 6th in his heat in 2:00.93.

 

Callum Houseman was involved in a selection mix up and had to take place in the discus where he finished 13th in his qualifying pool with 24.97.

 

Hannah Malpass and Megan Davies both qualified from their 200m heats with Meg finishing second in her heat in 25.80 and Hannah fourth in hers in 26.30. They were both drawn in the same semi final and Meg came close to reaching the final finishing fourth in 25.53 and Hannah finishing seventh in a season's best 26.13.

 

Our Senior League got their season off to a good start with victory at a sunny Rugby on Sunday (6th).

 

The meeting began well with victory for Jess Leek in the long jump with a distance of 5.53m in her first club appearance for five years. Charlie Peters came second in the 'B' with 4.86.

 

Natalie Ainge equalled the league's Divisional record in winning the 400m hurdles in 62.4. Nat also won the 400m in a pb of 57.1 and the 'B' triple jump with 9.68m. Chloe Wilde was also successful in the 400mH and 400m 'B' races, winning both in 66.3 and 61.0 respectively.

 

Jak Carpenter won the shot (13.31m) and discus (37.13m) and came second in the pole vault, clearing 3.00m. Allee Rigby won the 'B' high jump (1.90m) and came second in the 110mH (16.1) and 'B' pole vault (2.50m) and Sam Parr smashed his 400m best to win the 'B' race in 53.1. Sam also ran a pb in the 200m with 23.8.

 

Amy Pye and Olivia Walker won the 'A' and 'B' races in the 100mH in 14.5 and 14.7 respectively and then both finished second in the 100m races with Amy running a non wind assisted pb of 12.3 and Olivia equalling her pb of 12.6.

 

Chloe Boulter took first place in the high jump, clearing 1.60m and came second in the triple jump with 10.02 and Thando Hart, making her senior debut, won the 'B' high jump with a pb of 1.50m and also won the 'B' 800m race as a guest in 2:27.0.

 

Dan Fitzhenry won the high jump with 1.85m and Josh Richards won the 'B' long jump (5.29m) and ran his second fastest ever 400m of 52.7.

 

There were second place finishes for Allegra Soutar in the 1500m (5:00.6), Chloe Lindop in the 'B' 200m (27.1) and Cara Brown in the pole vault (2.30m) and, once again, our women's relay teams won the 4x100m (Chloe L, Nat, Chloe W and Amy) in 49.6 and 4x400m (Rebecca Brown, Leah Aldred, Thando and Chloe W) in 4:16.0.

 

Elsewhere, there were pbs for Isaac Lewis (11.7 in the 100m) and equal pbs for Ross Goode in both the 100m (12.0) and 200m (24.6). Millie Peters also threw a 600g javelin pb of 26.46m.

 

Ryan Ashforth filled in in the 800m and javelin events after a withdrawal by the athlete who was supposed to be competing on the morning of the meeting, as well as running the 400m hurdles and 1500m and Craig Pearson, Martin Roberts, Darrell Wilde, Shaun Ainge, Tim Kelly, Iris Davies, Rebecca Brown and Giorgia Chatwood all contributed valuable points as C&S won the meeting by just 1.5 points.

 

It was a successful evening for Cannock & Stafford AC at the Sport Stafford Borough Awards evening at the County Showground on Friday (27th).

 

Amy Pye shared the U18 Female Sports Performer of the Year Award with golfer Hannah Golding and Shaun Ainge won the Coach of the Year Award.

 

Three other members received nominations. Mark Pinner was nominated for the Coach of the Year, Beth Rees for the U18 Female Sports Performer of the Year and Natalie Ainge in the Most Improved Sports Performer of the Year. Natalie category was won by ex C&S athlete, Rebecca Scott.

 

Congratulations to C&S members Craig Pearson, Neil Pollitt and Chris Harvey who all completed the London Marathon yesterday.

 

Craig finished in a time of 3:12.08, just over three minutes ahead of Neil (3:15.54). Chris finished the course in 3:55.54.

 

Well done to you all!

 

The rearranged Stafford Half took place last Sunday (15th) and, after the snowy weather that caused the postponement four weeks previously, conditions were a lot better for the athletes taking part.

 

Chris Hollinshead was the first Cannock & Stafford athlete to cross the line in fourth place with a chip time of 75.43 minutes. Phil Wolfe finished tenth in 77.49 minutes and Greg Beech also ran well to finish 42nd in 85.41.

 

Owen Hurcombe was the next C&S athlete home in 220th in 1:36.16 with Mark Green not far behind in 1:36.57 (247th).

