Track & Field

The Midland League is the premier track & field league in the region for senior athletes. A combined mens and womens team comprising seniors, U20s and U17s competes in a divisional structure with promotion and relegation at stake each season.

Gloucester AC has an illustrious history in the Midland League, the senior men first entering the Midland Men's League in Division 6 in the 1974 season. The club won each division in successive years to reach Division 1 for the first time in 1979. Although relegated that year, the club won Division 2 in 1981 and regained promotion to Division 1 for the 1982 season where they then spent the next 8 years, competing against the best clubs in the region. The club finished runners-up on five occasions in this time.

A drop in form saw the club relegated at the end of the 1989 season, but they bounced back, winning Division 2 in both 1990 and 1992. A departure of many of the senior athletes saw the club drop out of the league altogether in the mid ‘90s.

However, following an influx of new talent combined with assistance from the road running members, the club re-entered the league in 1999, winning Division 6. They followed this with a win in Division 5 in 2000, and then gained promotion to Division 3 after finishing runners up in Division 4 in 2006. They kept up the momentum by winning Division 3 in 2007, gaining promotion to Division 2.

The club even entered a B team in the league in 1978, winning Division 8 that year and also Division 7 the next.

The senior ladies entered the Midland Women’s League in 1986, winning Division 8 and gaining promotion each year to reach Division 3 in 1991 and Division 2 in 1993. They too dropped out of the league after 1996, but re-entered in 2004, gaining promotion that year and narrowly missing out on promotion in 2005. After a league restructure, they competed in Division 4 in 2006 and then finished second in Division 5 in 2007, regaining promotion to Division 4.

In 2008, the Midland Men's and Women's leagues were merged to form the current version. Gloucester AC were initially placed in Division Three of the new league and straight away won this division to gain promotion to Division Two. After some very near misses in their quest for promotion to Division 1, they won the Division Two title in 2011 but were relegated from the top tier in the 2012 season following a neck-and-neck battle with three other clubs, all finishing on equal match points at the end of the season. The club had a poor first fixture in 2013, but improved at the remaining fixtures, culminating in a handsome win at the final match held at the newly refurbished Blackbridge track, the first full-scale league fixture ever held in Gloucester, to finish 3rd overall. After successive relegations in 2015 and 2016, 2017 saw a marked turnaround as the club finished as divisional champions three years in succession to regain their position in Division 1 for the 2020 season.

The 2020 league was cancelled due to Covid and a temporary regional competition was introduced for the 2021 season to minimise travelling, Gloucester being placed in the Gloucestershire division which the club comfortably won. 2022 saw a return to normal competition and the club rose to the occasion by dominating the competition to win the division, the first time we have been crowned Midland League Division 1 Champions in the club's history. We now look forward to maintaining that level of performance in 2023.