Cooray's Olympic Hopes

Anuradha I Cooray-Will he be on the start line of the 2012 Olympic marathon?

As most of you know, he ran in the Pune International Marathon in India recently where he finished 10th in an experienced international field in a time of 2hours, 18 minutes and 42 seconds, just 42 seconds short of the Olympic B standard of 2hours, 18minutes.

One of the Olympic rules is that if no one from a country achieves an Olympic track and field qualifying standard, then that country can send one male and one female athlete if they choose to. With Sri Lanka’a other main hope for a place in London (a 1500m runner) recently having had surgery, things look good for Cooray. In percentage terms, Anuradha’s time is closer to the qualifying standard and the Sri Lankan authorities have stated that they will take the athlete with the nearest time to the standard.

However, Nick Taylor has said that “he can’t be left in a position where his destiny is in others hands and so the plan is to run the London marathon on the 22nd April 2012, where he will be targeting the Olympic A standard of 2.15. I currently think he is in 2.14/2.15 shape and running 2.18 and bits in the hot and humid conditions in Pune, without any time to acclimatise, supports that. The difference between now and back in 2003/2004 when Anuradha won the South Asian games and came 30th in the Athens Olympics, is that we can totally focus on the Olympics 2012 and not be distracted from that path.” Prior to Athens, Anuradha was racing and travelling far too much, rather than purely focusing on the Olympics games, but of course back then, he was in the Army, his coach was a Brigadier and he had to follow orders. With that in mind Anuradha, has turned down to fully funded offers to travel and compete in Mumbai in January and Hong Kong in May. What would really help is sponsorship from somewhere, which would help him to have a couple of long training stints over the winter months and a couple of medium training stints between April and August.

I am sure there must be businesses in the local community who would regard sponsoring an Olympian from the local area as a great return on their investment? Will he be on the Olympic start line in 2012? Oh yes, absolutely!

IAN AND ROGER RUN WOKINGHAM HALF

With a place at this year’s London Marathon Ian Thompson has been in serious training mode. This weekend he was delighted to run his quickest half marathon for nearly 2 years finishing the Wokingham Half in 87:12 (232nd place from over 2000 runners). Ian was 24th V45 runner. Roger Kirk also ran and not having run for nearly a month, did very well to finish in 1:51:12, 35th V65.

X-STREAMLY TOUGH RUN!

With nearly 300 runners competing, they could be happy for a dry spell in recent weeks as the water was lower than in previous years, the ground slightly firmer and the weather just perfect.

The first three places were a carbon copy of last year with Charlie May finishing in second place, sandwiched between two Chiltern Harriers runners; winner Thomas Beedell and Eddie O’Gorman. The improved conditions showed in the finishing times; the first three, and indeed all Vale runners, improved on their times from 2011, some by several minutes.

Andy Rolt finished in 5th place and was 1st V40 home with Dave Maisey close behind in 6th. Alan Roberts made up the men’s team was 2nd in the team event.

Chloe Oldfield was 2nd lady home, an improvement on her 5th position last year and 5 minutes faster! The top 4 Vale’s ladies comprising of Chloe, Vicky Sheldon, Jayne Littlejohn and Julie Madry took 3rd place in the team event, Jackie Rolt also ran.

A link to full results can be seen here:

VALE JUNIORS IN SPORTSHALL FINALS

On 12 February, the SE Regional Final of the Aviva Sportshall Competitions took place in Burgess Hill. The competition is for the U13 and U15 age groups and Vale were represented by Aaron Fenty, Will Ralston, Katie Jones, Charlie Brown and Donelle Arulanandam.

For the U13’s, Will took part in the 4 Lap Relay and Speed Bounce; Aaron the 2 lap relay and Standing Long Jump and for the girls, Katie was in the High Jump and Speed Bounce Competitions. In the older age group, Charlie Brown was a member of the 2 Lap Relay team who finished 3rd, he was also in the Speed Bounce and Standing Triple Jump competitions. Donelle had a busy day too with the girls 2 Lap Relay, the Speed Bounce and Vertical Jump.

The second competition, which took place during half term, was The Tom Pink Relays. Three of these events are held each year, funded by a Trust from the parents of a young athlete who sadly died. The days include events similar to normal Sportshall competitions with some interesting names for the relays!

Vale was represented in the County Team by Aaron and Korben Fenty, George Bates, Will and Annabel Ralston and Max Forgham. In the field events, Will took part in the Shot, Highland Steps and Standing Triple Jump; Aaron the Weight for Height and took 3rd place in the Shot; Max also did the Standing Triple Jump and the Weight for Height. For the U11s, Annabel threw the Soft Javelin as did George along with the Weight for Distance event. The final U11 was Korben who was also in Weight for Distance and the Standing Long Jump.

In the relays, it was a stronger day for the Bucks girls than the boys. The U11 girls had one team which qualified for the final of the ‘Keeping up with Paula’ relay where they finished 4th as did the team which qualified for the ‘Over Under Relay’. In the U13 relays, the girls had one team in the final of the ‘Chasing Kelly Relay’ who finished 3rd. The boys had one team which reached the final of the ‘Chasing Steve Relay’. Parents and coaches who travelled to the event in Birmingham declared the event great fun and certainly one to take part in again.

INDIVIDUAL GOLD, SILVER AND BRONZE FOR CLUB

Carolyn Boosey didn’t quite keep her 100% record, coming second to Wycombe’s Pippa Woolven, but she was 1st Division 1 runner, and quite deservedly took the individual Gold medal for the season. She was naturally confirmed she had not felt 100%. Second Vale athlete home was Julia Austin in 12th; she was 2nd V45, followed by Helen Bennewith in 34th. The Vet ladies team comprising Julia, Helen, Heather Fallaize and Vicky Sheldon won the Vet Ladies Team Race on the day.

The Vale Men ran well with Charlie May, 11th, Declan Hamblin, 14th and Rob Taylor, 25th, first men home. The Vets team of Declan, Andy Rolt, Dave Maisey and Mark Richards didn’t quite outshine the ladies, but were 2nd Men’s Vets team of the day.

At the Medal Presentations later in the day, Vale seniors collected 5 medals. In addition to Carolyn’s Gold, Julia Austin took silver in the V45 category; Declan Hamblin bronze for the V40 men and both Vet Teams won prizes. The Ladies won silver, the men bronze. Seniors across all age ranges were 3rd for the season which is the Club’s best performance for some years.

Link to results page for race day and end of season placings

PATRICK TO COMPETE AT OLYMPIC STADIUM

The Games run over 4 days across a variety of sports from rugby 7’s to cycling and of course athletics. The athletics will be taking place on Wednesday 9th May. Not only is it an honour to be selected, but the venue for this year’s event is the Olympic Stadium! Patrick said “I am honoured to be selected. To run in the stadium, especially before the Olympics, will be amazing. My injury last Spring affected my whole track season; I am going to be very careful this year!”

Buckinghamshire are delighted to have five athletes selected for the team. In addition to Patrick, they are Lewis Barnes from Marshall Milton Keynes then three athletes from Windsor, Slough & Eton, Stephanie Clitheroe; Becca Croft and Olivia Caesa

GOOD TURNOUT IN SNOWY CONDITIONS FOR JUNIORS

Vale’s first athletes of the day competed in the Under 11 girl’s category, where we had a fantastic turnout. Kitty Shepherd Cross ran a brilliant race coming 2nd, her best position of the season. Afterwards they came in thick and fast, Alice Maisey, Jemima Taswell-Fryer and Tilly Green coming in 31st, 32nd and 36th respectively. Finishing off the 6 piece was Kristyn Dee-Crowne in 49th and Hannah Mabey in 62nd place, giving the team a 6th overall placing out of 17 teams. The boys of this age group ran well with Ben Lindars finishing off a very successful season in 17th and not too far behind him was Alfred Mawdsley in 27th place. The Under 13 boy’s were also well represented, and Harri Kane ran another solid race to finish in 11th, 10th in the overall standings. As always Will Ralston and Tom Swindlehurst finished right on each other’s heels, Will getting it this time by 3 seconds in 24th place, and Tom just behind in 26th. The strong team were capped off by good performances from James Patton in 34th place, and Matthew Proctor in 41st, which is a 15 place improvement on his best. The Under 13 girls only had two runners, but they both ran great runs, Eliza Taswell-Fryer coming home in 12th, and Jasmine Kobewka not too far behind in 17th.

The Under 15 girls had the sole runner of Alice Wright, who delivered on the day, making up for a lack of numbers to finish 6th, a seasons best for her and it puts her 5th overall to finish. The Under 15 Boys had 4 runners, Tatenda Manjengwa in his first ever Chiltern League finished 3rd, a massive achievement. Luke Pauley finished off a strong season, coming 23rd and Ethan Luck and new Vale athlete Josh Greenberg finished in 31st and 33rd. Although Kieran Lindars was not there, he did manage to get 5th placing in the category overall, so well done to him.

The Under 17 Boys made up for a lack of numbers with 3 fantastic performances. Patrick Taylor finishing in 3rd place, after a battle up the hill with James Davis who finished 4 seconds behind in 4th, and George Langston ran a superb race to finish in a season’s best 5th place, this putting the team 2nd in the match and 4th by a mere 5 points overall. These performances put Patrick 1st overall for the season and James Davis 2nd, so both boys received a Plaque at the ceremony. The only Under 17 Girl runner was Louise Lightfoot who ran well to finish in 14th position, a best placing for her this season.

VALE YOUNGSTERS WIN COUNTY PLACES

For the Aviva event, Vale athletes performed very well with top three finishes across the events going to Aaron Fenty, Will Ralston, Kieran Hall, Thomas Andrew, Max Forgham, Charlie Brown and Donelle Arulanandam. We are delighted to report that all but one of these these athletes, together with Rene Vaughan and Katie Jones have all been selected for the County Team to compete at Burgess Hill.

Selection for the County Tom Pink Relay Team was also tough and our athletes performed with great enthusiasm across all events. Those selected to compete in the County Team at the NIA are Katie Jones, Annabel Ralston, Korben Fenty, George Bates, Arron Fenty, William Ralston, Max Forgham and Thomas Andrew.

