Can you spare some time each week to help the club during training nights?

2 registration helpers are required asap for Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6 to 7.30pm. Full training will be given.

Contact Chris or John at the club or by email at tamworthac@aol.com. Thanks.

Five Tamworth athletes put up good performances at the Rowheath Open Meeting at Birmingham University.

Throwers Alex Berrow and Samantha Lawton both picked up first places in their respective events.

Berrow won the under-20s men's hammer with his best throw of the season to date of 52.42m.

Lawton continued to show her top form to win the under-13s girls' shot event with a putt of 8.82m.

Eloise Redfern claimed second place in the 75m in a personal best time of 10.88secs and picked up another second place in the long jump with 4.11m.

Danielle Norton won the under-15 girls' 200m in a personal best time of 28.62secs and secured third place in the 100m in 14.02secs.

Abbie Cresswell secured third place in the under-15 girls' javelin with a personal best throw of 12.40m.

Three Tamworth athletes made an impact at the Trafford Open Meeting in Manchester.

Kane Densley claimed success in the under-13 boys' 150m event in a personal best 21secs, won the long jump with 4.18m and took third place in the 74m in another personal best time of 10.8secs.

Georgina Cresswell finished third in the under-11 girls' 75m in a personal best time of 11.5secs.

She was third in the 150m in a personal best 23.4secs and took fourth place in the 600m with her third personal best of the afternoon in 2:9.35mins.

Curtis Cresswell just missed out on the medals in the under-15 boys' 100m when he finished in fourth place in a time of 12.9secs.

Tom Burton claimed a top six place at the British University Championships in Bedford.

The Tamworth AC runner finished in third place in his 400m hurdles heat in a season's best of 55.12secs.

He went on to improve even further as he took sixth place in the final in 54.70secs.

Fellow Tamworth AC member Dan Cash won his heat in the 400m in a personal best time of 49.84secs and went on to take fifth place in his semi-final in another personal best of 49.71secs.

In a warm up meeting at Loughborough University, Cash clocked 50.06secs to win his 400m race and Burton finished in third place in the 400m hurdles.

Both Burton and Cash attend Loughborough University.

South Cheshire College and Tamworth Athletic Club

Club School Links Project

April 2008

Chris Hollinshead, Level 4 Endurance Coach, Staffordshire Regional Squad coach and Sports Science lecturer at South Cheshire College teamed up with Tamworth Athletic Club in a unique project developing Club School Links in Tamworth.

Thirteen students at the College on their second year of a BTEC National Diploma in Sports Science course headed to Staffordshire for their two-day residential on Thursday 23^rd April. Their first stop was at Rowley Park, Stafford where they spent a very rainy day doing their UKA Level 1 coaching course.

On Friday these new skills were then put into practice with two local Tamworth Primary Schools – Flaxhill Juniors and Glascote Heath. Twenty – five children from a mixture of years 3, 4 and 5 enjoyed a variety of activities including sprinting, long jump, discus and relays. They were split into small groups, which allowed the children to work closely with new coaches.

Parts of the morning were videoed by the college to allow the students to reflect and learn from their coaching. Also present were Catherine Pendlebury, Athletic Development Officer for Staffordshire, Ben Bulleyment Sports Partnership Development Officer for Tamworth and Club Secretary Chris Graves and Tamworth AC Facilities Manager Kevin Wood.

Chris Hollinshead said: “The trip is not only a great opportunity for students to learn new coaching skills in a different environment but also a chance for them to put themselves into the shoes of top athletes.

“To make it to the top requires hard work and dedication and many athletes spend their time coaching others when they aren’t competing.

“This is a fantastic opportunity for our students to learn valuable coaching skills and deliver them to school children in Tamworth.”

Chris said: “This is a fantastic link-up between South Cheshire College and Tamworth Athletic Club.

“Our students have an opportunity to put what they have learnt into practice at the event which gives them wonderful hands-on experience.

“A lot of what they have learnt during their studies so far has been college-based but this gives them the chance to get out into the wider community.”

Ben Bullyment –commented ‘The morning was a success for all involved - the younger students were supported by some high quality coaching and the coaches gained some valuable coaching experience. The project is definitely something we want to build on and support in future years’. Positive feedback and thanks were also received from the schools that took part.

All children were given information and invited to Tamworth Athletic Club if they wished to continue to learn about athletics.

Youngsters from Tamworth primary schools attend Tamworth Athletic Club in June to compete in a Primary Sports competition so this day will give them a sneak preview of what to expect.

Tamworth Athletic Club is one of the Midlands most thriving and successful clubs and competes in many different leagues around the country.

Chris Graves at Tamworth Athletic Club, said: “ Here at Tamworth AC we constantly strive to provide exciting opportunities not only for our club members but also for young athletes from the town and surrounding villages. This ‘special’ morning of athletics will bring potential young stars of the future together with the club, the students and tutors from South Cheshire College, the Partnership Development Manager and enthusiastic teachers from Flaxhill and Glascote Heath Schools. I’m convinced the partnership between these organisations will be most successful and flourish in the future.”

The students rounded off their project with an afternoon at Drayton Manor theme Park, which was thoroughly well deserved. It is hoped that this project will be repeated next year with a different set of students.

“Hopefully this will be the continuation of a very fruitful link-up for the College and Tamworth Athletic Club and I hope that our students can help out with other school sports events and competitions in the future.” Said Chris Hollinshead, lecturer.

Latest News... UK Challenge 08 Launched!

UK Challenge 2008 is a nationwide, season long competition with 42 qualifying events from mid May to the series Final in August. It combines successful, quality, existing events with newly created meetings. This series provides a focus for the season for Britain's top club athletes and aspiring internationals and creates a structured pathway.

Athletes compete within the 42 qualifying meetings which form the UK Challenge. A minimum of 4 performances across the series are required by each athlete seeking qualification for the Final. Each performance will be converted into points and ranked. The top 8 athletes with the best scores in each discipline will be invited to the UKC Final on the 9th August.

The Challenge series offers the biggest prize fund ever for a domestic series...also includes weekly, monthly and series long prizes. The Final offers over £30,000 alone.

Using a rich mixture of UK Challenge web pages and innovate rankings stay informed and up to date with your Challenge.

JumpsFest & ThrowsFest 08

This years event will be held on the 28th & 29th June at the Alexander Stadium, Birmingham. This year will see Throws and Jumps on both days of the event with all events being held within the Stadium. Online entry will be available on the UK Athletics website and remember that the event is for all standards of athletes for Seniors and U20.