Performances Of The Week

SENIORS

MEN

1 TOM RUSSELL - Tom's best ever finish in one of the major National cross-country championships went a long way to compensating for our failure to field a representative team due to the long list of non-availability that I highlighted at some length in my previous report on the National. His 6th place finish will have gone some way to making up for his own disappointment at missing the previous weekend's Scottish championships due to a minor injury problem, for on the form he demonstrated at Leeds Alistair Hay would have had a much tougher task on his hands to retain his title. What's more it will have given Tom confidence for the World championship trials on Saturday week, though he admitted that he was startled at the speed with which the leaders made their break at Leeds and is well aware that he will have to improve that much more again if he is to get close to making the World team. But for now it's great to see him unlocking the rich potential that he has always promised.

2 STEVE MITCHELL - Though not our first finisher in the prestigious Armagh international 5K - that honour prdictably fell to Jon Wills, who however was nurdsing a cold and had to be satisfied with a modest time for him of 14:35 - Speedy Steve underlined the race fitness that he has been honing recently on the boards by smashing his previous best for the distance on the road with his first sub 15 minute clocking of 14:41.

3 STEVE McGUIGAN - He may not be as fast as Speedy Steve, but Steady Steve is gradually getting speedier, and he too clocked easily his fastest ever 5K in Armagh with a time of 15:16, finishing only five seconds down on Craig Peters, who ran close to 14:30 lin this race last year but was not expecting much as he has not been in full training this winter.

WOMEN

1= CLAIRE HALLISSEY, REBEKAH RANDELL and IMOGEN AINSWORTH = After long deliberation I found it impossible to split our lead trio, who all produced by far their best performances ever in the National to preserve our proud medal-winning record. Claire's top ten finish, though way above anything she had done before in the race, was perhaps the most predictable, but Rebekah in finishing 14th once again underlined the potential that we know she possesses, but still perhaps does not fully acknowledge herself, while Imo's continued progress this season - she gained more than 10 places on what was perhaps her best ever run in last year's race in only just failing
to make the top 20 - could so easily go unnoticed in the wake of the other two. Once again well done girls. Now lets see if we can do even better in the National 6-stage.

2 DORCHIE LEE-COCKERILL - It may take two to tango, but it's four in women's cross-country championships, and in the absence of Susie Richards, who had to withdraw late in the day with a hamstring strain, it was left to Dorchie, who had only come up for a run-out as her husband Will was also running and reporting for AW, to try and fill the yawning gap. To make matters worse she had only been able to run once or twice in the previous few weeks due to the niggling achilles tendinitis that has long plagued her career and had been preparing as best she could on the bike and cycle rollers. At least her increased leg strength helped propel her up "heartbreak hill", but she has had two children since she last figured in one of our National medal-winning teams and admitted afterwards that she was running on experience alone! None the less she stuck it out and did well to finish in the top 100 of the 600 strong field, her final 89th position being enough to clinch the bronze medals that we were not really anticipating and that she would not have even considered to be a remote possibility befforehand. Many thanks Dorchie!

3 VICKY TESTER - Dorchie may have ended up as our crucial fourth scorer, but it could have easily been our only other runner Vicky, and sadly perhaps for her she was the one to miss out on a medal as her 113th position - an excellent effort on a tough course like this for a committed track runner - would still I think have just been good enough to clinch third place. Again our thanks are due to Vicky for helping the team out in our hour of need.

U20 JUNIORS

1 RICH PETERS - Rich is certainly a runner for the big occasion and once again he produced his best performance in his most important race of the winter. But for the minor injury problems that have sporadically interrupted his winter programme, he might have even been in contention for an individual medal. Nor was he that far away in 7th place just seconds behind Southern champion Johnny Hay, who was in Britain's European Junior team in December, and ahead of the Midland champion Max Clowes, behind whom he had finished 4th in the Midland championships a month before. What was particularly encouraging for a committed 800/1500m runner was that perhaps against expectations he was running as fast as anyone on the last circuit of the 10K course.

2 EMILY MERRICK - Emily once again flew the flag alone in the U20 women's championship in the continued absence of injured junior international pair Katie Knowles and Ellie Wimshurst. It was desperately disappointing for her as the team title was ours for the taking, but it's only who's there on the day that counts, and albeit inevitably somewhat demotivated she still followed up her silver medal effort in the Midland championship with a top 20 place in the National. With Katie and Ellie almost assured of top ten places on past form, the team title should have been a walk in the park!