The turnout for this event from the Club was excellent; thank you to the 30 youngsters who took part and to the adults who came along to support and cheer. There were too many to name everyone in the report, but a link to the results will be posted on the website soon.

BEN GREGORY ON FORM INDOORS

Ben’s most recent competition was in Prague where he competed for Great Britain in an International Combined Events competition. He finished 6th overall, and top competitor from Great Britain with a final score of 5582 which is a PB for him and a Club Record.

Ben achieved 3 further PBs which were in the 60m (7.25), 60H (8.29) and Long Jump (7.12). It is now possible that he could qualify for the World Championships in Turkey if invited by the IAAF; only 8 athletes will be invited.

He also finished 2nd in the English Combined Events competition in Sheffield at the beginning of January

INDOOR RECORDS FOR WILL AND ZOE

Will Gurton and Zoe Magnall competed in the London U20/Senior Indoor Games at Lee Valley last weekend, and both achieved new Club Records. Will ran the 800m in a time of 1.52.51 and Zoe threw 9.82m in the shot which is also a PB for her.

BOOSEY’S BRIGHTON’S BEAUTY

Carolyn, who has been in winning form in the Chiltern League this season, negotiated the hilly 8-km course in just 31 minutes and 10 seconds. She was less than 90 seconds behind winner Ceri Mitchell from Southampton in bright sunshine and perfect running conditions.

Next back for the Club in the women’s race was Julia Austin, 69th in 34.48, followed by Sharon Maisey, Joanna Card and Victoria Sheldon whose times have not yet been confirmed.

Charlie May led the men’s team home taking 123rd place in 57.08, a creditable effort given the quality at the front of the 745-strong field. The men’s race was held over 15-km so anything under the hour indicated good levels of endurance. A pity then that Dave Maisey’s steadfast effort saw the Vet 40 finish just 4 seconds over the hour in 214th place. A loyal band of Aylesbury supporters then had a rather long wait before Henry Edwardes-Evans and Alan Roberts tumbled out of the woods to round off Vale’s efforts around the 70-minute mark, claiming 462 and 501 places respectively.

Many thanks to Pat Card and Dick Knowles for making the journey to support. On the edge of Sussex University and opposite Brighton & Hove’s posh new football stadium, Stanmer Park is set in rolling Sussex downland with fast underfoot conditions. Chips on the front and a one-nil victory for Brighton vs Newcastle at home rounded off a most excellent day out.

Full results can be seen here

LUKE TAKES TITLE AT SOUTHERNS

U15 Athlete Luke Paulley took part in his first indoor competition on Sunday. He represented the Club at the SEAA Indoor Championships at Lee Valley running in the 1500m, and won the event by a 10 second margin. Not only did he take the title, his time of 4:57:60 is a new Club Record. Many congratulations!

KATIE ANNABEL AND KORBEN JOIN COUNTY TEAM

Katie Jones, Annabel Kalston and Korben Fenty were all selected to compete for Buckinghamshire in South East Regional Festival of Aviva’s Sportshall competitions held on 15 January in the U11 team. Annabel was in the Grand Prix and was ranked 16th, Katie was 8= in the Target Throw and Korben was ranked 8= in the Balance Test and 18th in the Standing Long Jump

SOPHIE SPRINTS TO SUCCESS

Sophie is an U15 athlete and is delighted to have come away with 3 new personal best performances in the Long Jump, 60m and 200m. It was the sprint events where she achieved Club Records with times of 8.35s and 28.03s respectively. We are awaiting confirmation on the 200m time, but as it is 2 seconds ahead of the current record, she should be safe. She can now look forward to the coming track season with great confidence.

U17s FINISH 2nd AT SLOUGH

The best all round performance of the day went to the U17 boys, who claimed 2nd place behind the strong Bedford and County trio. First home was Patrick Taylor in 5th place, then James Davis in 8th. George Langston had a storming run coming home 11th, in an ever improving season to complete the team. The boys should be congratulated for this performance particularly as there was a complete mix up over the time of their race. Despite the site stating that U17 men run at 1.40pm, for some reason the organisers at Slough decided it should be at 1.15. This unfortunately meant that the boys had to cut their warm ups short, hardly ideal! It is thought that some athletes from other Clubs may have missed the race altogether. The sole U17 girl was Louise Lightfoot, who finished in a respectful 24th position in her first run in this competition.

Kieran Lindars had a powerful run finishing 6th in his race, an improvement on his previous Chiltern Leagues this season, and James Cronin was equally strong finishing 14th, a great position as he is a first year in this age group and this was his first Chiltern League race. The U15 boys’ team was completed by Luke Pauley and Ethan Luck in 21st and 33rd respectively. Alice Wright finished in 14th position, running as a first year in the U15 girls’ race.

In the boys U13 3k race, Harri Kane finished in 13th place, and next in saw a tough battle between Tom Swindlehurst and Will Ralston for 17th place, with Tom just pipping Will to the post. The team was completed by Dan Lindars in 33rd, and Kieran Hall in his first ever Chiltern League, congratulations to him. Jasmine Kobewka and Bronwen Reed ran well in their U13 girls race to finish 17th and 27th respectively.

The earliest races of the day belonged to the U11 boys and girls, who all ran well on such a cold frosty morning. In the boys race Ben Lindars continued his great form to come 15th, only 30 seconds behind the winner from Bracknell who is a year older than him. Ross Hazel was the only other U11 runner, finishing in 39th place. The U11 Girls team of Jemima Taswell-Fryer, Georgia Hall and Lucy Gunson, all had good runs, setting the team up in a strong position.

MAKE THAT 5 GOLDS!!!

An update on the County Cross Country from Saturday, and apologies to Declan Hamblin. Declan received our 5th gold medal of the day as 1st Vet home in the men's race. He finished in 8th place behind Charlie May!

MEDALS FOR VALE AT COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS

In the U13 races Eliza Taswell-Fryer just missed out on a medal finishing 4th, but with Jasmine Kobewka and Charlotte Evans also running well, the team finished in bronze position. In the boys’ race, Harri Kane was first Vale runner home and the team again took bronze with Tom Swindlehurst, William Ralston and Richard Chappell all performing well.

The 4.3k U15 races gave us two individual medals with Kieran Lindars finishing 2nd and Tatewda Manjengwa hot on his heels, separated by just 3 seconds, to claim bronze. With solid performances from Luke Paulley and Ethan Luck, the boys’ team claimed another bronze. Alice Wright was our sole competitor in the girls’ race. She has another year in this age group and ran a very smart race to finish 4th.

The U17 boys were running 6k in their race and again, we won individual silver and bronze with excellent performances from James Davis and Patrick Taylor, both of whom have another year in this age group. George Langston finished 9th, and impressed coach Harry by overtaking 7 runners on the long slow hill!

At U20, the distances increase and the boys’ course was an 8k one where Will and Dan Gurton took silver and bronze respectively with Tom Atkins finishing out of the medals this year. Anna Madry was our only U20 girls across their 5k course.

The Seniors came away with a good array of medals! The ladies were first to take to their 6k course, a race which brought our first gold of the day from Carolyn Boosey who is making a habit of winning this season! She won to become this year’s County Champion in a time of 20:58, 30 seconds ahead of her nearest rival. Julia Austin was in 6th place in a time of 23:04 and took gold as 1st Vet 45. A good race from Natalie Chandler meant that the ladies team as a whole finished 2nd, but the Ladies Vet Team went one better! Along with Julia in 6th, Helen Bennewith finished 17th and Heather Fallaize 21st, these three V45 runners claimed 1st Vet Team prize by over 4 minutes!

Not to be outdone, the men’s 12k race produced yet more medals. First Vale athlete to finish was Charlie May in 7th, closely followed by Declan Hamblin in 8th. Solid performances from Dave Maisey, Rob Taylor, Mark Richards and Alan Roberts brought the Men’s Team home in 3rd place, but yet again it was the Vets who raised the bar. The successful combination of Hamblin, Maisey, Richards and Roberts secured our 4th gold of the day, again by over 4 minutes. Last but certainly not least, one final medal for presentation was to Colin Steptoe who took silver in the V60 category.

ALAN RUNS PEDNOR 10 MILE

Alan finished 15th from over 100 competitors in 68:44 and the race consisted of two laps of the traditional Pednor 5 mile road race which is held in May with several inclines to be negotiated.

Chiltern Harrier’s report is attached

CAROLYN’S INDOOR SUCCESS

Carolyn travelled to Sheffield to compete in the Northern Indoor Open Meeting on 17 December. We are delighted to report that not only did she win her race in a time of 9:58:42, but this is a new Club Senior Ladies Record by over 20 seconds!!

It was only a brief respite from the mud and cold as she will be back on the Cross Country courses this weekend. Many congratulations Carolyn!

BOXING DAY RACE

Close to 200 runners took part and we are delighted to report that it was won by Anuradha Cooray in a time of 15:42 with Fabian Downs taking 2nd place in 16:15 and Laurie Probert 3rd in 16:19. First lady home was Vale’s Carolyn Boosey in 18:13 with Jade Leggett 2nd and Lucy Mayer 3rd.

It is reported that Anuradha’s warm up for the race was a run into Aylesbury from Wendover and his warm down was the return journey! We are told that on the course itself he had a problem on one of the tight corners in that he was going so fast he had to take it very wide!

Best U17 prizes went to Kieran Lindars and Jade Leggett; U15 to Ethan Luck and Alice Wright. Vale athletes Julia Austin and Roger Kirk took first prize in their age categories, and The Kirk Clifford and Ruth Allcock Trophies were awarded to Anuradha Cooray and Carolyn Boosey respectively.

The Junior race of approximately 800m took place before the main event and was won by Ewan Joyce with Vale’s Ben Lindars in 2nd and Charlie Scott in 3rd. Helena Rowland was first girls to cross the line.

Full results can be seen via the link on the home page.

