February 2005

Three Tamworth AC girls made their debuts at the Midland U13 girls triathlon championships in mid February and can feel pleased with their performances.

Sophie Taylor just missed out on the medals when she finished in fourth place with a total score of 961 points. She had a long jump of 3.63m, clocked 9.13 secs in the 60m and recorded 5.17m in the shot.

Jo Cassar finsihed in 13th place with 647 points when she recorded 3.08m in the long jump, 10.5 secs in the 60m and 4.05m in the shot.

Milly Kellyman was extremely unlucky when she was lying in 2nd place overal after 2 events and had to withdraw from the final event, the shot, due to injury. However she recorded 3.87m for the long jump and 8.96secs for the 60m.

Tamworth AC's Sheila Owen was in impressive form at the British Masters Indoor Track Championships held in Cardiff in February. She took gold in the Women's 3K Walk. Owen recorded a new personal best Indoor time of 17.03 mins over the 15 lap event.

She took the race on from the start , and although closely followed in the opening stages by the chasing pack, she gradually opened a convincing lead over the field to win in fine style.

There is both good and bad news on the stadium closure.

The good news is that the stadium WILL be open for training next week: that is the week beginning Monday 28 February.

However due to the adverse weather conditions the contractors, having finished the cleaning in good time, are unable to begin the re-lining. This will take place as soon as possible. Please keep checking the website for up to date information on any possible closure.

‘An Audience with Matthew Bartlett and Friends’ will be held at Tamworth AC's clubhouse on Friday 25 February at 7.30pm for 8pm start.

This will be a great musical evening out in aid of the new Indoor Facility Fund. Come along , bring your friends, enjoy the music and have a few jars at the clubhouse Bar. Tickets are £4 and are available from the bar and tuck shop NOW. Everyone welcome.

A small but select team of athletes from Tamworth’s schools travelled to Stoke on Saturday for the School’s County Cross Country Championships. With places in the Staffordshire team for the National Schools Championships at stake, competition for the first 8 places was very fierce.
In the year 8 and 9 girl’s competition Elyse Jinks and Amy Williams ran extremely well to finish in 13th and 14th respectively, tantalisingly close to selection places.

It was a similar story in the year 8 and 9 boy’s race. Craig Farrell was 9th, Steve Deeley 10th, Alex Elson 25th and Mathew Wood 29th.

Megan Jacobs was Tamworth’s only competitor in the year 10 and 11 girl’s race and she had to be on top of her form to finish in 6th place.

In the year 12 and 13 girl’s event Sarah Williams finished in 8th position with success also for Martin Naunton and Adam Bache in the senior boys competition when they finished 3rd and 8th respectively.

Age groups are different to club competition and most of Tamworth’s athletes are at the lower end of their respective groups and for all athletes to finish so high up in their races is just reward for the hard work that they have all put in during the past 6 months.

The English Schools competition is at Norwich on March 12th and all competitors who finished in the first 10 are eagerly waiting for the results of the selection meeting later in the week.

If you are interested in cross country training, competition or coaching at Tamworth Athletic Club please contact John or Chris on 01827 260897 or email tamworthac@aol.com

Welsh International Race Walker Mark Williams made a rare Indoor appearance at the Midland Indoor Open Meeting at the weekend, taking 1st place in the Men's 3km event. The meeting held at Birmingham's National Indoor Arena gave the Tamworth AC athlete the opportunity to race over the shorter distance, of 3km, than he has been competing at as of late, and with a heavy mileage-training schedule over recent weeks it gave Williams a valuable shorter race ahead of his challenge at a 20km qualifying time for next years Commonwealth Games. After a steady opening on the 15-lap race Williams was never headed and won comfortably, just pushing the pace enough to record a respectable time without risking injury. Williams's time of 13:35 mins is the leading time recorded in the country so far this year and would have made the top 10 throughout last season.