3 CHRIS DODD - Like Rich Chris, who has only just joined us, is a specialist 800/1500m runner, and caused a welcome surprise by finishing as our second scorer in 77th place in the U20 championship just ahead of Sean Hazell and Nathan Hardee. It was his first run in such a major championship and bodes well for the future, but having said that it was a disappointing day for the junior team. Nathan Young, who fell on the steep descent, and Matt Peters, nursing a hip strain, both failed to finish, while Sean suffered a stitch that he just survived and poor Nathan H put in his finishing effort on the second lap only to discover he had another big lap
to go! Enough said on such a testing course. He did remarkably well to soldier on and finsh only just outside the top 100.

MASTERS

Unusually there are no Masters performances to report. No doubt most were resting up for this weekend's Bath Half.

MIKE DOWN (3-03-10)

PS Anyone interested in running in Saturday's Gloucester road relays please contact me asap. This will be the only chance of a trial run before the Midland 6/12 championships on March 20. Men's teams are 4X5K and the women's 3X5K. All are welcome.

Marathon des Sables

Jon Goodland is taking part in the Marathon des Sables between 3-10 April 2010. Billed as 'The toughest footrace on earth'. This cover 250 km in 7 days across the Sahara desert carrying all your own equipment and food.

Jon will be running on behalf of Facing Africa, a charity that works to combat NOMA, an infectious disease that effects the face and jaws, which kills 125,000 children aged between 1-6 years per year. Facing Africa works on raising awareness of this disease which can be easily treated in it early stages and providing reconstructive surgery and help for its
survivors.

You can sponsor Jon directly by going to http://www.facingafrica.org/FA08/content/site/en/pages/donatenow/default.asp

Then under section3 click on the 'I am sponsoring a competitor in the Marathon des Sables', and fill in Jon Goodland and Mds 2010

National Cross Country

Our women maintained their long-standing medal-winning record in the English National cross-country championships that were contested over a traditionally hilly and gruelling course at Roundhay Park in Leeds.

On a weekend unfortunately more notable for absentees than success the women's team really looked up against it.With two of last year's silver medal-winning quartet missing - mountain running international Kate Goodhead, who is still on the sidelines with a stress fracture of her foot and Helen Fines due to her commitment to the opening race in the National Fell-running Cup series- plus Susie Richards' late withdrawal with a hamstring strain, our medal-winning prospects looked remote. But this was to discount the marked progress made over the last year by Claire Hallissey, Rebekah Randell and Imogen Ainsworth, who all surpassed anything they had done previously in the National by finishing 10th, 14th and 21st respectively of the 500 strong field. This amounted to a 30-40 point bonus on last year's silver-medal winning total and made all the difference to the final outcome as we had none other of our current first team squad to complete the score. So it was left to a former gold medal team winner Dorothea Lee-Cockerill - a mother of two children no less since that last triumph - or Vicky Tester to minimise the damage.

Both made heroic efforts to fill the void, with Dorchie, who additionally had managed only a couple of runs in the past month due to the recurrence of a long-standing achiiles tendon problem, summoning her new found leg strength from cycle training to haul herself up the final leg-sapping climb to scrape into the top 90 finishers and make sure the brilliant performances of our lead trio did not go unrewarded. It may have been bronze rather than last year's silver, but had Susie been able to run it would surely have been silver again, and with either Kate or Helen, who would both have revelled in the heart-breaking hill, then who knows?

If our ladies suffered from missing faces, the men's team actually capitulated for the same reason. Talk about a team manager's worst nightmare, but in the end we could not field a representative team as virtually all our first choice squad were unavailable. Just to name a few of those who had to cry off:

1 ROBBIE BUGDEN was forced to withdraw due to the Inter-Services championship unbelievably being scheduled for the day before the race on Friday, which to add to the frustration he duly won by a street!

2 TOM MERSON, who had been nursing a sore achilles, aggravated it in his final pre-race training session, and due to the contours of the Leeds course, felt he could not risk it with the 12-stage relays coming up.

3 PHIL WYLIE withdrew as he was committed the a National Triathlon training camp abroad.

4 ROB WHALLEY has only just started running again after a month off due to a shoulder operation and was simply not in shape for such a big race.

5 DAN WOOLFORD had to pull out due to a heavy cold and incipient chest infection despite having made a weekend hotel booking for the race.

6 STEVE McGUIGAN and CRAIG PETERS were both invited to the annual Armagh international running festival and were following up Thursday's 5K with a cross-country event on the Saturday.