PATRICK’S PARK RUN

Patrick Taylor (U17) ran in the MK Park Run on Christmas Eve and completed the 5k course in 16:32. He took 2nd place behind Paul Erwood and his time gave him a new PB for the distance. It also puts him 3rd in Vale’s Road Rankings for 2011.

Andrew Reading Memorial 10k

Paul Gregory was again in brilliant form finishing 16th overall in 35:05, first V50 runner by almost 3 minutes. The next Vale athlete home was Kieran Lindars in 36:47 who was running his first ever 10k, though he frequently runs 6k in triathlons. Kieran has had a frustrating year with injury so can take a lot of confidence from this run.

Three more Vale athletes ran; Alan Roberts finished in 40:08; David Blackburn in a PB of 49:09, and Julie Lindars who finished in 59:14.

TEAM PRIZES AT WOLVERTON 5 MILES

Obviously aware of the restriction on not being allowed to play a Joker whilst leading the series Charlie and Paul played theirs and to great effect too.

The race was held round Willen Lake Milton Keynes in conditions described as windy but not too cold.

With both the Senior Men and Vet Men winning the team titles in this a prestigious and historical event everyone finishing picked up 2 extra bonus points for each team win.

On the age graded front Paul's 92.24% earned him 5 extra bonus points and decimated the competition. To put it into perspective it is a better score than Will Gurton's 800m best and Anurahda Cooray’s Marathon pb. It is a time that ranks Paul 3rd V55 on the Power of 10 UK rankings for 2011.

Whilst James (2nd U20) just pips Declan (1st V40) in to 2nd on the age grading points just as he piped him in the race too. It’s a time that places James 14th U17 on Power of 10 for 2011 and 7th on the Club’s All Time Junior (Under 20) rankings and he is still only 16!

The next race in the series is the Club's own Boxing Day 5k.

Wolverton positions and times

12th Charlie May 27:27 (77.72%) 20+4 (J) = 48

16th Paul Gregory 27:47 (92.24%) 1st v55 19+2+4+5 (J) = 60

17th James Davis 27:49 (81.42%) 2nd U20 18+2+4+3 = 27

20th Declan Hamblin 28:01 (81:18%) 1st V40 17+2+4+1 = 24

30th Dave Maisey 29:27 (77.23%) 3rd V40 16+2+4 = 22

73rd Alan Roberts 33:09 (74.75%) 10th V45 15+4 = 19

226 finished

Grand Prix after Round 1

1st Paul Gregory 60 (J)

2nd Charlie May 48 (J)

3rd James Davis 27

4th Declan Hamblin 24

5th Dave Maisey 22

6th Alan Roberts 19

Submitted by Andy Rolt

CAROLYN COMPETES WITH THE BEST

In a field of some of Europe’s best Cross Country runners she finished 45th in a time of 30:03, a fantastic run which she can be very proud of. There were over 180 competitors in the Senior Women’s race, so many congratulations for a superb performance.

ALAN’S TRIP TO EYNSHAM

On Sunday Alan Roberts ran in the Eynsham 10k and finished 96th with 565 finishers.

AWARDS NIGHT 2011

The 2011 Awards Night took place on Saturday evening, and we welcomed GB Triple Jumper Nathan Douglas to speak to us and make the presentations. Read More

HERBERT’S HOLE

The annual Herbert’s Hole race took place this weekend (20th Nov)with four Vale athletes competing. Results can be seen here

CELEBRATIONS FOR CAROLYN AND DECLAN

Carolyn Boosey and Declan Hamblin are celebrating after great runs at the Chiltern League on Saturday at Cassiobury Park Watford.

Full results can be seen here

SEASON’S BEST FOR STEVE AND ALAN

The race was run over a two lap flat course that took in some of the scenic parts of Abingdon . Alan reports that having started off at a consistent 7 minute mile pace reaching the half way point in just over 92 minutes, with Steve some 10 minutes behind him, he dropped off the pace to come home in 3 hours 38 minutes 24 seconds in 377th spot.

Steve ran a slightly quicker second half but also found the last 6 miles a struggle. He did close the gap on Alan though finishing 406th in 3.42.36. There were 777 runners who finished the race.

In the British Masters Marathon championships held in conjunction with the open race, Alan came 6th in the over 45 category with Steve 7th and in the Southern Counties Marathon Championships which was also held, they were just outside the over 45 medals with in 4th and 5th place.

CHARLIE LEADS TEAM HOME IN MARLOW

Almost 950 runners completed the course which was described by the organisers as challenging, undulating and scenic through country lanes. Whilst suitable for experienced and novice runners, the long climb of over a mile at the beginning may put off the inexperienced, but at least they got to run down it at the end!

Jo Card was our only lady taking part and is delighted with her PB of 1:44:40. David Maisey and Alan Roberts both V40 runners were 19th and 111th respectively in times of 1:22:17 and 1:34:34. We had one V60 runner, Roger Kirk who completed the course in 1:48:37.

Local charities benefitted from the run, and £1 from each race entry was donated to the British Legion which is celebrating its’ 90th anniversary this year.

Full results can be seen here

U17s AT NATIONAL RELAYS

In this age category 81 teams of three athletes took part, each one running 3k. Our boys ran well in wet conditions. Patrick Taylor ran the first leg (9:51:35); George Langston the second (10:44:90) and James Davis the final one (10:10:90). These times put the team in 38th place.

MO BACKS ROAD RACE FOR CHARITY

The conditions were described as ideal for this the 28th running of the event across an increased distance of 9.5 miles in the Amersham/Rickmansworth area. The Committee was fortunate enough to meet up with Mo recently to talk about the work undertaken with the monies raised. He has very kindly signed a race poster which will be up for grabs at a charity auction to boost funds.

SHARDELOES SUCCESS FOR PAUL

Paul is having another brilliant season for the Club and finished the new multi-terrain 10k just 20 seconds behind the winner, Fabian Downs of Chiltern Harriers. Fabian is a good quality runner who is just25! The second V50 runner was in 23rd place, 7 minutes slower than Paul – which is still a very credible time, showing just how well Paul ran.

Derek Peverell also competed for the Club and finished as 3rd V60 runner. Congratulations to both.

ALICE TAKES TROPHY

Alice Wright started her half term off in a very positive way by winning theU15 girls race. Daniel (U13) and Ben (U11) Lindars came 4th and 2nd respectively in their age groups, and for the U15s Ethan Luck was in 6th place and Luke Paulley from Nick’s squad was 3rd. We had just one U17 runner, George Langston who again was 3rd in his age category.

There was a Senior’s race though Vale only had one competitor, Alan Roberts. Alan finished in 56th place overall

CHARLIE TOPS AT LEIGHTON

Carolyn’s Ridgeway Run.

Carolyn finished an impressive 15th overall. She covered the 15.5km multi-terrain course in 64.51 in a mixed field of 517 finishers who had to battle against some strong head winds at times. Alan Roberts was next home in 59th spot in 73.41 followed by a strong run by Sharon Maisey who was 141st in 79.57 to head veteran runners Derek Peverill who was 188th in 82.55 and Steve Rooney who was 197th in 83.34.

TAYLORS TAKE TOP PRIZES

Rob ran a superb race in Buckingham to take first prize at the annual event having started the race in a small group at the front and taking the lead in the second half. Rob has been a dependable runner for the Vale in the last year and yesterday was strong and controlled throughout; certainly a worthy winner. “It’s 20 years since I last won a race. Strange feeling!” he said afterwards with a wry smile! Rob completed the 10k in a time of 36:05.

Patch Taylor was 4th overall in a time of 37:17 winning the Junior prize. This was his first 10k race, and he said afterwards “I really enjoyed it, but it was a tough course, there was nowhere that was on the flat. I will definitely run it again next year.”

Yesterday’s race, an annual event, was organised by Buckingham Ladies Circle for Charity. Starting and finishing in Buckingham town centre, the course went up Stowe Avenue and through a portion of the National Trust Gardens with over 170 competitors.

JUNIORS RUN AT LUTON

In the Division 1 U17 age group we had two first year runners in Patch Taylor and James Davis. Over the 6k course, Patch finished 3rd and James 7th from a field of 42, so both can be very pleased with their efforts. George Langston is a second year runner but has spent 6 months with a knee injury; his 22nd place is therefore a good benchmark for him. The boys all crossed the line feeling they had more to give, and are looking forward to the next race at Watford in November. Rachel McCann and Emma Wright ran for the U17 girls in a joint race with theU20 women.

Kieran Lindars was out for the U15 boys finishing 7th with younger brother Ben competing for the U11s and finishing 15th. Ben picked up the wrong spikes had to run in a pair too small for him so who knows what he will do when he runs in comfort! Alice Wright was our only U15 girl who finished 14th.

The U13 contingent ran very well. For the boys the trio of Harri Kane (26th), William Ralston (32nd) and Tom Swindlehurst (34th) gave all they had and Eliza Taswell-Fryer (21st) and Bronwyn Reed (39th) were out for the girls, again running well. The U11 girls were competing in their first cross country races for the Club and did very well indeed. Kitty Shepherd-Cross finished joint 4th which is fantastic. Katie Jones wasn’t far behind in 10th with Kristyn Dee-Crowne(29th) and Jemima Taswell-Fryer (44th).

CAROLYN TAKES TOP SPOT AT LUTON

The Veteran Ladies, courtesy of Julia, Helen Bennewith (33rd); Sharon Maisey (38th) and Heather Fallaize (52nd) are also lying 2nd in their table. These ladies, together with Natalie Chandler and Sandra Hall gave us a great start to the season.

New recruits to the men’s team put some backbone into a strong showing by the senior men. First back for the team was Charlie May (11th) in the 9-km 1st division race as the team overall sealed fourth place. Behind May were excellent first-time efforts by Will (21st) and Dan (30th) Gurton, shepherded round by the evergreen Declan Hamblin (31st), with an in-form Rob Taylor and another new boy, Tom Atkins, in close attendance (34th and 41st).

