04-05/02/12 Birmingham Games
Gloucester Athletic club’s leading track runner, Andrew De Camps, ran his best ever race indoors to win the senior men’s 800 metres at the Birmingham Games at the National Indoors Arena.
After easing through Saturday’s heat in a modest 1min 57.5 seconds, the Midlands outdoor champion was not perturbed as Sunday’s final started at a blistering pace. De Camps was content to sit towards the back of the seven man field for the first 400 metres before gradually moving through the field to reach the bell in third place. He moved into second place down the back straight before hitting the front 75 metres from the finish, winning in a new indoors personal best time of 1min 51.68, the 8th fastest by a UK runner this winter.
After the race, De Camps was ecstatic, saying “The final was a perfect race for me. My tactics were spot-on and to win in a new personal best is the best possible preparation for next week’s UK Championships.”
Gloucester AC youngsters were also in at the Games. Kelly Constable ran an indoors personal best 27.03 seconds when placing second in her heat of the U17 Women’s 200 metres, her first race in this age group since moving up from the U15 category.
Dominic Tutton was another runner to set an indoor best, recording 2mins 06.32 when placing third in his heat of the U17 Men’s 800 metres and Kate Davies recorded a time of 2mins 39.55 in the U17 Women’s 800 metres.
Harriet Hunter warmed up for next weekend’s Midlands Indoors Championships, recording a solid 4.66m in the U17 Women’s long jump and 10.30 seconds despite losing a shoe in the 60m hurdles.
04/02/12 South West Schools Championships (Exeter)
Alex George won his first South West Schools cross-country medal when taking 3rd place in the championship race at a freezing Exeter on Saturday.
Keeping with the leading group throughout, the Gloucester youngster sprinted home to claim the bronze medal. Brother Thomas also finished strongly, placing 13th.
Two stalwarts of Gloucester AC’s women's team braved freezing temperature to race Westbury AC's Bridge Inn 5k race. Michelle Stark finished in 96th place in 21:15 and Christine Collins finished 117th with 23:01 again finding the first 2k too slow. Both runners found themselves caught up in the bottle neck for the first two kilometres of the race which slowed their time and those of their competitors considerably.
04/02/12 McCain City Indoors Challenge (Sheffield)
Gloucester’s top thrower, Gareth Winter, was in action at the McCain City Indoors Challenge at Sheffield on Saturday.
Representing Birmingham Falcons, the 18-year old recorded 14.94m to finish 7th in the shot putt.
04/02/12 Gloucestershire Cross Country League (Tewkesbury)
A small group of Gloucester Athletic Club members braved the snow and freezing conditions to compete in the final round of the Gloucestershire Cross-country League at Tewkesbury on Saturday.
Ryan Hearn was again the Club’s only winner as he stormed home to take the U15 Boys race. Andrew Bowers took 6th place in the U17 Men’s event.
Three members contested the senior men’s race with Dave Gresswell leading the trio home in 33rd place. Simon Barnes placed 47th and Paul Loveridge placed 91st.
In the senior ladies race, Becky Summers placed 35th and Christine Campbell 40th whilst Abi Pearce took 8th place in the U13 Girls race and Charlotte Sprason placed 24th in the U11 Girls event.
11/02/12 Aviva UK Indoor Championships and World Championships Trials (Sheffield)
Gloucester Athletic Club members were in action at the Aviva UK Indoor Championships and World Championships Trials at Sheffield at the weekend.
Gareth Winter threw a season’s best 15.02m to take 9th place in the senior men’s shot putt, missing out on 8th place on the count-back ruling, whilst in the senior men’s 800 metres Andrew De Camps was unable to reproduce his stunning form for the previous weekend when he won the Birmingham Games title, placing 4th in his heat in 1:54.34.
11/02/12 Birmingham Cross Country League (Wolverhampton)
A depleted Gloucester Athletic Club senior men’s team brought the curtain down on their 2011-2 Birmingham Cross-Country League campaign at Wolverhampton on Saturday. They finished (9th) team on the day and 5th overall in the league standings.
Snow and ice made conditions difficult underfoot for all runners but one who was not put off was Steve Millward as he led the team home in 6th place. This was enough to secure him 3rd place in the overall individual league for the season.
Richard De Camps finished his most consistent league season to date as he achieved his 4th top 10 finish of the season, placing 10th, with Luke Herbert finishing third Gloucester man, in 46th place.
Dave Gresswell and Ian Summers were locked together for much of the 10km race before Gresswell pulled away to finish just outside the top 100 in 102nd, with Summers coming home in 110th.
Simon Barnes, in his first League race for the club completed the scoring six in 122nd with Omar Alim (144th) and Humphrey Phillips (199th) completing the squad.