Our disappointment was further heightened by the fact that U23 international Tom Russell, who usually opts to miss the English National due to its invariable clash with the Scottish, was available for the first time this year as the Scottish championships were held the previous weekend. What's more he was even keener to run as he had been forced to miss the Scottish event due to a minor injury problem. Well if we were in dire need of something to cheer us up Tom certainly made up for the lost team almost single-handedly by producing his finest performance yet as a senior to finish on the heels of several of the country's top internationals in 6th place in the huge field of some 2000 runners. Running positively from the outset, he was always around the top ten and held off a strong last lap challenge from Midland champion James Walsh, behind whom he had had to be satisfied with 4th place in the Midland championship a month ago.

Nor was Tom our only top ten finisher, for Rich Peters produced by far his best performance of the winter to finish 7th in the U20 junior championship - in a carbon copy of Tom's experience beating off the challenge of the Midland champion Simon Clowes, to whom he had also finished 4th at Stafford Common - while young Zak Tobias again exceeded all expectations, as he had done when taking the bronze in the Midland championship, by ending up 6th in the U15 boys event.

Despite Luke Jacobs suffering an off-day in the U15 event following a recent cold, the boys still finished a creditable 5th in the team race, but the U20 junior men ended up no better than 10th after both Nathan Young, following a heavy fall, and Matt Peters, who was carrying a sore hip, both dropped out.

With no other of our Young Athletes teams competing due to the unfortunate, or rather inexcusable, scheduling of the South West Schools championships on the same day as the national, it was left to Emily Merrick and Naomi Speake to fly the flag single-handed in the U20 and U17 events, and both did well to make the top 20 in their respective races, with Emily 20th and Naomi 14th

Mike Down
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South West Schools XC

A very good days racing by the Bristol and West Athletes who chose to compete in the South West Schools.

Pride of place has to go to Annabel Gummow who not only beat the opposition but had to pick her way through careless spectators who blocked the course. Undaunted with this she eventually cruised to a 38 second victory. Olivia Sadler has added to her fine series of races with another pleasing performance in fifth place, this time only 12 seconds away from the medals and more importantly gaining ground on Midland Silver Medallist Imogin Wolsey. Billie Williams received a late call up into the squad and was determined to prove worthy of wearing the Avon Schools colours, Billie showed remarkable improvement by finishing 12 seconds behind an experienced
team mate.

Hannah Alderson proved that she is well on the way back to fitness when finishing runner up in the senior girls' race. The shock result in this race went to Rosemary Hurford who ran the race of her young life to finish 7th. Considering the step up in standard this showed remarkable improvement on her 2nd place in the Avon schools and her 1st in the Bristol schools.

Miranda Sadler was another girl on fire in the Junior Girls race, swapping places with Emily Smith of Somerset on the last lap. Miranda finishing in 3rd was just 13 seconds adrift of eventual winner Loren Bleaken. Hannah Cockram should qualify for her first appearance in the English Schools after putting in a solid performance and beating four of her Avon team mates.

Lewis Nightingale was the only boy from the club to compete in Truro and may have done enough to secure a place at the English Schools.


Senior Girls: Hannah Alderson 2nd, Rosemary Hurford 7th

Inter Girls: Annabel Gummow 1st, Olivia Sadler 5th, Billie Williams 62nd

Junior Girls: Miranda Sadler 3rd, Hannah Cockram 55th

Junior Boys: Lewis Nightingale 46th

Dave Taylor
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Bronze for the Women

Results from the Senior Women's National Cross Country Champsionships

1   Steph Twell (Aldershot)       27:52
2   Stevie Stockton (Vale Royal)  28:07
3   Hatti Dean (Hallamshire)      28:12
10  Claire Hallissey              28:52
14  Rebecca Randell               29:20
21  Imogen Ainsworth              29:51
89  Dorothea Lee-Cocekrill        32:53
113 Vicky Tester                  33:41

Teams

1. Charnwood                         73
2. Aldershot, Farnham and District   99
3. Bristol & West Athletic Club     134
4. Hallamshire                      178

What can I say about the Senior Ladies' Team - they never give up and are rewarded by 5 great runs and a bronze medal. We were left to think what might have been with a fit Kate Read or Kate Goodhead but Aldershot and Charnwood also had top runners missing. Claire produced her highest
performance in a National Cross-Country Event (excluding BUCS) to date on a surface that doesn't suit her. Rebecca gave another glimpse of the incredible talent that we are still only scratching the surface of and Imogen continues her steady rise to true National status - having finished 32nd last year a further 11 place improvement in 12 months will see her knocking on the door of the top 10 in 2011. Dorchie showed that club Mums continue to be needed with a great run in 89th that was enough to bring the club home in bronze medal position. Vicky Tester also had a great run, especially given her preference for 1,500m on the track, 8 km of hilly mud was not really up her street but 113th was a great run in a field of 543 finishers.