Strong support was offered by Phil Corbett (58th) and Dave Maisey (73rd) in a packed mob match field that ground to a near-halt on the opening lap because of bottlenecks. Henry Edwardes-Evans (95th), Mark Fallaize (102nd) and Mark Richards (108) got round the fast and strangely enjoyable airport-abutting course without disgrace, as did Alan Roberts (124th), Ian Thompson (128th) and Clive Fallaize (196th).

The Vets landed third spot in the first division group, so there is work to be done if Vale is to retain its title this year. A great turnout, with more to come; we were without a few stalwarts this time.

Full results can be seen here

VALE’S TOP VETS

On a damp, dismal and windy evening, Andrew Rolt and Alan Roberts took part in the Championships where a wide range of abilities meant that the field quickly strung out. This left the athletes to battle into the wind down the back straight on their own.

Andrew finished in 3rd place overall and was 1st V40 in a time of 17:08:20. Alan was 1st V45 in a season’s best of 19:41:20

Full results can be seen here

VALE ATHLETES ON MILITARY ROADS

At the time of writing, official times have not been confirmed, but we do have information given on the day. The Vets race was first each athlete running a distance of 6k. The V40 team of Andrew Rolt, Paul Gregory, Henry Edwardes-Evans and Declan Hamblin made an excellent start to the day finishing 6th overall out of 28 teams, with a combined time of 1:26:44. Paul Gregory ran the 12th fastest time of the day (20:41) and Andrew Rolt the 19th fastest (21:16). Paul competed in the V40 team, but usually runs V50 – had he done so on Sunday, he would have recorded the 2nd fastest time in the age group for the day.

Two hours later the Senior Men took to the roads with a team of 6 across the same distances as the Vets. Tom Atkins ran the first lap followed by Will Gurton, Rob Taylor, Adam Johnston and Matt Raden with Charlie May on the final lap. Charlie May unsurprisingly ran the fastest leg of our athletes with a time of 19:47; he and Matt made up 11 places during their laps to put the team 38th on the day in a total time of 2:05:12.

Full results can be seen here

ITALIAN ADVENTURES FOR ALAN

With the exception of the 800m, Alan was the only British competitor in the EMG and his first race, 10,000m, was straight after a 6 day competition in the UK. The 33 degree temperatures made life difficult as it was also very humid. Although Alan didn’t return home with a medal, he can be very proud of his performances. He was 5th in the 10k on Saturday; 5th in the 3k Steeplechase on Wednesday with a time of 14:25:56 which is a 1 second improvement on his V45 Club Record; 7th in the 1500m on Thursday; then going into the following week 5th in the 5k on Saturday; 8th in the 20k Road Race on Sunday and 7th in the 800m last Monday.

To fill his time, in the middle of these Championships he travelled to Paluzza ro run in the World Masters Mountain Running Championships where the GB team were 2nd overall with Craig Roberts of Kendal winning Gold.

6 DAY MARATHON FOR ALAN

The races begin on day one with the Tattenhoe 11k, culminating on the final day with the Willen Lake 10k; they cover a range of terrains from cross country to track, and a variety of distances from 1 mile up to 11k. Rumour has it there are a few visits to public houses involved too, but the only certainty is that completion of all races will earn you a T-shirt!

Alan can be very proud of his final 18th position in the overall race; he was 2nd V45 with a total time over all events of 3hours and 2 minutes. Unfortunately the first day came after a 10k race at Chalfont, and day 4 included a challenging 3-race schedule for him as he had to run Willen Lake as a time trial in the morning, followed by the Bucks 5k in the evening!

He was in 16th place after 5 races, but was unable to compete in the final one as he had to catch a flight to Italy to compete in the European Masters on the Saturday. This meant he slipped to 18th place, but nevertheless an excellent performance.

Full results can be seen here

WILL REACHES COMMONWEALTH FINAL

Will Gurton was selected to run in te 800m for England at the Commonwealth Youth Games held on the Isle of Man last week.

Will's time in the heats of 1:53:84 put him through to the semi-finals where he finished 3rd in a time of 1:55:11. His semi final was the faster of the two, and his time quicker than the Kenyan and Botswanan who qualified from the other semi. In the final he was in 5th place behind three Africans and just 8/100ths of a second behind a Canadian.

Nick Taylor commented that to reach the final of a major competition like this is great news; Will can be very proud of his achievement. None of the times were close to PBs due to the weather - Nick reported that the rain was horizontal!

The competiton as a whole was won by England with a total of 77 medals, 19 of which came from athletics, and of those 19, 12 were gold!

See the Games medals table

JAMES ON TOP OF THE WORLD!

James Davis has had a strong track season and is proving he can run on any terrain. He ran in the Wooburn 10k this weekend against experienced athletes many years his senior. James won the race in a time of 35:36, just 9 seconds outside his PB. As with most races over the weekend, conditions were not good for running as he had to battle against the wind. Phil Corbet came home in 4th place in 37:14, two minutes faster than last year. Unfortunately they were the only Vale athletes participating, just one more would surely have won us the team prize!

Full results can be seen here

COORAY BREAKS OWN CLUB RECORD

In a field of nearly 9,000 athletes, Anuradha ran the Bristol half-marathon this weekend and finished a very credible 3rd behind two Kenyan athletes. His time of 66:15 is a 31 second improvement on his previous Club record. The conditions were poor for distance running, and it is thought that without the wind, he could have run up to a minute faster.

Full results can be seen here

ROBERTS AND GREGORY ON FORM

Alan Roberts finished 177th from almost 7500 runners in the Burnham Beeches Half Marathon (including the Southern Vets Championships) in a time of 99:51 taking the silver medal in the over 45 category of the Southern Vets Championships.

In the final race of the Motivation Series at Oxford, Paul Gregory finished 11th in 21:46 to win the over 50 race on the day and to take the series over 50 prize. Alan finished 99th in 26:24, and also ran in the Chalfont St Giles Show Multi-terrain 10k finishing 27th in 48:53

Full results can be seen here

PB AT BEDFORD 10k FOR PHIL

In a field of over 300, Phil ran a strong race, finishing 3rd Snr Male in a time of 36:24 which is a 12 second PB for him. He reported that the course, which comprised of a gravel type cycle path was more demanding that he originally expected! Mick too had a good race finishing in 59th place in a time of 41:15 putting him as 4th V 50-54.

Although both enjoyed their races, dodging cycles proved to be a “bit of a pain”.

Full results are available: Bedford 10k results

Another Half Second Lower For Will

Will recorded a time of 1.51.49 for the 800m to lower the existing club best ever time by nearly half a second, when he finished second in the BMC Grand Prix final 800m C race at Birmingham's Alexander stadium on Saturday evening, 20th August.

SO CLOSE TO PROMOTION!!!

Steve Stokes came home with a win in the discus and a new V40 Club Record with a throw of 33.72m, this broke his own record set in July of this year. He also took 2nd place in both the shot putt and hammer and 3rd in the javelin. Other field event successes went to Rochelle Arulanandam (U17) with three wins in the high jump, long jump and triple jump; Kat Ford got a new PB in the shot as did Libby Crawford in the long jump.

The track was a great success for men and women too. Tom Atkins notched up two wins in the 800m and 2000S/C plus a 2nd place in the 5000m which took place between his other two races! Dan Gurton won his 1500m and 400m races, the latter one with a new PB of 51.7s.

Dan Barber barely had time to draw breath! He took 2nd place in the 100m, won the 200m, was 2nd in both long jump and triple jump and if that isn’t enough, ran in both the 4x100m and 4x400m winning relay teams!

The ladies had their share of successes too with Heather Fallaize achieving a 14second PB for her 1500m run, as did Julia Austin and Vicky Sheldon in the 800m. Hannah Welsh was victorious in both the 400m and 400m hurdles with Libby Crawford and Janie Gadsden winning both the A and B string 200m. A final ‘multi eventer’ on the day was Carolyn Boosey with double wins at 3k and 1500S/C.

Sincere congratulations to Saturday’s team and to those athletes who have competed for them during the season, but were absent this weekend. To miss out on promotion by so few points is disappointing, but let them watch out for us next year!

Vale of Aylesbury Results (pdf)

PB FOR PATRICK AT NATIONALS

Patrick Taylor (U17) ran this weekend at the National U15 and U17 Championships at Bedford. Patrick competed in the 800m and ran a very strong tactical race. He was 4th in his heat, narrowly missing out on qualification to the final, but his time of 1:56:78 is a PB for him. The three in front of him were all 2nd year U17 athletes.

The Final EYAL Event 5 At Hemel Hempstead 14th August July

The last match of the season was held at Hemel Hempstead and the weather was kind. We had 10 first places on the day. These were Matt Robinson with a great PB of 56.5 in the U15 boys 400m and his first outing in a club vest. Tatenda Manjengwa and Will Davison in the A and B string 1500m U15 boys. Charlie Brown shared the top position in his high jump with a jump of 1.55m. Our U15 girls did not let us down either; Alice Wright won the 800m; Donelle Arulanandam had PB’s in high jump – 1.47m and long jump – 4.85m to secure her A string victories; Sarah Ireland had a long awaited PB of 4.49m to win the B string long jump. Becky Rodnight equalled her PB in the Pole vault to get us top points. In the U17 women Rachel McCann came first in the B string triple jump and Tasha Cornwell won the B string shot.

There were many other great results on the day and we even managed to get two relay teams out. Although we were down on numbers due to the summer holidays and missing Patrick and Jordan who were competing for Bucks; we managed to climb off the bottom spot. Our 5 U17 girls came joint second so it just shows what we could do with a full team. Welcome and well done to our other new competitors – Sophie, Amy, Shannon, and Tiernan. See you next season.

Thanks as usual to my army of helpers; Martin, Simon, Graham, Jim, Catherine, Robin, Paul, Tom and Andy (and Cathy and Phil for coming to officiate but found we were over run!)

Well done everyone. The results should soon be available on the Power of 10 website but in the meantime please find them attached.

Will Gurton - Getting faster

In windy conditions, Will Gurton ran the fastest 1500m ever recorded by a Vale athlete, running 3.52.87 at the Watford open meeting, a time that will be surely revised downward in the near future.