Afterwards, team captain Dave Gresswell said “Fifth place overall is OK given the number of people who have been missing at one time or another this season. Our challenge for next winter has to be promotion to Division One which we will only achieve if all our runners realise that this league is an integral part of their winter season.”
11/02/12 Midland Women's Cross Country League (Cheltenham)
Gloucester Athletic Club’s ladies finished a complete team for the first time this winter in the final Midland Women’s Cross-Country League fixture of the season at Cheltenham on Saturday.
Irish international Rose-Anne Galligan spear-headed the Gloucester challenge as she made a welcome return to competition since illness curtailed her season last July. Keeping with the lead group over the first half of the race, Galligan found that her lack of race fitness caught up with her over the second half as she faded to finish in 10th place. Nevertheless, Galligan and her coach David Farrow will have been pleased to finally get a race under her belt after six months absence.
Junior Becky Summers was the next Gloucester runner home. Like Galligan, she started strongly but faded over the final mile, finishing in 94th place. Christine Campbell was next to finish in 97th place. In contrast to Galligan and Summers, Campbell started off at a more conservative pace before picking up the pace over the final quarter and overtaking several athletes on the run-in to give evidence of her speed improvement since she started working with coach Paul Pepler towards the end of 2011. The team was completed by Lyndsey Hollands, another on the comeback trail following a hamstring injury, finished in 101st place.
Dursley Dozen
New Gloucester AC recruit, Nikki Wong, competed in the annual Dursley Dozen, completing the course in 2hrs 07 minutes.
19/02/12 Midland Counties Open Indoors (NIA)
Gloucester Athletic Club members were competing at the Midland Counties Open Indoors meeting at the National Indoor Arena on Sunday
and all came away with new personal best performances.
Richard De Camps was the pick of the bunch. Running indoors for the first time this winter after a successful cross-country season,
he placed third in his heat of the senior men’s 1500 metres in 3 mins 58.71 seconds, his first time under four minutes for the metric mile.
He took almost three seconds off his overall personal best and a massive seven seconds off his previous indoors best.
There was success for two young club sprinters. Kelly Constable won her heat of the U17 women’s 60 metres in 8.23 seconds, a new
personal best, and followed this up with victory in the 200 metres in 26.60 seconds, the fastest she has ever run for the distance
indoors or out. Her team-mate, Catherine Hardy, also won her heat of the U15 girls 60 metres in 8.39 seconds, an improvement on her
previous best by four tenths.
19/02/12 Midland Counties Indoors U17 Championships (NIA)
Two of Gloucester Athletic Club’s promising young athletes took part in the Midland Counties Indoors U17s championships at the National Indoor Arena.
Harriet Hunter recorded two new indoor personal bests. She clocked 8.93 seconds when placing 6th in the 60 metres hurdles before recording a distance of 10.11m for 4th place in the triple jump. She was the club’s top ranked athlete at both events last summer and will be looking to improve further during 2012.
Multi-event athlete Kate Davies had a busy weekend, setting indoor personal bests in no fewer than four events. She placed 5th in the high jump with a 1.50m clearance, 5th in the long jump with 4.60m, 6th in the shot putt with 8.28m and 6th in the 800m, running 2mins 37.25.
19/02/12 May Hill Massacre
Gloucester Athletic Club’s Steve Millward won the re-arranged May Hill Massacre on Sunday by over five minutes in a new course record time of 52 mins 34seconds, bettering his own course record by two minutes.
Further down the field, Nicola Wong set a new personal best of 1hr 22:00 mins, four minutes better than her previous best while just behind her, Christine Campbell also reduced her personal best by six minutes to 1hr 24:30. Club newcomer, Liz Usedon, in her first race for the Club recorded a time of 1hr 30:00 mins.
19/02/12 Cotswold 35.2 Challenge
Gloucester’s Jeremy Mower took part in the Cotswold 35.2 mile challenge on Sunday.
The race, which started at Temple Guiting, attracted a high class field as it incorporated selection trials for the World 100km championships later in the year and was run over four laps of country lanes over a demanding hilly course.
Mower set off at a fast pace before fading over the final seven miles to finish in 10th place in 3hrs 29:58.
Afterwards, Mower said “This was the toughest road race under 100km that I have probably ever run due to the hills and a very cold wind. I’ve now got two weeks to recover before the Barry 40-mile track race, which I prefer.”
Catherine Hardy
18/02/12 Winter 5 mile (Plock Court)
Gloucester Athletic Club's Simon Barnes competed in the Severn AC Winter 5 mile road race at Plock Court on Saturday, placing 12th in 32:20.