Good luck and get fit to the incredibly long list of injured athletes - there were times when I felt like a premiership football manager. Thanks to one or two of you who - in my darkest hour - offered to run carrying niggles. I am glad that I declined your kind offers, Roundhay Park was not the sort of course where injuries would have gone undetected and I would rather you were all fit and well for other up-coming challenges.

Given that the Senior Women's section is more road orientated than cross-country (like the Senior Men) we can now all look forward to the following:

Saturday 20 March 2010 Midland Road-Relays at Sutton Park
Saturday 17 April 2010 National Road Relays at Sutton Park
Sunday 9 May 2010 Bristol 10 km (which incorporates the English National 10km Road Race Championships). I know that Mike will be stirring up the men's section for a really strong showing in our own backyard. I am looking for nothing less than one indiviual medal (colour to be decided) and gold in the Women's Team event.

Regards
Keith
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Performances Of The Week

It was a very low key week, with very few of our runners in action due to this week's Armagh 5K and the National cross-country championships.

SENIORS

MEN

1 STEVE McGUIGAN - Steve beat off a strong challenge from Great Western's two star runners Ben Morley aand Tom Fewster to prevail in a thrilling finish to the latest race in the Weston Prom 5K series, though the time outside 26 minutes can be discounted due to the inclement conditions.

2 MATT CRANE - Matt celebrated his first run since signing for the club by ducking under the 16 minute barrier to take 6th place in 15:55 in the final race in the Bridge Inn 5K winter road race series. It was an improvement of 10 seconds on his effort last month despite the foul weather conditions.

3 JAMES BIRD - Another recent recruit James, who like Matt has been training with Chris Elson's group, also made a significant improvement to finish a creditable 14th in the Bridge Inn race in 17:25.

WOMEN

1 HELEN FINES - Back where I am sure she feels she belongs among the seniors Helen used her fell running strength to get the better of her nearest rival Lindsay Kent in a close finish to the gruelling May Hill Massacre 8M at Huntley. Her winning time of 63:05 gives some idea of the toughness of the terrain.

2 JULIA BELYAVIN - Julia shrugged off an ankle injury to hold off UWE student Chloe Felton for second place in the latest Weston Prom race behind Weston based Alice Hector, who has been training with us this winter. Again Julia's time outside 33 minutes was a refection of the cold wet conditions.

3 GRACE CRANE - Grace too was having her first run since joining the club, and though an experienced competitve orienteer like her husband, she also did well to take third place in the Bridge Inn women's event, finishing well inside 20 minutes in 19:28.

U20 JUNIORS

1 RICH PETERS - Rich warmed up for Saturday's National with a runaway victory in Gloucester's White Horse Winter 5M road race. Despite the lack of opposition he slashed nearly a minute off his previous best for the distance to finish just outside an even 25 minutes in 25:05, which left him the best part of two minutes ahead of runner-up Joe Dalgleish.

2 HARRY WEBB - Harry interrupted his indoor preparations to prove that he has lost little fitness following his recent time off with a knee injury by finishing a clear second in the Bridge Inn 5K in a more than respectable time for the unfavourable conditions of 15:32.

3 NATHAN YOUNG - Nathan maintained his winning streak in the latest Wessex League cross-country event at Salisbury, leaving his nearest rival more than 200m adrift.

MASTERS

1 PHIL PARRY - Phil failed to dip under 16 minutes in the Bridge Inn 5K, having to be satisfied with 7th place in 16:06, but he readily admits to being short of specialist training sessions recently and like everyone else was not helped by the conditions.

2 JON GOODLAND - Jon too may have been slower than usual in the Bridge Inn race, but his time of 18:13 was still by far the fastest among the V50 class.

3 GRAHAM CRUMP - Graham will never have thought he might make the week's roll of honour, but he soldiered round the Bridge Inn course in just under 23 minutes, his consistency ensuring he took second place in the overall series among his V45 age group.

Mike Down

Bridge Inn Series Result

Here are the corrected, four to count, series results and the Easy Runner Prize for runners completing all five races for the Winter 2009/2010 Bridge Inn 5k Series and Easy Runner.