Bletchingdon, Blisworth and Hooky

4/8/11 – Bletchingdon 4 ¼ miles: Paul Gregory finished 10th (1st over 50) in 23.31 to lead in the over 50 category in the Motivation midweek series with just one event to go at Oxford next month. Alan Roberts was 90th in 28.48 with 302 finishing this event.

5/8/11 – Blisworth 5: Alan Roberts competed in this hilly race near Northampton finishing 80th in 35.23. There were 272 finishers

14/8/11 – Hooky 6: Alan Roberts finished in 86th place in 42.53, the race was held on a two lap figure of eight course around the village of Hook Norton. There were 280 finishers

ANURADHA TAKES TITLE!

A Bearbrook representative told us that one of the Marshall’s had just sat down to wait for the runners to come through thinking she had plenty of time, only to see Anuradha coming towards her! They also said that the lead car was taken by surprise at his speed … they obviously don’t know him! Many congratulations again!

VALE ATHLETES IMPROVE AT KINGSTON

PBs achieved on the day came from Mr PB, James Davis in the 3K (9:28:79); Jordan Hadley made the drive worthwhile for his mum with 2 PBs in the 100m hurdles (14.55s) and 400m hurdles (61.12s) and Tijeanne Bartley in the triple jump 12.78m. The other Vale athlete competing was Patrick Taylor who ran the 800m. Patrick lead the race through to the last 100m, finally finishing 2nd.

Jordan and TJ were part of the 4 x 100 relay team who came 3rd; Patrick ran the first leg of the 4 x 400m relay with Jordan on the final leg where we finished 4th. Well done to one and all!

IFFLEY ROAD MILE

On Wednesday 3 August athletes gathered in Oxford to compete in a 1 mile race in historic surroundings. Although the cinder track has long been replaced, Iffley Road is the track where Sir Roger Bannister was the first man to break the 4 minute mile back on 6 May 1954.

On a hot and humid August evening, almost 60 athletes turned out to run with the wind blowing up the back straight. Unfortunatley, unlike 1954, the wind did not die away for the race!

There were five races in all, graded according to expected finish times, and Andrew ran in 4th of the evening finishing in 4:48:4; this puts him 5th fastest V40 athlete on the Power of 10 for 2011. Although happy with his time, Andrew commented “the hot weather certainly sapped energy from most of us. It will be a cold lager tonight!”

Unfortunately the humidity and wind meant that none of the athletes were able to break Sir Roger’s time ... well there’s always next year! Many thanks for Oxford Uni AC for organising the event.

JAMES IS ON TRACK AT U15/U17 CHAMPS

Last weekend James took part in the South of England Athletics Association U17/U15 3k Championships in Abingdon. James is a first year U17 athlete, and amongst the best in the Country, he took another 3 seconds off of his personal best time with a run of 9:30:5. This means that James has improved his 3k time by a massive 9.5 seconds since April. Many congratulations James.

With no league meetings this weekend, the only other junior in competition was Patrick Taylor who took part in the SEAA U17/U15 Championships in Ashford Kent. Like James, Patch is a first year U17 athlete and he was delighted to qualify for the final, coming second in his heat. It was a slow final, partly due to the windy conditions and partly to the race being tactical. The winner was James McMurray of St Albans who recently competed for Great Britain in the World Youth Games; Patrick was in eighth position, the second first year to cross the line.

RECORDS SMASHED AT WADDESDON

The forecast promised thundery showers, but fortunately they failed to materialise and Steven Naylor of Woodstock Harriers stormed through the finish line in 15m23s to take the course record. He was followed home by Vale’s Charlie May in 2nd (16:21) and Nigel Marley of Coventry Godiva Harriers in 3rd (16:38).

It was a great evening for Woodstock as one of their senior women, Sophie Carter, won the ladies race in another record time of 17m.52s. 2nd place went to Tanya Taylor of Marshall Milton Keynes (18:36) and Vale’s Carolyn Boosey was 3rd (19:01).

Carolyn was the first Vale lady home, followed by Heather Fallaize (23:03) and Victoria Sheldon (23:21).

Vale runners were also amongst the prize winners for the evening not only with Charlie in 2nd place, but James Davis (16m 54s) won the U17 prize, and our men took 1st place in the team event. Alongside Charlie and James were Rob Taylor (16:49) and Patrick Taylor (17:10).

ENGLAND CALL UP FOR WILL!

Will was part of the GB squad which competed in Lille last week. He knew from that outset that despite being the only English 800m runner to have achieved the qualification time required, it would be a tough task to reach the final amongst exceptional competition from some of the African countries. Will cruised through his heats in a time of 1.52.8, but with 3 of the top 10 in the world in his semi final, the outcome was inevitable as only 2 automatically qualified for the final. However he ran well and can be very proud of himself. Coach Nick Taylor said ‘it has been a great experience for Will and one he will learn a lot from’.

England Athletics are obviously impressed with his abilities as he will now be part of the squad heading to Douglas, Isle of Man, from 7-13 September. The Games are held bi-annually and are for track and field athletes aged 16 and 17.

RECORDS AND MEDALS AT RISBOROUGH 10k

This year's Risborough 10k was won by Anuradha Cooray who smashed his own 2009 course record by almost 30 seconds finishing in a time of 31.02! He was over 2 minutes in front of the nearest runner, Charlie May who finished 2nd in a time of 33.10.

Although the weather was very warm, a welcoming breeze was no doubt helpful, and in the men’s race, there were personal best times for Rob Taylor and James Davis. Rob finished 7th in a fast time of 35.21 but James Davis must be delighted with his run as he was just behind Rob in 8th with a time of 35.27! James has had a strong year and this run won him the U17 prize – he was the first junior home. There was another PB for Chloe Oldfield in the ladies race where she finished 7th in 42.29.

For the ladies, Julia Austin won first V45 lady finishing in 5th place overall; Heather Fallaize took the V50 prize in 15th and 1st local lady to finish was Vale’s Vicky Sheldon. Last but not least, and to add to the medals, Men’s and Ladies team prizes were both won by Vale of Aylesbury!

One runner commented that the race was extremely well signed, marshalled and controlled, with no incidents reported on what is a tricky set of roads for road running - testament to Colin Steptoe's directorship and all those who helped him.

Full Results (PDF)

PBs AT ENGLISH SCHOOLS CHAMPIONSHIPS

Four Vale athletes made the trip to Gateshead last weekend for the English Schools Track and Field Championships, as members of the Buckinghamshire squad. They were Dan Gurton; Anna Madry; Jordan Hadley and Patrick Taylor.

Unfortunately our athletes didn’t come away with medals, but in the toughest competition they can face at their age, Dan and Jordan both achieved new PBs. Dan ran the 800m in 1.55.05 and Jordan the 400m hurdles in 59.89s. All four athletes are in the first year of their age groups so it was always going to be difficult for them, but we are sure they will be back again next year!

European Veterans Non Stadia Championships

This was the 12th championships and for this year they had changed the rules to allow B teams to count as medallists (normally only one team per country could medal) and allow small nations to form an International team. This worked to our disadvantage as a certain silver medal under the old rules saw us finish 4th overall behind both Germany A and B and an International team of 2 Swiss and a Spaniard! It was then on to Thionville on the Sunday for the Half Marathon where the three of us teamed up again for GB ‘A’ again finishing 4th behind Spain, France and Germany. I clocked 92.15 for 28th spot.

Wargrave 10km and Other Results

On the roads recently Paul Gregory finished 4th overall and top over 50 in the Wargrave 10km in 34.49 (chip time of 34.46) and just 14 seconds shy of overall victory not bad for an over 55 Veteran! In the latest Motavation series race Paul finished 12th overall and top over 50 in the Combe 3.9 mile race near Woodstock in 21.05. Alan Roberts finished 101st (8th over 45) in the Doug Anderson 5km at Bedford Park in 20.21 and finally Andrew Stephenson ran the Milton Keynes 10km in 45.14 finishing 202nd.

Ben Gregory finished 8th in the Pole Vault in a seasons best of 4.90 in the Pole Vault at the Aviva World Trials & UK Championships in Birmingham over the weekend

Alan Roberts 1st Aug 2011

SAL: 2nd @ Eastbourne

The Vale team were second again beating league 4th team Swindon and 8th placed Croydon.

On a bright and breezy day the competition was good and many good performance were achieved .

Hannah Welsh started the day with a pb 400hurdles 74.9 . She also won the 400 flat in 67.0 and finished off the winning 4 x 400 relay team . In the field another U17 Rochelle Aralanandan won the triple jump with 10.42 just short of her pb. A very narrow foul jump of 10.80 showed a club record could happen this year. Tricia McSweeney had a very busy day , 7 events, including 2nd in both sprints and 100h , times 14.6 , 31.4 and 21.8.

Rosanna Lannone won both the 400 and 1500 with ease before running the 3rd leg on the 4 x 400 relay pulling back 25 m. Carolyn Boosey set a pb in the 400hurdles winning in 78.9 , then later in the day winning the B 1500 , and steeplechase 7.59.5 a season,s best The throwers were busy as is the territory , Brenda Russell winning the hammer , 26.22 , 2nd discuss 21.08, shot 6.42 and javelin 12.18. Kat Ford , after winning the B Hammer 20.93 set a pb in the javelin 12,57 . Vicky Sheldon also was busy , 6 events , pole vault , triple jump ( 6.28) . 200, 800 and 3000.

The men's highlight was the 4 x 400 relay , a time of 3.26.4 , just 0.2 slower than the club record set in 2002. The team was Dan Barber , Dan Gurton , Karl Goodman and Will Gurton . The conditions were breezy and after the first leg each runner had nothing to chase apart from the time . A brave effort but the record should go this year , Portsmouth here we come.

