06 - 07/08/11 Midlands U17/U15 Championships
There were medals and personal bests aplenty for Gloucester Athletic Club members at the Midlands U17/U15 championships at the weekend.
Charlotte Stallard led the way, winning the U17 women’s hammer with a new personal best throw of 38.57m, adding over half a metre to her previous best. Stallard, who is still one month short of her 16th birthday, has made huge progress under the tutorage of Lorraine Shaw and such has been her improvement that she has been called up into the club’s senior team for this weekend’s crucial Midland League match at Wolverhampton.
The second gold medal for the city club came in the U15 Girls hammer where Ellen Thrall threw 35.48m to secure victory by over two metres and Lucy Humphreys was another athlete to record a personal best, throwing the U15 Girls discus 18.43m to secure bronze medal. Humphreys also competed in the U15 Girls shot putt, placing fourth with a putt of 8.08m.
Jacob Lange was the fourth member of Shaw’s training group to take a medal at the championships, winning the bronze medal in the U17 Men’s hammer with a throw of 46.55m.
Perhaps the busiest athlete of the weekend was multi-eventer Kate Davies. In this, her final competition before she tackles the AAA U17 heptathlon championships this weekend, Davies won the bronze medal in the U17 ladies high jump with a personal best clearance of 1.55m, improved her personal best in the shot putt with 8.51m and finished off her weekend with a long jump of 4.75m.
06/08/11 Cranham Boundary Chase
Steve Millward of Gloucester Athletic Club secured his third consecutive Cranham Boundary Chase title on Saturday (6th), winning comfortably from Cheltenham’s Andrew Kaighin who he had also recently defeated at the Devil’s Chimney Chase last month.
This was the 60th annual running of the local classic and the winner was never in doubt as Millward went to the front from the gun and was never seriously challenged, crossing the line in 32 mins 17 seconds to Kaighin’s 33:44.
Behind Millward and Kaighin, there was a real scrap for third place as Severn AC new boy, Matt Atkins, Gloucester AC’s Dave Gresswell and Tewkesbury’s Simon Waters were locked together throughout the 5.8 mile course. Atkins prevailed to take third in 34:35 with Gresswell fourth and Waters fifth. Great Britain fell Running international Kate Goodhead of Bristol & West was first lady and sixth overall in 35:28.
Gloucester runners then dominated the remaining top twenty positions as Jeremy Mower (11th), Donald McDonald (13th), Steven Haines (16th) and Matt Powell (18th) completed the scoring six and Omar Alim finished in 19th place.
Further down the field, Ian Summers and Terry Onions made up the Gloucester contingent, placing 31st and 47th respectively.
Harry Wells of Gloucester AC won the 2-lap race for juniors in 5 minutes 40 seconds.
Cranham Boundary Chase results:
1st Steve Millward (Gloucester AC) 32:17; 2nd Andrew Kaighin (Chelt & Co) 33:44; 3rd Matt Atkins (Severn AC) 34:35; 4th Dave Gresswell (Gloucester AC) 34:54 (1st M45); 5th Simon Waters (Tewkes) 34:58; 6th Kate Goodhead (Bristol & West) 35:28 (1st Lady).
Other Gloucester AC placings:
11th Jeremy Mower 36:47; 13th Donald McDonald 37:31; 16th Steven Haines 37:55; 18th Matt Powell 38:02; 19th Omar Alim 38:24; 31st Ian Summers 40:46; 47th Terry Onions 43:30.
102 runners finished. See Cranham Boundary Chase for full results and photos
10/08/11
Gloucester Athletic Club’s senior track & field team travel to Wolverhampton this Sunday for their crucial Midland League Division Two match knowing that a top two placing will gain them promotion to the top flight of Midlands club athletics.
The city team currently tops the division, just one league point ahead of their closest rivals Wolverhampton & Bilston AC, but with the Birmingham-Rowheath team breathing down their necks just a further one and half points behind, the Gloucester outfit will need their athletes performing to expectations if the team is to win promotion.
Midland League success will be the first leg of what the Gloucester club will be a successful period because the men’s team has qualified for the Plate Final of the British Athletics League’s premier knock-out cup competitions at Derby on 10th September. The Plate Final is for the best performing non-BAL clubs during the knock-out stages.
14/08/11 Midland League Div.2 (Wolverhampton)
Gloucester Athletic Club’s senior track & field team became the ‘Up and Running’ Midland Athletics League Division Two champions in a tense final match at Wolverhampton on Sunday.
The city team went into the match just one point ahead of the host club and with the Birmingham Rowheath Athletics and Triathlon (BRAT) team also breathing down their necks, they knew there was no room for complacency if they were to win promotion and join the Midland’s elite next year.