 

Lisa Knight ran 1:42.13 (410th) to be the first of our female athletes to complete the course, Rhiannon Wallace came 752nd in 1:52.05 and Andy Weetman followed his recent 10 mile run with a 2:03.25 half marathon (1310th)

 

Congratulations to Beth Rees and Mark Pinner after Beth's selection to represent GB U23s at the European Throwing Cup in Leiria, Portugal.

 

Beth was one of only eleven GB athletes to have been selected and she threw a season's best of 44.03m to finish 8th in windy conditions.

 

There were thirteen Cannock & Stafford athletes representing their County in muddy conditions in the Inter County Cross Country Championships at Loughborough on Saturday (10th).

 

In the U20W race Katie Lord came 82nd, Giorgia Chattwood 107th and Becky Brown 158th.

 

Sam Bagley finished 114th in the U20M and Connor Mills (140th), Bill Chesters (156th) and Matthew Bonney (159th) ran in the U17M race.

 

Iris Davies (163rd), Allegra Soutar (164th) and Jazmin Maddocks (179th representing Shropshire) competed in the U17W race.

 

In the U13G, Lucy Richardson finished 297th, Luke Powell 210th in the U15B and, in the U15G, Thando Hart came 161st.

 

Carl McMullen won two gold and two silver medals at the British Masters Indoor Championships at Lea Valley at the weekend.

 

Competing in the M35 long jump, Carl recorded 6.14m to win the first of his gold medals and he won the triple jump with 11.71m. Carl also took home silver medals from the 60m hurdles (9.44) and the 200m (23.70).

 

Paul Edwards was another C&S medal winner with silver in the M55 60m hurdles in a time of 10.27. Paul also ran 63.15 in the 400m finishing 4th in his heat.

 

Stephen Terry-Short ran a 60m pb in the M45 heat, finishing 5th in 8.02 seconds. Stephen also recorded season's best times in the 200m (26.68) and the 400m (60.28). Tim Kelly just missed out on a medal in finishing 4th in the M45 3000m in a time of 10:03.05.

 

There were some excellent performances from our athletes at the Rhyl 10 Mile race, which doubled up as the British Masters 10 Mile Championships, on Saturday.

 

In freezing conditions, Chris Hollinshead took gold in the British Masters M50 age group with a chip time of 56:59 and Craig Pearson won bronze in the M35 category finishing in 58:33. Along with Owen Hurcombe (1:04:51), Chris and Craig also won gold in the team category.

 

Also recording excellent times were Pedro Havelock (1:09:05), Ann Robinson (1:31:20), Andy Weetman (1:34:46) and Andy Osgathorpe (1:35:04)

 

We had five representatives at the England Athletics Indoor Age Group Championships in Sheffield last weekend.

 

Charlie Peters and James Taylor were in action in the 60m, running 8.39 and 7.43 respectively. Megan Davies came third in her 400m heat in 58.85, Harrison Hardy-Smith came fourth in his 800m heat in a time of 2:02.95 in his first race indoors and Hannah Malpass made her first appearance after injury, also finishing fourth in her 200m heat in 26.21.

 

Matthew Bonney finished in 147th place in the U17M race at the English National Cross Country Championships at Parliament Hill on Saturday, completing the 6K course in 22:47.

 

This was an improvement on last year's race of over 100 places!

 

Bradley Haycock and Katie Lord both recorded 1500m pbs at the BUCS Indoor Championships at Sheffield last weekend.

 

Katie came 6th in her heat in a time of 4:49.31 lowering her previous pb by over four and a half seconds. Brad knocked over three and a half seconds off his previous best, finishing 7th in his heat in 4:18.55. He also finished fifth in his 800m heat in a time of 2:01.14.

 

Rebecca Brown came 5th in her 1500m heat in 5:14.50 and also ran in the 4x200m relay for the University of Central Lancashire. Megan Davies was part of the Loughborough relay team that finished fourth in the final and Jack Longmore took part in the mascot's race to raise money for charity. Hannah Malpass had also been selected to represent Newcastle Uni in the 200m but had to withdraw through injury.

 

Megan Davies and Olivia Walker took part in the British Athletics Indoor Championships at the Barclaycard Arena on Saturday (17th).

 

Liv ran 8.85 in her 60m hurdles heat and Meg ran 57.54 in her 400m heat.

 

Gabi Burton was also invited to compete but was unable to accept because of ongoing hamstring issues.

 

Four C&S athletes took part in a truncated Midland Indoor Championships at the HPC last weekend.

 

Cara Brown was our only medal winner with a silver in the U20 pole vault after vaulting 2.10m.

 

Charlie Peters finished fourth in both the U20 60m and long jump events. Charlie ran 8.18 to finish second in her 60m heat before running a pb of 8.10 to just miss out on a medal position. She also jumped a season's best 5.00m in the long jump.

 

Isaac Lewis began his season with a long jump pb of 6.03m and Olivia Corcoran ran an U17W 60m hurdles pb of 9.47 as well as finishing the 60m in 8.57.