Will had a tough race in the flat 400 coming back from 5 m behind with 90 m to the finish to win in 50.8. He later won the 1500 in 4.10.7 leading all the way after a first lap of 64 . Patrick Taylor was Will.'s partner in both races winning both with a pb 400 51.8 and 4.15.8 . The 800m was won by Dan Gurton in 1.57.8 front running a faster 2nd lap to destroy the field. Mark Fallaize kicking in the home straight to pick up the B 800 in 2.02.9 Stefano Aquilino , a first year U 20 , was 2nd in the Hammer 33.35 and won the B discus with a pb (with the 2kg ) of 25.45. Richard Gaster was busy winning the B 100 11.9 . 200 – 24.2 a pb , High jump 1.60 equal pb and triple jump 11.17 , another pb.

The distance races were for Andy Rolt 2nd A steeplechase 11.03.5 and Tommy Atkins both flat and steeplechase , 2nd 3K flat 9.58 and 1st B Steeplechase 11.13.5 , a pb. Lee Shears continued his return with a seasons best in the 110 hurdles winning in 15.8 and horizontal jumps of 5,10 and 10.95 Steve Stokes likes leaving it late and as his custom ensured his win in the discus in the last round with 32. 57 . He also won the shot with a 5th round effort of 10,55 a season's best. Gaith Taha, men's team manager had a wide variation of events , after winning the shot B 8.52 , he pole vaulted , ran the B 3000 flat and lead off the 4 x 100 relay team . Jeff Bond ran 3rd A 100 – 11.7 and threw javelin – 3A – 36.62. Dan Barber was 2nd in 400hurdles 63.5, a seasons best and long jumped 5.26 , with a narrow foul at 5.70.

Thanks to all the officials who travelled down for the match , even those who did not expect to be asked .

The result of the match was Eastbourne 245, Vale 209.5 , Swindon 120.5 Croydon 110 This will move Eastbourne and the Vale above Swindon , The last match is at Portsmouth 20th August

Jim Rayner, Jul 31st

EYAL Event 4 At Bedford on Sunday 24th July

Results

After two weeks of dismal weather the sun came out and allowed for a wealth of personal and season’s bests. Sophie Dickerson had PB’s in hurdles, 100m and long jump, Sarah Ireland in the 200m and hurdles. Donelle Arulanandam had PB’s in the 200m and high jump. Her big sister, Rochelle had a PB in the 100m and an “oh so close” PB but a win with her 4.72m long jump. Helena Rowland had massive PB’s in the U13 girls 100m and 800m. Patrick Taylor had two storming wins in the 800m and 1500m. Laurie Neal, in only his second outing for the club, ran PB’s in the 100m and 200m.

Welcome to all our new young athletes – remember next year most of those athletes you were competing against will have gone up to the next age group. It was great to see you all still smiling after such stiff competition. Keep up the good work in training and your times will come tumbling down.

A huge thank you to Martin and Simon for their help with officiating and of course the Dads; Robin Ireland, Mark Taylor and Andy Neal for all their raking, spiking and collecting of shot etc. 3 hours of back to back helping with long jump and triple jump isn’t most Dads’ ideal way of spending a Sunday afternoon. We couldn’t have done it without you!

Our athletes performed brilliantly and tried their best – generally coming in the top 4 positions. With the clash with NJAL and summer holidays we were never going to field a big team so the unfortunate position of coming last was always on the cards. This did not reflect you hard work and enthusiasm. Thank you.

Next EYAL is at Hemel Hempstead on 14th August.

Please, please let me know what events you would like to do. All invited. Let’s try and field as a big a team as possible at this last one of the season.

I am on holiday the week before then so please email me what you would like to do (details on contacts page). Fixture details and timetable on EYAL page of Fixtures.

Corinne Cornwell

19th World Masters

I was in Sacramento, California, USA as one of nearly 5,000 athletes from 93 nations competing in the 19th World Masters Athletics (WMA) Championships. The athletes range in age from 35 to 101 years old. The list of entrants included such names as Zola Budd Pieterse, the one-time barefooted prodigy of women’s distance running; Budd Pieterse, a two-time world cross country champion in the 1980s, is competing in her first WMA Championships at age 45. Budd Pieterse currently lives in South Carolina but will represent her native South Africa in Sacramento. “Since I’m already in the United States, it made sense to compete in the WMA Championships,” Budd Pieterse said. “I’m really looking forward to coming to Sacramento. I’m really just doing it to enjoy it and make a few friends.”In response to the question she always receives, “I’ll probably wear shoes,” she said with a chuckle. The naturally strong USA team includes Willie Banks, the former world record holder in the men’s triple jump and also Al Joyner, the 1984 Olympic champion in the triple jump; Willie Gault, a 1980 Olympian won a bronze medal in the high hurdles at the 1983 World Championships, will compete in the 100 and 200 meters in Sacramento. He set M50 world records of 10.88 and 22.44 seconds this spring at a meet in Southern California and Jearl Miles Clark, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and five-time Olympian.

After five days of acclimatisation with temperatures over 100 degrees, my first event was the 8KM cross country in a relatively cool 96 degrees, the course included a few hills and some dusty trails as well as the obligatory lap round the American football pitch, fortunately the race included some welcomed water stations! I finished 16th in the over 45 race in a time of 34.48.6 this was good enough for a World team silver, the same colour as Zola Budd who picked up an individual silver in the women’s over 45 race! The next day saw me finish as predicted at the rear of my 800m quarter final in 9th spot in 2.43.81, so elimination as was expected. Then on to the 5000m Final on the next day, where I finished 33rd from a field of 41 in a time of 20.25.16.

I then had 3 days rest before I competed in the 1500m followed two days later with the 10,000m and then the Marathon! Fortunately the weather was cooler in the last week (the temperature was in the mid 80’s so positively mild). The 1500m again saw me finish at the rear as expected in 9th spot with my heat time of 5.38.23 and then with a days rest on to the 10,000m Final at 9pm on Friday night to finish 23rd in 41.54.46 which ranks me 9th in the power of 10 rankings for an over 45. The race was like running the last race of a Watford open meeting and I was told a ran a strong race despite the heat. The marathon race on Sunday morning started at 5am with the first hour run in the dark. With my legs still feeling it from Friday’s race and with the prospect of the morning sun at 6am I set off at 7.30 mins/mile pace but soon found after 9 miles the 10km had took too much out of me. I struggled on to finish 21st in 4.02.30 (the race was won in a modest 2.46), my performance though was good enough for the over 45 team to take the bronze behind the USA and Russia.

It was then on to a flight on Monday morning to be back in England on Tuesday so that I was able to run in the 5km at Waddesdon on Wednesday…

Alan Roberts 25th July 2011

Anuradha cruises to Wycombe Win

Vale of Aylesbury AC’s Anuradha Cooray took first place by a country mile in Sunday’s Wycombe Half Marathon, snaring the county championship and leading a victorious Vale team home.

Cooray’s time of 68 minutes and 24 seconds over the 13-and-a-bit miles was over four minutes faster than second-placed Torry Hugh (unaffiliated). “I took it easy through Wycombe Abbey,” the 33-year-old Sri Lankan said of the punishing first-mile hill through the school. Nevertheless he had opened up a 100-metre gap by the summit and sped round the rest of the course in light winds and intermittent drizzle – ideal for runners if not the town’s enthusiastic spectators.

Another blistering run from Vale’s Charlie May saw the 23-year-old take fourth place in just over 74 minutes, two minutes quicker than Chiltern Harrier Eddie O’Gorman.

Making up a victorious Men’s Team effort were David Maisey (24th in 84 minutes and pipped at the post by Thame Runner and Vale training partner Andy Byerley) and Henry Edwardes-Evans (61st, 92 minutes).

In her first half marathon, meanwhile, Vale’s Joanna Card blitzed her two-hour target time in running a spirited 106 minutes to take Bronze in the Bucks Championship. “I need new shoes,” she said on the line, taking the edge off mother Pat’s delight.

Henry Edwardes-Evans, 18th July 2011

Footnote: canny jokers were played by Joanna and Henry in the Vale’s Grand Prix race series, boosting their points tally in a race that does not attract a huge Vale entry.

Will Selected For England

Will Gurton has been selected to represent England in the 800m at the Youth Commonwealth games, which will take place in the Isle of Man in early September. Well done Will

Vale of Aylesbury take 1st and 2nd at Risborough 10k

Anuradha Cooray wins the Princes Risborough 10k in a new course record time of 31.02. Charlie May was 2^nd in a time of 33.10.

Full Results (PDF)

Will Gurton Selected for Great Britain

Will Gurton has been selected to represent Great Britain in the 800m at the forthcoming World Youth Championships in Lille, France, 4-10th July. Well done.

Headline names such as top-ranked UK under-20s Sophie McKinna (coach: Geoff Capes), Zak Seddon (coach: Jeff Seddon) and Georgia Peel (coach: Mick Woods) lead a group of 24 athletes who will take part in the event – the youngest age group global championships available to athletes and a crucial step in the development of Britain’s future stars.

BRONZE FOR DAN

Dan Gurton won his first big championship medal when he finished third in the Southern U20 Track and field championships in 4.06.82 after a extraordinary quick last two hundred metres, passing five other athletes on the run in. Brother Will was leading in the 800m final when he was tripped and then boxed in and ended up sixth in 1.54.30 He now faces a nervous Monday as he waits for the selectors to decide if he will represent Great Britain at the World Youth Championships next Month.

Vale win Ridgeway thriller

Vale of Aylesbury Athletics Club triumphed again in the 86.5-mile Ridgeway Relay on Sunday [June 19], fighting off a spirited comeback by Headington Road Runners that saw the Vale’s lead cut to two minutes as the race entered its final 10 miles.

Run over punishingly hilly paths from Ivinghoe Beacon to Marlborough, the 10-stage relay was completed by the Vale in 9 hours and 44 minutes, with the team’s eight men and two women running 6.33-minute-miles on average. Headington were six minutes back, Reading 44 minutes in third. Some 40 teams completed the event.

“It was very close this year, a winning margin of five seconds per mile over a full day’s running is nothing and we had a great joust with Headington,” team captain Henry Edwardes-Evans said.