Meanwhile, Mark Culshaw was representing Tamworth Athletic Club at the Southern Area 10km Road Walking Championships, held at Victoria Park, London. Culshaw who has relocated in London, but still represents Tamworth put in a very respectable performance to finish in 12th place in a time of 58:29 mins. Pleased with his performance after suffering the effects of a bad cold in the week preceding his race.

 The track at Tamworth was laid in the mid 1990’s. It is now due to be professionally cleaned and re-lined to ensure it meets all safety requirements for training and competition for the foreseeable future.  White Line Services has been engaged by Tamworth AC to carry out this very expensive but essential work (£5,000  for cleaning and a further £5,000 for re-lining).

The cleaning will begin on Monday 21 February 2005, will take about a week and should not disrupt any training sessions. The work is not usually affected by the weather.

 The re-lining of the track is scheduled to begin on Monday 28 February 2005. The track cannot be used during this time and will therefore be CLOSED from 28 February until 4 March. Weather conditions can cause problems with re-lining and delays are possible.

 Club members will be able to keep ‘track’ of progress and any delays at the stadium by logging onto this website. 

A programme of maintenance and refurbishment of the club’s facilities at the Marlborough Way Stadium is well under way. Future indoor projects include re-sealing the function room floor, and upgrading the toilets and showers; whilst outside the steeplechase barriers have to be replaced before the first home meeting 2005, the pole vault bed must be upgraded by 2006 and the hammer cage by 2008 to meet ever changing national standards. None of this comes cheap and the club can expect to pay over £50,000 for the above athletic items alone.

All the funds for these projects have to be raised by the club through membership and training fees, hire of the stadium facilities, hire of the function room and bids to various funding agencies. We are not funded by the council and rely entirely on the services of volunteers such as the bar staff, registration staff, committee members, coaches, team managers, officials, website co-ordinators and other essential club helpers.

If you would like to join the club’s excellent team of volunteers please contact John, Kevin, Andy, Chris, Ray or any other committee members on club nights or email tamworthac@aol.com.

This year's Presentation Evening will be held in the Clubhouse on Friday 18 March. Book this date in your diary now. Tickets available later this month.

 The third race of the West Midlands young athletes cross country league was held on a very difficult and testing course at Nuneaton. 20 runners turned out for Tamworth Athletic Club and due to their efforts the club lies in 10^th place in the league.

  Leanne Lewis maintained her form in the Under 11 Girls race and finished in 22^nd position with Gina Heseltine completing the course in 51^st.

  Oliver Wood was the club’s only entrant in the Under 11 Boys but ran well to record 31^st.

Mathew Wood had his best run for the club and was very aggressive from the outset in and this enabled him to record 21^st place in the Under 13 boys and he was ably supported by Stephen Parkes in 32^nd with Adam McGee also recording his best finish in 37^th.

   Four girls ran for the club in the Under 13 Girls and they completed the course very close to each other with Amy Williams 43^rd, Elyse Jinks 45^th and Laura Lewis 47^th. Unfortunately Rebecca Pate lost her running shoe in the glutinous mud and after she had stopped to find it and put it back on, the field was away but she showed tremendous character to continue racing and finish in 90^th place.

  Megan Jacobs is returning to form and she had her best race for many years in the Under 15 Girls when she completed the course in 17^th. Jenna Passey also ran well to record 49^th.

  Simon King continued with his excellent form when he finished 6^th in the Under 15 Boys. Joe Saddlington was in his first cross country race and he started off too quick and paid the price on the last lap but he still did well in 45^th.

   Sarah Williams, Katherine Snowden and Marianne Pritchard competed in the under 17 Ladies and finished 29^th, 32^nd and 35^th respectively.

   The final race of the afternoon was the Under 17 Men’s and Tom Adams came 10^th with Adam Bache closing Tom down at the finish in 18^th. John Jenkins was with them both with 2km left but he twisted his ankle and eventually finished 39^th.