 

Our Senior Women's cross country team of Katie Lord, Nina Skilton, Becky Brown and Sue Kneill-Boxley successfully retained their place in Division 1 of the Midland Women's Cross Country League for next season.

 

Katie finished 18th of the 169 finishers and, despite recent illnesses, Nina (38th), Becky (53rd) and Sue (89th) all ran well to give C&S an eleventh place finish in the final meeting of the season at Aldersley.

 

Excellent job ladies!

 

Congratulations to our Senior Men's cross country team who gained promotion straight back to Division 1 with some great performances in the final meeting of the Birmingham & District Cross Country League at Cheltenham.

 

Chris Perrin took the individual title by completing the achievement of winning every race this season and was supported by Phil Wolfe in fourth and James Perrin who finished tenth. Craig Pearson came 25th, Aiden McCormack 36th, Tim Kelly 54th and Tom Orton 75th.

 

This gave C&S second place in the team positions on the day and was enough to put the team comfortably in the third promotion place behind Worcester and Telford.

 

Well done lads!

 

 

 

Athletes from Cannock and Stafford Athletic Club figured prominently at the County Schools Championships held at Rodbaston College with athletes hoping to secure a place in the All England Championships in March.

Following on from last year, when she won the Inter Girl title, Walton High pupil Iris Davies competing for the Stafford and District area moved up to the Senior Girl age group and took the Senior title with a determined performance. Not far behind Iris came clubmates and fellow Walton High colleagues Allegra Soutar, taking a well deserved silver medal, and Molly Shermer in seventh. Libby Dunne running for Cannock was ninth.

 

In the Senior boys race Connor Mills (Cannock) took a splendid silver with Matt Bonney (Walton) close behind in fourth, these two were followed by Sam Bagley (Cannock) in sixth.

 

The Inter girls saw another Walton pupil Thando Hart taking an excellent fourth place with Josie Nelson (East Staffs) eighth.

 

In the Junior boys there were good performances from Stafford Grammar school pupils Christian Roe in fourth and Tom Brownsill in tenth.

 

The Junior girls also had two outstanding performances from Stafford Jasmine Lovatt in fourth and Lucy Richardson in seventh.

 

Denstone College pupil Daisy Aspinall  came a splendid sixth place in the Year 7 event.

 

The Year 7 boys competition had Harrison Lovatt in sixth while in the Inter boys race Luke Powell finished a creditable ninth. 

 

It was a very successful day for our veteran cross country runners taking part in the Midland Masters Cross Country Championships at Aldersley on Sunday (21st).

 

There were individual golds for Nigel Haycock in the M45 category, Nina Skilton (W50) and Jeanne Bryan (W75), silvers for Craig Pearson (M35) and Dot Fellows (W70) and a bronze for Sue Kneill-Boxley.

 

Nigel and Craig, along with Tim Kelly and Pedro Havelock took team gold in the M35 age group and Nina, Sue and Dot took the team victory in the W45 age group.

 

A disappointing turn out from our athletes saw our U17 Men's and Women's teams fall out of contention for top three finishes but there were some fantastic individual performances from the C&S competitors who did make the journey to Northampton.

 

Allegra Soutar finished only two seconds behind the winner to come second in the U17 Women's race and Jazmin Maddocks came 15th.

 

Thando Hart is now up into 3rd position overall after a brilliant third place finish in the U15G race and, in the U17M race, Connor Mills came 8th and Harrison Hardy-Smith 15th.

 

Thomas Efford finished 53rd in the U11B, Isabelle Beckett 92nd in the U13G and Christian Roe 52nd in the U15B.

 

Our Senior Women's team did their chances of remaining in the top division of the Midland Women's Cross Country League no harm at all with a ninth place finish in the latest meeting of the season at Cofton Park.

 

Katie Lord finished in 29th place of the 191 competitors and was well supported by Nina Skilton in 44th, Rebecca Brown 64th and Sue Kneill-Boxley in 81st.

 

The Cannock & Stafford Senior Men's team remain on course to gain promotion back to Division One after finishing third in the latest race held at Cofton Park on Saturday (13th).

 

Chris Perrin won the race by almost half a minute to makes it three wins from three so far this season and he was supported by Phil Wolfe (6th), Nigel Haycock (23rd), James Perrin (32nd), Craig Pearson (34th), Aidan McCormack (36th). Sam Bagley  finished in 41st place, Tom Orton 62nd and Pedro Havelock 196th.

 

Nominations for the Sport Stafford Borough Awards can still be submitted until 26th January. So if you are a coach who has an athlete or an athlete who wants to nominate a coach you can submit your nomination at http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/sport/ssba-nominations-634273