STILL ON TRACK
The Senior track and field team kept up their push for promotion after giving league leaders Crawley a good run for their money in the latest round of Southern Athletics League at Lewes on Saturday. The match was decided by just eight points with Crawley on 304, Newbury 296, Lewes 203 and Bracknell 92. Newbury can still lay claim to having the highest match points in the division, currently on 892.5, with the club in 4th place.
Tom Watkins made a special trip from Cambridge University just to compete for the team. It proved doubly worthwhile as he recorded A strings wins in the 5000m and the 2000m Steeple Chase, setting a new club record in the process. Mark Vardy was the clear winner in the 5000m B string, while James Craggs completed the clubs dominance of the distance events by taking maximum points in the Steeple Chase B string. Jess Franklin always looked in control of 3000m race as she bided her time till the last 300m to make her move to the front and maintained it right to the line. Becky Coxhead ran a personal best time to finish 2nd B string. Continue reading →
We don’t usually report on triathlon events but feel that these efforts are worthy of Dean Makar & Sue van Huyssteen completed their first 1/2 Ironman events on Sunday and report feeling rather pleased with themselves as they both made it comfortably – despite the freezing cold lake swim (13 degrees) and generally foul, rainy, weather. Like someone said “wish they could hold this event in the summer.”
There were strict cut-off times in pace for the swim and bike legs, so although they were confident about the run, they had to get passed the swim and bike legs first & now know why it’s known as the toughest 70.3 course in the world !
Dean : Swim 50:14 Bike 3:46 Run 1:59 Total 6:49 Age group place : 68/125 Overall Place : 673
Sue : Swim 41:30 Bike 4:01 Run 1:56 Total 6:58 Age group place : 4/13 Overall Place : 743
Full results here
Updated report from Becky Coxhead:
Two teams of 10 runners from Newbury AC competed in the relay run along the Ridgeway which covers 86.5 miles.
In the A team: Wayne Lillis had the early start at Ivinghoe Beacon, he was followed by Sophie Crumly, then Nick Jones had a very strong run finishing 1st over stage 3 he took the team to 4th place. On leg 4 Jess Franklin took the team to 3rd. There was a brilliant set of results from; Neil Jones whom finished 1st over stage 5 on his Ridgeway debut, James Craggs 1st over stage 6 and Peter Crisp 1st over stage 7; they took the A team to a temporary 1st place. Their runs were followed by some great times over the last stages by Daniel Tuttle, Mark Vardy and Chris Pudney, resulting in an overall 2nd place finish!
Meanwhile on team B; Sam Hall started off the day followed by Becky Coxhead then Phil Marshall who had a great Ridgeway debut on stage 3 taking the B team down to 16th place. Christine Mardle had her debut on stage 4, Rick Wyatt had a solid run on stage 5, Dave Wright posted a good 12th place over stage 6 taking the team to 15th, this result was followed by some great relay debuts from Emma-Jayne Bailey, Chloe Blair, Stephen Elsmere and Nigel Popplewell who finished 8th over stage 10 taking the B team to a final 13th position.
Due to great team Spirit and commitment the day ran without any problems resulting in finishing positions to be proud of and a fun day all round.
Now we can look forward to next years event!
Full results can be seen here.
Sam Plumb broke his own Club and u20 records for the 400mH on Saturday going under 55 seconds for the first time as he clocked 54.78 whilst coming 3rd in his heat at the England Athletics u20/u23 championships in Bedford and then broke it again whilst coming 5th in the final on Sunday morning with a time of 54.18s!
Liz Harkness was in superb form on Monday night as she raced to a pb in the 1500m of 7:04.4 which not only saw her take the club record for her age group but also put her at the top of the UK rankings by a staggering 38seconds. She followed that up with a pb in the Hammer of 13.01. Unfortunately, despite battling hard, the rest of the ladies team failed to match her exploits and finished in 4th place overall just 8 points adrift of 2nd spot. They remain in 2nd place in the league with all to play for in the final match on 1st July.