Results available here;

Click to view

Track and Field Bulletin

Matches this weekend were Open Meetings at Bath & Birmingham. Again we only had a token turn out but results were positive.

At Bath Paul WESTON had two star Jumpers out with Theo winning both the LJ & TJ in style and with Nicola BREAKS achieving a very respectable first competition of the season with a winning jump of 13.73m. What a team she and Mariame will be in the Summer Midland League matches. Incidentally Mariame was at the French Indoor Champs this weekend.

At Birmingham Geovaughan showed consistency compared to past weeks in his 60m but then went on to record an excellent pb & Club Indoor U17 Record in the 200m with a 23.43 clocking. Luke showed well to win the U20 Pole Vault with a seasons best and Lucy won the U17 event with her second best vault of the season. Despite these performances the most heartening run was by
John Brierly who we believe tried an indoor 800m for the first time. John trailed the leader throughout, as you would in training, and ran quite easily to come home in 2m 01.00s. Well done John, all of that training is working.

Next week we have the EA U20/U17 Indoor Champs and we know that Paul Weston has great hopes for Theo. Yannick Budd also goes in the 60m Hurdles where he should improve further on his pb if he can get the start right. Good luck to all of our Athletes next weekend.


Results

Bath 20th Feb -- Women TJ, 11.22, Nicola BREAKS; Men TJ, Theo CAMPBELL (U20), 13.73 & LJ, 6.21.

Birmingham 21st Feb -- Women PV, Lucy BRYAN (U17), 3.50; Isabel HATCH (U15) (soon to join us) 2.50. Men 60m Scott BAJERE (U20), 7.19; Geovaughan BUREY (U17) , 7.45; + 200m 23.43; 800m John BRIERLEY, 2m 01.00; PV, Luke BAILEY, 4.00m; Martin DAVIES, 3.00m.

Bridge Inn Results

Well done to the 103 runners who braved the drizzle at Tuesday's Bridge Inn 5k. The race was the last (race 5) of the 2009/10 Winter Series so get yourselves ready for the Summer series...

Results available here;

Click to view

(Sorry there's been an error on the calculation of the Series results, the corrected results will follow shortly)

Track and Field Bulletin

In the second consecutive week when we had a distinct lack of female indoor competitors our US based athletes shone through. Across the Atlantic, in Seattle, David BISHOP just failed to break the illusive 4 minute barrier for a Mile. David won the 'c' race that he was seeded in whereas better competition in the 'a' race might have seen him pulled through to 3 mins 5?.??. Never the less David's time of 4:00.74 is very close to the Club Record of 4:00.2 from Nick Rose in 1978. One Club Record that has been broken is the Women's 3,000m by Hollie KNIGHT with a 9:33.93 clocking in Arizona surpassing the 9:35.92 from Maria LYNCH in 2001.

Back in the UK Tom MARLEY was our only competitor in the UK Champs where he stepped up to the 1,500m to clock a creditable 3:54.26 in his heat.

At Birmingham Bristol & West were out in force for the Midland & South West Champs. Pride of place here goes to James PRESTON who smashed the opposition in the (U20) Shot with a new pb of 15.05m to gain Gold Medals in both Championships. We had no other Midland Champions but the following also became South West Champions : Yannick BUDD, Scott BAJERE, Theo CAMPBELL, Ben COGHLAN, Geovaughan BUREY & Steve WEST. PB's were achieved by most of these lads but a special mention must go to Ben who came back from injury to just miss dipping under the 7 sec mark in the 60m. Martin FLOOK looks to be close to his pre illness form in gaining a hard fought MCAA Silver in the 800m and Luke BAILEY also took silver in the Pole Vault. Most improved athletes of the day however were Andrew DEAN-YOUNG who is beginning to get the knack in the 800m where he improved to 1:58.79 and Alex FIELDS who just missed a sub 51 in the 400m with 51.08.

At the UWIC Grand Prix we saw the emergence from his winter coat of our World 100m Masters Champion Derek MORGAN, who tested the water with a 7.46 60m and saw Steve MITCHELL win the rarely run 2,000m in 5:23.03. This is very creditable when you consider our Club Record by Olympian Nick Rose is 5:11.0. A word for Luke BAILEY who has stuggled a little with his 2010
form but following his Midland Silver medal the previous day Luke jumped a very good 3.91m in the Pole Vault.


Results:

USA; David BISHOP, 1 Mile, 4:00.74; 3Km, Hollie KNIGHT, 9:33.93; Steph BARNES, 9:48.47.

UK Champs; Tom MARLEY, 3:54.26.