Ridgeway first-timer Phil Corbett got the race underway for the Vale at 7.30am in blustery, sticky conditions on Ivinghoe Beacon, handing over in sixth place to Julia Austin in Wendover. Julia made up a place as she handed over to Vale’s evergreen veteran Paul Gregory at Whiteleaf, who proceeded to scythe through the field to hand on to Rosanna Iannone at Lewknor in second.

Rosanna maintained that position to Swyncombe, where upon another Ridgeway newbie, Rob Taylor, stormed down the treacherous Grim’s Ditch and into the lead as the race entered South Stoke. The team’s third newcomer, Matt Raden, then led the race through Streatley and up on to Bury Down, with Headington surging into second.

The race was now set up and Vale made its decisive move, with Charlie May blitzing his nine-mile leg in 52 minutes, the fastest run of the day by any runner on any leg.

Edwardes-Evans and Dave Maisey defended that lead over the next 19 miles from Wantage to Barbury Castle, but Headington were far from done and pulled right back into contention after 77 miles of racing. Experience and class told in the end, however, with Declan Hamblin settling the matter in emphatic style over Marlborough Downs to seal the Vale’s fourth Ridgeway victory in five years.

Corby 5 - Wednesday May 25th 2011

Charlie May took it easy in the Corby 5 mile road race over a tough rural and hilly course that is worth a minute on most runners times. The race is part of the East Midlands Grand Prix series. Charlie finished 59th in 31.32.

Adrian Huntley On the Road

Adrian was busy on the roads pre London marathon….

Event	Perf		Pos		Venue	Meeting	Date
5KMT	19:36		9		Slough	Black Park parkrun 5K Event 88	19 Mar 11
10K	37:55	37:54	12	3	Stratford-upon-Avon	Shakespeare Raceway 10K	5 Mar 11
12K	49:33	49:27	55	6	Tiddington	Not The Roman IX 12K	16 Jan 11
HM	84:41	84:16	120	7	Wokingham	Wokingham Half Marathon	13 Feb 11

And Graham Tucker running at Reading…

Event	Perf		Pos		Venue	Meeting	Date
HM	1:59:33	1:53:49	4829	379	Reading	Sweatshop Reading Half Marathon	20 Mar 11

Sri Chinmoy series – Monday 6th June 2011

Alan Roberts finished 12th (2nd over 40) in 18.53 in the latest race of the series. The race over 3 miles around Cutteslowe Park in Oxford. Ian Tarvitt finished 24th (1st over 60) in 21.30.

Otmoor Challenge 13.5miles – Saturday 4th June 2011

This multi-terrain course saw 324 finishers. Alan Roberts was the best of the Vale trio in 52nd place in 100.16 mins. Heather Fallaize was next in 116.41 mins and Julia Madry 244th in 129.20.

Motivation Series – Thursday 2nd June 2011

Paul Gregory was the top Vet over 50 finishing 11th overall in the second race of the series at Bletchingdon clocking 23.17 over 4 ¼ miles Alan Roberts finished 76th in 27.15.There were 349 finishers

Blenheim 7km – Sunday 8th May 2011

Ian Tarvitt finished top over 60 in the Blenheim 7km race finishing 63rd overall in 32.35.

VOAAC Athletes Win at Bucks Schools

The Buckinghamshire Schools Athletics Championships took place this weekend at High Wycombe. Although warm and sunny, fast times were hampered by strong winds leaving many looking for English Schools Championship qualification times disappointed. Nevertheless, we are delighted that six of our junior athletes won their events competing for their schools.

On the track, four U17 athletes came away winners. Jake Higgs won the 200m with a new PB of 24.1s; remarkably he ran the same time in both the heats and final! Jordan Hadley, new to the 400m hurdles this season, won his event in 61.4s, also a PB. Over the longer distances, Patrick Taylor won the 800m and continuing his wonderful season, James Davis came through to win the 3k with a new PB of 9:38:2. Our other track champion is U13 runner, Eliza Taswell-Fryer who won the girls 800m. Our final champion was in a field event; Charlie Brown (U15) won the High Jump with a new PB of 1.56m.

Other athletes from the Club competed across a variety of events. There are too many to list, but several of them achieved new personal best times or distances. They are Marguerite Pope and Sophie Dickerson in the Long Jump and 75m hurdles; Lauren Einchcomb in the Long Jump and 100m; Rachel McCann in the Triple Jump and Tasha Cornwell in the Pole Vault.

Charlie Wins at the Zoo

Sunday 5th June saw the running of this year’s ZSL Whipsnade Zoo 10k Challenge. The race, organised by Dunstable Road Runners consists of 3 laps of the traffic free perimeter road within the Zoo on Dunstable Downs. We are delighted to report that in glorious sunshine, Vale of Aylesbury athlete Charlie May won this year’s event in a time of 33m50s.

Libby, Tash, Charlie and Becky @ Inter Counties

Liberty Crawford, Tasha and Charlie Cornwell have been selected to represent Bucks In the inter counties championship in the Heptathlon in Derby on the weekend of 25/26 June. Becky Rodnight has been selected for the Junior squad competing in the pentathlon on Sunday 26th June in Derby

24th British Masters Open Road Relay Championships 2011

Sutton Park, Birmingham, 21st May 2011

Mark Richards	17.46m
Matt Raden	16.46m	+20
Ian Tarvit	22.06m	-32
Henrik Hartmann	19.12m	+0
Rob Taylor	16.22m	+20
Andrew Rolt	17.08m	+4
Colin Mawdsley	19.54m	+13
David Maisey	17.45m	+1

Silverstone 10km

Of 929 finishers…

8th Charlie May 32.40 Chip time (32.41 with splits of 16.33 and 16.08 for 5km)
144th Alan Roberts 40.30 (Chip time 40.28 with splits of 20.06 and 20.22 for 5km) 17th over 45

MEN’S TEAM WINNERS AT COOMBE HILL!

The annual Coombe Hill Run took place this weekend, organised by the Vale of Aylesbury AC. The 6k race, starting out through the streets of Wendover, includes a challenging 190m climb up to the Coombe Hill Monument.

This year’s turnout was excellent, with runners crossing a very wide age range from U15 through to Vet 60. Almost 250 runners completed the main race, but it was especially pleasing to see a huge increase in younger children taking part in the shorter fun run. Initial estimates are that almost 50 children took part.

The main race winner was Murray Strain from Hunters Bog Trotters with a time of 21:37 and the first lady home was Tessa Hill from Highgate Harriers in a time of 25:10 which put her in 13th place. The Vale of Aylesbury athletes were of course out in force. First across the line for us was newcomer to the Club, Matt Raden who, with a time of 23:45, finished in 5th place with David Maisey in 7th. David was first V40 to cross the line, but he was just 100th of a second in front of James Davis (U17) who was 8th, and first junior to finish. Recently returned from injury, Andy Rolt was 10th which gave Vale of Aylesbury the Men’s Team Prize. Many congratulations to one and all.

For the ladies, Bronwen Reed was first Aylesbury lady home which is a great result for her as she is an U15 athlete. Eliza and Jemima Taswell-Fryer were 2nd and 3rd Vale ladies to cross the line.

Club Results

5 Matt Raden Vale of Aylesbury AC SM 23 : 45

7 David Maisey Vale of Aylesbury AC MV40 23 : 50

8 James Davis Vale of Aylesbury AC U17M 23 : 51

10 Andrew Rolt Vale of Aylesbury AC MV40 24 : 20

19 Elliot Collin Vale of Aylesbury AC U17M 26 : 14

27 Henrick Hartmann Vale of Aylesbury AC SM 27 : 12

28 David Harrington Unattached MV40 27 : 15

33 Michael O'Connor Vale of Aylesbury AC MV50 27 : 49

43 James Cronin Vale of Aylesbury AC U15M 28 : 43

51 Alan Roberts Vale of Aylesbury AC MV40 29 : 15

71 Ian Tarvitt Vale of Aylesbury AC MV60 30 : 53

86 Bromwen Reed Vale of Aylesbury AC U15F 32 : 18

103 Roger Kirk Vale of Aylesbury AC MV60 33 : 03

120 Eliza Taswell-Fryer Vale of Aylesbury AC U15F 33 : 48

144 Jemima Taswell-Fryer Vale of Aylesbury AC U15F 35 : 34

160 Ross Hazel Vale of Aylesbury AC U15M 37 : 17

194 Janice Hunter Vale of Aylesbury AC FV45 39 : 57

199 Alice Maisey Vale of Aylesbury AC U15F 40 : 12

206 Leonie Glasson Vale of Aylesbury AC U15F 41 : 22

207 Mandie Glasson Vale of Aylesbury AC FV35 41 : 22

216 Pat Card Vale of Aylesbury AC FV55 43 : 17

223 Moira Thompson Vale of Aylesbury AC SW 43 : 59

231 Terry Gadsby Vale of Aylesbury AC FV45 45 : 42

VALE ATHLETES SPEED UP AT WATFORD!

Five Vale of Aylesbury junior athletes travelled to the Watford Harriers Open Meeting last night. All five of them ran in the 1500m, of which there were an astonishing 20 races. The first race started at 7.40pm and the last one finished just before 10 o’clock!

In near perfect running conditions, our first runners were Alice Wright and Abbey Winterburn, both U15 who ran in the same race, and both achieved new personal best times. Alice took just over 8 seconds off her previous best with a time of 5:12:43, and Abbey’s time of 5:15:59 was a 2 second improvement.

For the U17 boys, James Davis continued his strong season with a 4 second personal best running 4:25:11 and Patrick Taylor, in his first 1500m run of the season, not only achieved a 4 second pb, but his time of 4:06:12 qualifies him to run at the English Schools Championships in Gateshead this July.

It was a long night for Vale spectators. The U15 girls ran in the fourth race; James in the thirteenth; Patrick in the seventeenth, and our final competitor was Dan Gurton who was in the final race. At the time of writing his time is still to be confirmed, but it was approximately 4:01. One senior took to the track, Gaith Taha, who ran the 100m just missing his pb by one hundredth of a second! Gaith finished in a time of 12.05s.