Vic Pearson was the sole competitor for the men as injuries and work commitments depleted the team.
Full results here.
Message from Chris Hobson:
This year’s Race for Life 5k will be held on the morning of Sunday 7th July at Newbury Showground . As usual they are requesting volunteers from our club to marshal on the day. If you think you could spare a few hours of your time for this good cause then please download this document and follow the instructions for registration.
If you could also let me know when you have registered by dropping me a quick email I will be able keep race organiser Lea Blake notified of progress .
With many thanks in advance .
Report from Emma Carter
The Juniors travelled down to the coast for their second match of the season on Sunday and saw some great individual results as well as some first timers and an exciting competition.
The girls started off well in the hurdles with Ellis Wyer and Lilly Gohara taking second places in the under 13 event followed by under 15s Ellie Spark and Rosie Stanton who took 2nd A & 1st B places respectively. Rosie continued with a second place in the shot putt along with team mate Charlotte Bateman and a win in the javelin A string with Charlotte taking second place in the B string. Charlotte Payne continued her run of success in the throws by winning both the under 13 shot and discus with a throw of 23.68m.
The boys, whilst lacking in numbers, still produced some good results. Toby Holland won the U13 long jump with 4.82m with newcomer Ali Thorp taking third spot in the B event. Ali also threw an impressive 14.35m in the discus to take third place. The duo teamed up with Archie Betts and Rhys Ainsworth to also take third place in the tightly fought under 13 relay. Archie showed great promise in the sprints and whilst clearing 1.20m for 3rd place in his first high jump event. In the U17s Phillip Carter broke his personal best to take the win in the High Jump with 1.60m and another personal best in the shot putt whilst Harry Russell stormed his way to victory in the 400m race in a time of 53.3s.
The under 11s all took part in the Quadkids competitions with Luci Robertson finishing 6th overall in the girls events along with Olivia Clinch, Tilly MCcreedy & Annabel Hayes. Marcus Chitty was the highest finisher in the boys event in 18thplace with Toby Thorp, Oliver Brashaw, Lawrence Baker, Callum Maggs & Max Whitby.
Thanks go to the large number of club officials who gave up their weekend, many of whom officiated at the Berkshire schools competition on Saturday, to help out at this event.
Full results can be found on the League website.
Next match is Sunday July 7th at Woking.
Andy McKendrick completed his 1st half marathon -the Potters arf (hot & hilly!) in a time of 1:55:28 which placed him 626th out of 1750. Meanwhile Sophie Crumly came 116th in the St. Alban’s half-marathon in a time of 01:32:58.
Dean Makar was 37th in 38:45 & Geoff Anderson 59th in 40:40 at the Wargrave 10k.
There was an excellent turnout for the latest edition of the Ollie Johnson memorial Kintbury 5 mile run held on Sunday 2nd with 248 entrants. Newbury AC runners came home in first place in both the men’s and women’s races with winner Nick Jones time of 26:04 being one of the best in the last 10 years and Susie Bush sped round in 28:52 to set a course record for women. Newbury AC won the team prize with Nick, Steve Barnes (M40) 3rd overall and Mark Vardy 4th.
The Ollie Johnson trophy for under 21year olds went to Bert Leach for the second consecutive year.
Lots of thanks to are due to all the helpers including Brian Ireland,Dave Mason, Bob Taylor, Tim Marsh, Ian, Becky and Julie Coxhead, Tony Douglas, Ian Johnson, Tina Head, Carolyn Walker, Chris Hobson and many others from Kintbury Joggers, village and school.
Special thanks go to sponsors Mick Cornwall Aerial services for his great spot prizes and Rayner Diesel Bosch car services.
Full results and a list of prizewinners /junior results can be downloaded from the links.
U20 Sam Plumb continued his recent fine form in the hurdles by claiming both the club and U20 records for the 400m in a time of 55.03s whilst competing for Loughborough students last Wednesday.