Midland Champs; 60m, Ben COGHLAN (U23) 7.02 (7.05 ht); Scott BAJERE (U20) 7.06 (7.17 ht); Geovaughan BUREY (U17) 7.41 (7.41 ht); 200m, Geovaughan BUREY (U17) 23.49 (23.83 ht); 400m; Alex FIELDS 51.08 (51.37 ht); 800m Martin FLOOK 1:54.44 (1:58.11 ht); Andrew DEAN-YOUNG 1:58.79; 60H Yannick BUDD (U20) 8.49; PV Luke BAILEY (U20) 3.80; TJ Theo CAMPBELL (U20) 14.02; SP James PRESTON (U20)15.05.

UWIC GP: 60m Derek MORGAN (V40) 7.46; 200m John BRIERLY (U23) 25.32; 2km Steve MITCHELL 5:23.03; Jeremy HOGAN (V50) 6:26.61; Pole Vault Luke BAILEY (U20) 3.91.

Mike Strange
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Performances Of The Week

SENIORS

MEN
1 ROBBIE BUGDEN - Robbie proved his Midland championship silver medal was no flash in the pan by literally putting his fellow airmen to flight by landing an overwhelming victory in the RAF cross-country championship. He finished more than a minute and a half clear of his nearest pursuer to add his name to a host of former club members who have previously won the race. On this form he must have an excellent chance of taking the Inter-Services title too.

2 TIM WALLIS - Due to work commitments Tim has only been able to do a few races this winter, but he has certainly left his mark on the Gwent League and made the top three for the first time in the latest event at Brecon. We are now hoping he may yet be available for next week's National championships as with him we could mount a real medal challenge.

3 = DAN WOOLFORD & DAVE GREEN - Dan admitted he started too fast and paid for it later, so ended up disappointed with his 9th place finish in the Gwent League race at Brecon though it was still the first time he had made the top ten, while Dave continued his gradual return to full race fitness by clocking the 8th fastest time in the annual Hyde Park students road relay, covering the 5.164K course in 16:13, a time that equates to aroung around 15:40 for 5K.

WOMEN

1 CLAIRE HALLISSEY- Pride of place this week goes once again to Claire, who seems to be nudging closer by the week to matching her road race performances over the country. Making her first international appearance for Britain in one of the major European cross events, the Belgium Cross Cup race at Hannut, she was the second Brit home (Hatti Dean was best in 4th) in a very creditable 10th place and in doing so avenged her narrow defeat in last month's Midland championship by Gemma Steele, who had to be satisfied with 15th position this time.

2= REBEKAH RANDELL & IMOGEN AINSWORTH - Having her first race for more than a month after suffering a typical winter chest infection Rebekah chose a low key return in her home town's annual Tough Ten multi-terrain race. Winning was never an issue as she finished nearly five minutes ahead of her nearest challenger Robyn Goulding, who had finished as high as 7th in the
previous day's Gwent League race. More significantly only 14 men of the 1000 strong field beat her! Imo for her part achieved just as notable a feat by clocking both the fastest and second fastest lap times as the Bristol University women's teams dominated the Hyde Park students road
relay. Her fastest was a full ten seconds faster than her best last year.

3= SUSIE RICHARDS & VICKY TESTER - These two earn their places this week because they both produced by far their best League race performances this season. Susie made the top ten for the first time with 6th place in the competitive Surrey Women's League, while Vicky, who readily admits to never having a love affair with cross-country, achieved a highest ever 13th in the Gwent League.

U20 JUNIORS

1 SEAN HAZELL - Sean kept up his challenge for the Gwent League U20 title by finishing a creditable 6th in the latest combined U17/20 race at Brecon.

2 VANESSA BRANN - Vanessa maintained her recent progress by entering the senior race in the Gwent League and did well to finish as high as 15th just in front of Ali Hurford.

3 CHRIS DODD - Chris' anchor leg of 16:26 in the Hyde Park relay - just 13 secs slower than Dave Green - could arguably be considered the best junior performance of the weekend as it equates to a sub-16 minute 5K time, but regardless it suggests he could be a real asset to the team when he makes his debut in the National.

MASTERS

1 ALEC WOODS - Alec continued his growing interest in the multi-terrain scene by taking the vets prize with third place overall in the popular Dursley Dozen 12M slog.

2 HEATH BAMPTON - Heath again underlined what a valuable addition he is going to be to the club's National Masters road relay team by clocking 56:17 to finish top vet in a very respectable 7th position overall in the Bramley 10M road race.