The men’s hammer duo of Wayne Powell and team captain Justin Sysum gave the team the start they needed, taking victory in both ‘A’ and ‘B’ strings. Sysum took further wins in the ‘B’ shot putt and discus events, and with GB junior international Gareth Winter taking victory in the ‘A’ strings, Gloucester were on their way.
In the ladies field events, Anna Robertson and debutant Charlotte Stallard took victories in the hammer, with Robertson also taking a surprise win in the shot putt. Katharine Chadwick took two second places in the long and high jumps and Harriet Hunter continued her development with solid performances in the long and triple jumps before tackling the 100m hurdles for the first time.
Elsewhere on the track, the team welcomed back Sophie Lambert and Ashleigh Naylor to add quality and experience to the sprints. Lambert, in her first race back following injury, stormed to victory in the ladies 100m and Naylor took a fighting 3rd place in the men’s event. They then took 2nd and 3rd places in their respective 200m races.
Andrew de Camps overcame a rare reversal in the men’s 800m ‘A’ race to claim a convincing victory in the 400m whilst training partner Nico Constanti recorded a double victory in the 400m and 800m ‘B’ strings. The third member of the de Camps training group, Richard de Camps, was just 4/100th of a second outside his personal best when taking second place in the 1500m.
Steve Millward had another busy afternoon, contesting no fewer than five events, including second place in the ‘A’ string steeplechase where team-mate Simon Fortnam won the ‘B’ string in a new club M40 record.
Wolverhampton & Bilston took first place overall in the match with 402 points, to Gloucester’s 377 points in second place meaning that both clubs finished the season with 20 league points. With league positions being decided on match points, Gloucester’s total of 1471 over the season against the Wolves total of 1468.5 meant that the city team took the division title by just 2.5 match points.
Afterwards, victorious Gloucester team manager Richard Blackwell said “When we started the season back in May, we could not imagine we would be in this position, given the number of youngster we had in the team. They have been brilliant all season and are a credit to their club.”
18/08/11 White Horse 5km (Sandhurst)
Consistency was the theme for Gloucester AC athletes running the last White Horse 5k organised by Severn AC.
Dave Gresswell who has had a season uninterrupted by injury showed that he can now run consistently at 17mins clocking exactly that to come home the first runner in 16th place. Gresswell also won the County V40 Bronze medal and gain a valuable 10 points in the County Road Series. Simon Fortnam in his second 5k of the year echoed this in his race long battle with Gresswell producing a season's best of 17:04 just 3 places behind.
Luke Herbert competing in his first 5k for 2 years came in 22nd place in 17:09 showing the finishing speed which if training went as well in 2008 would see him back in the low 16 mins. Jeremy Mower, who is racking up 70 plus miles in preparation for representing Wales produced his fastest time since 2008 with 17:45 for 31st place.
Matt Powell although disappointed in his 4th 5k of the season not to improve his PB raced in next for 41st place showing that he can always run around 18:40 with 18:37. His trademark final 880 cceleration pulled him away from V60 Arthur Daley who showed a return to form after tackling iron and vitamin level weakness with 18:47 for 47th place and first V60, winning the county championship. Daley's consistent, steady paced running pulled him and Powell away from Matt Aspinal over the last 2k of the race. Aspinal, showing the need to build up speed endurance, slowed after a fast first 2 kilometres finishing 53rd in 19:31.
Gemma Collier finished close to Aspinal in a season's best of 19:48 in 59th place. V65 Dave Spackman also produced a season's best by 30secs with 20:45 for 72 place whilst gaining 10 points in the county series and establishing himself as a challenger for the gold medal. Gloucester Run England member James Ferguson showed the same consistency in finishing within a few seconds of his last race time with 22:41 for 103rd place. Mike Anderson completed the Gloucester showing beating his target time by 42 seconds for 131st place and 29:18.
24/08/11 County Championships (Cheltenham)
Gloucester AC’s ladies Under 17 sprinters took gold in the County Championship 4x100m relays on Wednesday evening at the Prince of Wales Stadium and in the process beat a record that had stood since 1982.
The quartet of Harriet Hunter, Lurenda Mudd, Catherine Hardy and Kelly Constable led from the start, easily shaking off a challenge from the Harriers’ Under 15 team who later abandoned their bid following a baton fumble. Harriet got the ball rolling with her feature blistering start, handing over to Lurenda, a 200m specialist, for the long back straight run. New girl Catherine, who is still in the first year of the U15 category, took over for the top bend handing over to another U15, Kelly Constable who ran a virtually unopposed home straight. There was no easing up though as the girls had the County record in their sights.
The record which had stood for 29 years was set by another Gloucester AC team at 53.2 seconds. Their modern day successors came home in 52.0 dead and now have an even bigger challenge – to beat the Club record which has stood since 1978!
