Newbury Athletic Club

Report from Andy Tuttle:

Team & Officials at end of day

Newbury A.C finished runner up for the 4^th time this season to secure a top half position once again in the Southern Athletics League Division 2 West. The latest result came in the final fixture of the season at Kingston on Saturday, with the match being won by the hosts Kingston & Polytechnic Harriers on 226pts, Newbury 202pts, Aldershot Farnham & District 157pts & Oxford City 149pts.

Newbury got off to a flying start on the track, scoring 14 out of a possible 16 pts in the first event 400m hurdles. Jenny O’Connor and Matt Davies finish 2^nd A strings, while Lucy Loxton & Mike Robbins secured wins in the B strings. Next up was the 800m which saw Izzy Fry take charge leading from the gun, with Sammy Dredge closely in pursuit, they finished 1^st and 2^nd to take maximum points.

The young pairing of under 23 Al Taylor and under 17 Reuben Langdon scored well in the 400m, both going under 55secs, with Taylor 2^nd A, and Langdon winning the B.

In the longer events Newbury made sure that Aldershot did not have it entirely their own way. Mike Robbins was the clear winner in the 2000m Steeplechase, with Steve Elsmere just missing out on the B string win, and Sophie Fowler ran well for 2^nd A in the Women’s race. The Men’s 5000m was a particularly strong event, with seven Men running 16 mins or under, the Newbury trio were Mark Vardy 15mins.52s for 2^nd A, Alex Muir 15mins55s 2^nd B, and Matt Green non scoring clocking 16mins00s. Anne Stewart -Power & Karen Shone earned 2^nd A and 2^nd B in the 3000m, and in the 1500m there were A string runner up spots for Emma Downie and Mark Vardy, with Sammy Dredge taking the B string win in the Women’s.

In the field events under 17 Trinity O’Connor was in fine form, winning both the Pole Vault and High Jump A strings with 2.70m, and 1.60m respectively, and jumping 9.47m for 2^nd A in the Triple Jump. Jenny O’Connor won the B string Pole Vault, and was 2^nd in the B High Jump. Phil Carter won the B string Long Jump and Sara Rudd came 2^nd in the B triple jump.

There was particularly tough competition in the Throwing events, however Under 17 Charlotte Payne performed well to finish 2^nd A in both the Hammer with 54.58m, the Shot Putt with a new personal best 11.01m, and went on to win the Discus A with 40.83m. In the Men’s throws Oliver Hewitt came 2^nd in the A string Hammer & Discus, with Bob Broadbridge making sure of the same points in the B string.

A huge congratulations goes to Newbury AC member Christina Pugsley who completed the 50km event of the ‘Salisbury 5-4-3-2-1’ running festival on Sunday August 12th, finishing 22nd of 227 finishers. 

Christina’s chip time was an impressive 4hrs 35mins and 59secs and she was also 2nd in the VM35 category.  

Charlotte Fowler, in training for the Amsterdam marathon, completed the 33k at the same event coming 5^th SW  (6^th female – 28^th/132 finishers) – the furthest she has ever run.

There will be a club takeover of th3 volunteer roles at the Newbury Parkrun on 8 September to promote the Highclere 10k. Please let Jeff Bird know below if you can help with any of the following roles.

Timekeeper (3). Funnel manager (2): Barcode scanner (3), Manual scribe (1),
Finish tokens (2), Tailwalker (1), Photographer (1), Pacers (if we have sufficient volunteers for the other roles): 20 / 22:30 / 25 / 27:30 / 30 mins (5), Handing out flyers (as many as possible):

The Duchess of Kent hospice, which provides palliative care throughout West Berkshire, is offering NAC members the opportunity to enter the Reading Half Marathon 2019 throughout the month of August 2018 for a discounted entry fee of £10.00.    

Club members who avail of this discounted entry fee will need to raise approx £270.00 on behalf of the Duchess of Kent hospice (a group entry may facilitate a reduced individual sponsorship amount).  Discounted entries can be made through the website below:

This Thursday’s road run will be Summer route 15.

Fifth Road then across the Enborne road to the canal were we will follow the canal into town and through to Hambridge Road and up to Fir Tree Lane. This is where the shorter group will go back along Kiln Road and back to Victoria Park and back on the canal back to Fifth Road. The longer group will continue up to Stone Copse then to Stoney Lane through Messengers Copse and back to Shaw, where we will go back through Victoria Park and back on the canal to Fifth Road.