3= HELEN FINES & ALI HURFORD - Helen will hopefully forgive me for including her in the vets section again, but she needed mentioning as she continued her comeback following the car accident she suffered at the end of last year by finishing second woman in the Dursley Dozen, while Ali too proved that she is getting back to full race fitness by making the top 20 in 16th place in the Gwent League.

Mike Down
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Gwent League -- Brecon

The Club turn out may have been small, but the athletes who competed in Brecon were rewarded with some really good performances.

Top Honours went to young Zak Tobias in the Under 15 boys' race.

Last months Evening Post 'young athlete of the month' made his intensions clear from the start and shot into an early lead. Holding off athletes of the calibre of club mate Luke Jacobs and NSAA Cameron Coetzee, Zak recorded his first win in the league.

Miranda Sadler continued her impressive season with a fine second place in the Under 15 Girls race. Running a well paced race Miranda worked her way through the field finishing around 20 seconds clear second.

There were also three athletes who finished in 'Bronze' positions.

Olivia Sadler also recorded her best result in the competition but found Team Baths Imogen Wolsey the Midland Championship Silver medallist just a little too strong on the day.

Luke Jacobs has timed his return to form just right with major championship races approaching. Luke ran a powerful race in the Under 15 boys.

Tim Wallis also recorded a third place in the day's last event.

U13 Boys
Jack Last 24th, Kal Sevenzo 26th, Stuart O'Connell 33rd, Tom Grant 34th.

U13 Girls
Amy Reade 28th

U15 Boys
Zak Tobias 1st, Luke Jacobs 3rd, Lewis Nightingale 17th.

U15 Girls
Miranda Sadler 2nd

U17/20 Men
Sean Hazell 6th, Matt Deacon 9th, George Hurford 15th.

U17/20 Ladies
Olivia Sadler 3rd, Billie Williams 13th.

Senior Men
Tim Wallis 3rd, Dan Woolford 9th, James Tugwell 29th.

Senior Ladies
Vicky Tester 13th, Vanessa Brann 15th Alison Hurford 16th.
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Performances Of The Week

SENIORS
Due to the high number of results coming in I have decided to continue with separate men's and women's performances for senior athletes.

MEN

TOM RUSSELL - Disappointed with his Midland championship run the previous week, Tom more than made up for it with a storming run in the popular Alsager 5M that always attracts a top class field. This year was certainly no exception, with the line-up headed by internationals Chris Davies and Nick McCormick, who arguably are Britain's next best behind Mo Farah. Undeterred and buoyed by the terra firma of the road after the muddy ruts of Stafford Common, Tom sensibly layed off the suicidal early pace typically set by Chris with Nick in tow, and husbanding his effort perfectly eventually closed up on them both as the fatigue of their early pace began to take its toll. He admits he was never quite close enough to dispute line honours, but finished only nine seconds down on Nick, who won in 23:33, with Chris four seconds back and only five further clear of Tom, who smashed his personal best by a street's length with an impressive time
of 23:42.

2=TOM MERSON and PHIL WYLIE - I have bracketed these two together this week as though Phil clocked a faster time for the 5M distance that they both raced, Tom's effort was a huge improvement on his previous week's run in the Midland championships, his half minute victory in the Exmouth 5M in 25:11 proving he is at last shaking off the effects of the swineflu virus that has wrecked him over the past few weeks. As for Phil he was nearly half a minute quicker than Tom at Alsager, but might have expected to finish higher than 20th, not that his time of 24:44 was anything to sniff at!

3 STEVE MITCHELL - Steve took time off from his indoor track preparations to lead the Bristol University team in the BUCS cross-country championships at Stirling and was rewarded with easily his best performance in the race, finishing well satisfied with his 27th position in the huge field.

WOMEN

1 CLAIRE HALLISSEY - Claire continued her relentless rise up the UK rankings by repeating her medal-winning championship form in the previous week's Midland cross-country at the BUCS championships. It was bronze rather than silver this time, but the opposition was of a significantly higher standard, and in what was surely her best ever cross-country performance she finished just 18 seconds behind the winner rising star Steph Twell, who at present is ranked at worst number two in the country behind European champion Hayley Yelling. In addition she was only pipped on the run -in by another of Britain's most promising young cross-country runners Stevie Stockton after making an exhaustive effort to drop her in the last kilometre.

