January 2005

The list of achievements Tamworth Athletics Club has enjoyed during 2004 is impressive.
  The club continues to grow every year with more youngsters passing through the gates at the Marlborough Way Stadium every week.
  And, under the guidance of the club's coaches, an impressive collection of titles and medals were won during the year.

The achievements over the year include:-

Five athletes selected for English Schools Championships.

Eleven athletes represent their schools at the Schools Inter Counties Championships.

Fifteen titles gained at County Schools Championships.

The Midland under-20s Championships produced four Midlands titles and nine medals with two athletes presented with Midland Counties trophies.

Twenty County Champions.

Three medallists from the AAA's Championships.

A winner of the under-15s pentathlon at the AAAs National Combined Events.

Three representatives and two medallists at the All England Multi Event Championships.

Meghan Beesley and Nathan Woodward claim gold and silver medals at the International Schools Multi Event Championships in Scotland.

The Men's team claim promotion in the Cross Country League.

The Young Athletes Cross Country team finish nine places higher than in previous years

The race walkers achieve medals in the Midland Championships and International race walker Mark Williams makes successful come back after serious injury.

One world championships semi- finalist at the ESAPLD (Athletes with a Learning Disability) Championships.

Twelve athletes in the top 20 UK Rankings.

Six Midland Champions at the Midland Indoor Championships at the NIA.

The young athletes squad maintain their position in the National Young Athletes League's Premier Division and win the Herald's Junior Team of the Year award.

Two athletes also win awards at the Herald Sports Awards

Regional Sportshall runners-up.

The women's team is first and the men's is second in the National Junior League.

Winners of the Heart of England League.

The Midland Women's League team win their division.

The Midland Men's League team gain promotion to the top division.

Seven Veterans medals were won at the in the British Masters Track and Field Championships and the British Masters National Championships.

  Now the club has set its sights on its next great achievement.
A tremendous amount of work has been done towards the club's bid for funding for its eagerly awaited indoor training facility.
  Plans, drawings and costings have been prepared, outline planning permission has been granted and meetings have been held with major funding agencies.
  Substantial bids have now been deposited with three agencies and they club hopes to hear if it is successful by early summer.
  If the funding is in place, work is planned to begin in 2005 and be completed the following year.
   Once built, the new facility will make Tamworth one of the few smaller clubs in the UK to have such a range of high quality facilities.
  The facility will not only be used by the club's athletes to train and develop during the winter but will serve the community, athletes from across the region, local schools and other organisations.

Tamworth AC has been working on Clubmark accreditation, a coveted sports quality mark, for the past 18 months and is hoping the new year brings the news that the club's submission has been successful, thereby making it the first athletics club in Staffordshire and the 24th in the country to gain accreditation.

For all enquiries regarding training, coaching and sponsorship please phone John, Chris, Andy or Kevin on 01827 260897 or email tamworthac@aol.com

Mick Sanderson reports:             Tamworth Athletic Club aces Meghan Beesley and Nathan Woodward produced impressive performances when they made their debut in England colours in the International Schools multi-event match at Grangemouth, Scotland.
  Competing against teams from Scotland, Wales and a combined Ireland, Meghan and Nathan both chalked up their highest ever pentathlon scores to help their respective England teams to first place in the team events. They both chalked up their second medal of the afternoon when they took the overall silver medals from the 16 competitor individual competitions.
  In the opening event, Meghan produced the best long jump of the competition to take the lead overall with a leap of 5.23m, while Nathan clocked a personal best 9secs in the 60m hurdles to begin his competition in seventh place.
  Meghan then clocked a personal best time of 9.08secs in her 60m hurdles to go into second place overall, and Nathan moved up three places in the individual standings when he gained his second personal best of the day with a jump of 5.56m in the long jump.
  Meghan then dropped a place to overall third when she cleared 1.51m in the high jump and Nathan went back to sixth place despite clocking a personal best time of 25.11secs in the 200m.
  In the shot competition, both athletes picked up yet another personal best each with Nathan recording 9.85m and Meghan 8.63m.
  Going into the final events, several athletes were still in contention with Meghan holding third place and Nathan in sixth spot.
  Both athletes responded well by clocking excellent times in the 800m, going close to their personal bests. Meghan recorded 2:26.87mins to move up to second place in the overall standings while Nathan moved up four places to also take the silver medal position with a time of 2:03.06mins.
  Nathan scored 3,029, his first time over 3,000 points, and Meghan record her best evers core of 3,321 points.