2 IMOGEN AINSWORTH - Imo proved that her breakthrough as a championship performer in the Midland championship last week, where she had only just missed a medal in 4th place, was no flash in the pan by making the top ten for the first time in the BUCS championship. Her 8th place was another real revelation and with Georgie Bruinvels just behind her in 9th, the Bristol
team came away with the silver medals behind Loughborough and notably ahead of the former UK Centre for Endurance at St Mary's as well as the other pre-race favourites Birmingham. Naturally no one could have been more pleased than Keith, who reportedly lost his voice in willing them home.

3 JENNY JAGGER - Jenny quietly continued her recent progress by winning the Longleat 10K in a creditable time over the tough undulating course of 39:30. All good capital in the bank for her half marathon preparations.

U20 JUNIORS

1 HANNA ALDERSON - Hanna followed up her recent decision to join us by finishing a more than respectable third behind two other of the South West's top juniors Amber Watson and Steph Lane in the latest Gloucestershire League cross-country race. Hanna has only just resumed training after a series of injury problems and illness and is clearly going to make a valuable contribution to the ever growing strength of our women's squad. We look forward to working with her.

2 NAOMI SPEAKE - Though only a bottom year U17 Naomi proved that she is gradually getting back to full race fitness with an overwhelming victory by more than a minute in the Devon Schools senior girls cross-country championship.

3 NATHAN YOUNG - Nathan shrugged off the effects of a busy week in which his training had been severely compromised by coursework deadlines at College by finishing a comfortable second behind Taunton's outstanding junior Charlie Maclean in the Somerset Schools senior boys cross-country championship.

MASTERS

1 PHIL PARRY - Phil retained the club's V45 bragging rights by finishing runner-up in the Longleat 10K in a fair time for the rugged course of 34:10, In addition he avenged his recent defeat in the latest Bridge Inn 5K by Bath triathlete Allister Sheffield, who had to be satisfied with third place.

2 MICK O'DOHERTY - Mick had to play second fiddle to Phil at Longleat, but finished a reasonably close 4th in a time just inside 35 minutes, and of course could legitimately argue that he is giving his young whipper snapper colleague a few years start as he approaches his 50th anniversary on Friday week. Look out all V50's that weekend! Mick will also be pleased to learn that another fellow vet, who is also approaching his 50th, former British road 10K record-holder Mark Scrutton, has just joined us and will be available for the National Masters road relay champs in May.Could we yet do the impossible double?

3 HEATH BAMPTON - Heath, another recent recruit, consolidated his standing in the Oxfordshire League cross-country series by finishing a creditable 13th and again second vet behind his old rival Simon Male. Keep persevering you will get the better of him sooner or later!

Mike Down
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Track & Field Bulletin

With three Meets occurring over the weekend it is really the youngsters that stood out, but it really was a workmanlike weekend where athletes were digging in for the Indoor Season. Scott BAJERE (U20) again set fine sprint times of 7.14 & 22.82 and Geovaughan BUREY (U17) improved his 60m time by a tenth to 7.42 & then ran a 23.66 200m to win his race impressively. Martin FLOOK was the impressive winner of his 800m heat but then declined to run in the semi's. Alex FIELDS achieved a pb for 400m of 51.64 which puts him close to a sub 50 clocking outdoors in the Summer (he also ran a good 200m) and Andrew DEAN-YOUNG ran conservatively in his 800m debut almost breaking 2mins. Moving up from 400m is a big learning cycle Andrew.

Tom MARLEY was the only B&W Athlete running in the 'City Challenge' coming 3rd in 1:51.44.

Over in the USA the performances recently of Emma REED & David BISHOP were complemented by Holly KNIGHT & Steph BARNES who both performed for Auburn State Univ in the 3,000m.

Results:

Birmingham Games 6/7 Feb

60m   Lloyd RICE 6.99 ht / 7.03 sf
      Scott BAJERE (U20) 7.14
      Geovaughan BUREY (U17) 7.42

200m  Scott BAJERE (U20) 22.82
      Geovaughan BUREY (U17) 23.66
      Alex FIELDS 23.78 Ht

400m  Alex FIELDS 51.64 ht

800m  Martin FLOOK 1:55.76 ht
      Andrew DEAN-YOUNG 2:00.34 ht


McCain City Challenge 7 Feb EIS Sheffield:

800m  Tom MARLEY (U23) 1:54.11


Sykes-Sabock Cup, Penn State University USA 6 Feb

3000m Holly KNIGHT 9:43.94 (6)
      Steph BARNES 9:47.93 (7)

We look forward now to next weekend when the UK, Midlands & South West Champs will be decided and wish all of our competing athletes well in their task.

Mike Strange
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