WILL TAKES 3RD IN MANCHESTER!

Will Gurton continued his outstanding season last weekend in a British Milers’ Club Grand Prix race at Sportcity in Manchester. He was competing in the Men’s 800B race, finishing in 3rd place in a time of 1:52:11, close on the heels of two athletes more than five years his senior. An excellent performance, well done!

European Veterans Non Stadia Championships

I was competing in the European Veterans Non Stadia Championships in France over the weekend. My first event was a midday 10km road race on Friday in Yutz. I had to try and break 40 mins to get into the GB ‘A’ team and for the first 2km I was one of the top 3 Brits. The conditions were hot so I started to fade soon after and by the end of the first lap I was the last of the 6 Brits. I rallied in the last 2km and got back as 5th Brit in a disappointing time of 42.00 finishing 38th overall in the over 45’s category. Both GB ‘A’ and GB ‘B’ were soundly hammered in the team event. Saturday saw better conditions for the cross country relays in Yutz. I was fortunate to be part of GB ‘A’ running the second leg, my team colleagues were Tony Tuohy and Trevor Raynor who were part of the 10km A team. This was the 12th championships and for this year they had changed the rules to allow B teams to count as medallists (normally only one team per country could medal) and allow small nations to form an International team. This worked to our disadvantage as a certain silver medal under the old rules saw us finish 4th overall behind both Germany A and B and an International team of 2 Swiss and a Spaniard! It was then on to Thionville on the Sunday for the Half Marathon where the three of us teamed up again for GB ‘A’ again finishing 4th behind Spain, France and Germany. I clocked 92.15 for 28th spot.

Alan Roberts, May 20th 2011

2 Mile Self-Transcendence Race 23rd May: Results for VOAAC

Pos	Name	Club	1 Mile	2 Mile	Category
4	Alan Roberts	Vale of Aylesbury	5.58	12.18	V
11	Ian Tarvit	Vale of Aylesbury	7.00	14.06	SV

Mota-vation Summer Race Series

Race 1: Charlton-on-Otmoor, May 5 2011, 4 miles 168 yards - Alan Roberts finished 79th in 26.11

Charndon 5k

The Charndon 5k and Round 7 of The Grand Prix took place on Tuesday 17th May and marked the halfway stage of this seasons 14 race series. With 21 club members toeing the line it made it the highest turn out so far with over 50% being Ladies.

Other members were left disappointed as there were no late entries on the night as has normally been the case.

In cool but blustery conditions Rosanna Iannone (one of 9 club members making their GP debuts) was the most successful Vale athlete of the evening when finishing as 2nd Senior Lady and 53rd overall in a time of 19:13 she was followed by Julia Austin in 66th overall and 2nd Veteran 45 Lady with 19:35. Next home and the 3rd member of the scoring team that finished 2nd was Helen Bennewith in 114th overall with 21:58. These were chased by Heather Fallaize in 123rd with 21:17, Vicky Sheldon in 132nd with 22:43 Then came Mandie Glasson in 164th with 24:49, Jayne Littlejohn in 182nd with 25:58 and Jackie Rolt in 196th with 27:49 followed by Janice Hunter in 201st with 28:15 followed by Pat Card in 209th with 29:49 and Terry Gadsby in 218th with 32:12.

The Men were led home once again by Charlie May in 4th place with 16:01 bettering his previous pb by 24 seconds. Next home was Rob Taylor in 12th with 16:48 whose strategy to hold on to the 'spot prize' of 15th overall in the GP has to be questioned as he now shoots up to 10th! Mark Fallaize 26th with 17:41 bettered his 7 year old pb followed closely by Phil Corbett in 32nd with 18:06 another pb and completing the Men's scoring team which came 4th.

Andrew Rolt successfully tested out his hamstring injury in 37th with 18:37. Next was Pete Bennewith in 51st with 19:10. Colin Mawdsley in 66th with 19:36 is having a tight ding dong battle for a podium place in the overall GP standings with Alan Roberts who was next across the line in 78th with 20:01 jet lagged having been on International race duties in France over the later part of last week!

Andy Stevenson was next in 97th with 21:12 followed by Clive Fallaize in 113rd with 21:57.

There were 224 finishers.

Age graded bonus points went to Julia (2pts 82.69%) & Rosanna (1pts 77.10%) and Charlie (2pts 80.54%) & Rob (1pts 79.39%). Category Bonus Points of 1 each went to Rosanna and Julia with everyone picking up 1 Bonus Point for the Ladies team gaining 2nd. No Jokers were played on this occasion which is surprising considering the clubs tradition at constantly picking up individual and team prizes at this event over many years.

At the half way stage of the GP Charlie and Julia have commanding leads however they have both played their Joker and with the Waddesdon 5k & Bearbrook 10k offering double points and with ONLY 3 other Men and 1 Lady having played their Jokers there are still loads of points to be won moving into the second half of the competition so THE PRIZES are still up for grabs.

The next event is the clubs own Princes Risborough 10k on Sunday 3rd July which would be a good one to consider playing your Joker ;-)
It should be noted that the closing date is Saturday 25th June! The entry form can be found here: http://www.voaac.org.uk/documents/PR10k/2011_PR_10K_Entry_Form_runbritain.pdf

Overall GP standings and previous race results are here http://www.voaac.org.uk/RoadRaceGP/Grand%20Prix%202010-11.xls

Andrew Rolt, 18th May 2011

World Youth Championships for Will

1.51.94 That's how long it took Will Gurton to smash the club's 800m record and to gain qualification for the World Youth Championships

MEDALS GALORE AT COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS

Vale of Aylesbury Athletic Club athletes had a successful trip to the County Championships held this weekend in a joint meeting with Oxfordshire at their Horspath Road Athletic Club.

For the girls, after winning her 200m heat with a new PB, Sophie Thompson (U15) took a bronze medal in the final with a second PB of 28.84s, and silver in the 300m in a time of 46.63s. In the U17 age group Chloe Lamport and Tasha Cornwell just missed out on medals in the200m, but Libby Crawford took a bronze in the 300m with a new PB of 43.07s. Libby also won bronze in the 80m hurdles, and Long Jump with a PB jump of 4m.60cm. She upgraded to silver in the javelin with a throw of 28.2m. Tasha Cornwell didn’t go home empty handed; she took the silver in the Triple Jump with a new PB of 9.38m.

In the boys races, although missing out on a medal, William Ralston (U13) can be pleased with a new 800m PB of 2.46.22. For the U15s, sprinter Bartholomew Kratt won bronze in the 200m with a time of 27.54s and Kieran Lindars silver in the 3k.

Five medals came home for the U17 boys. William Herd was joint second for silver in the 100m in a time of 11.58s but then took gold in the 200m with a 23.93s run; both of these are new PB times. Patch Taylor back from injury won the 800m and James Davis had a great weekend with two new PB times in the 1500m – 4.29.72 and in the 3k where he took the silver medal with 9.47.54.

More medals for the U20s with a very easy gold for Will Gurton in the 800m coming home in 1.54.72. Brother Dan also won gold, this time in the 1500m in a time of 4.06.96, with team mate Tom Atkins taking silver.

Ann Taylor 16th May

CLEAN SWEEP FOR VALE SPRINTERS

Vale of Aylesbury senior male athletes made a clean sweep of medals in two of the sprint categories at this weekend’s Buckinghamshire County Championships.

In a great display of running, our senior men took gold silver and bronze in both the 100m and 400m. In the 100m, Jeff Bond romped home with a new PB of 11.20s followed by Richard Gaster, also with a PB of 11.44s and bronze went to Jermaine Blake in 11.53s.

Next to the 400m where Dan Barber won gold in 51.64s; Mark Fallaize silver in 53.9s and Gaith Taha bronze in 56.69s. It was certainly Dan’s day as he also won gold in the 200m with a time of 25.53s.

For the ladies, Lynne Andrews (100m) and Janie Gadsden (400m) both took silver medals in their events.

Ann Taylor 16th May

Junior Leagues Kick Off in Style for Vale Athletes

Vale of Aylesbury athletes competed in their first league competitions of the season this weekend. A few of the older juniors competed in the Men’s League on Saturday, but the majority were at the National Junior League in Hillingdon and the Eastern Young Athletes League at Watford, both on Sunday. See full report for EYAL

Southern Athletic League - Vale's Seniors a Close 2^nd

The Vale of Aylesbury Senior athletics team travelled to Eltham on Saturday for the first of this year’s Southern League meetings.

The team reported the conditions as very windy and we were delighted that performances on the day put them into 2nd place, just two points behind Haverstock and a massive 14 points in front of third placed Cambridge. Read More

Southern Athletic League

Despite a slightly depleted women's team, (due to illness, the Bank Holiday weekend and post-marathon fatigue), the VOAAC women put up a great team performance on Saturday, at Eltham, to help the combined Men's and Women's team finish 2nd overall. We had the usual mix of athletes from U17s to Veterans and everyone rose splendidly to the challenges presented. There were wins for Rosanna Iannone in the 1500m, Vicky Sheldon in the 'B' string pole vault and triple jump, and Brenda Russell and Kat Ford in the 'A' and 'B' string hammer throw. There were some p.bs to be celebrated too, for Alice Austin in the 100m and Tasha Cornwell in the 200m.

Huge thanks and well done to all those who worked on behalf of the team to fill as many events as possible, including Sophie Delderfield, Heather Fallaize, Janie Gadsden and Libby Crawford. Alice, Tasha and Libby then represented VOAAC again on Sunday at the Eastern Young Athletes fixture!

Julia Austin, May 2nd

5 x Personal Bests, 2 x English Schools Qualifying Times, 2 x Club Records and 1 x Power of 10 All Time Number 1.

Vale of Aylesbury Athletes are celebrating today following excellent performances at this weekend’s London Inter Club Challenge at Parliament Hill, London. Five of Nick Taylor's training group took part, with all 5 gaining pbs.

This is the time of year when young athletes are looking for new personal best performances, and more importantly, English Schools Athletic Association qualifying times to take them to the National Championships in July.

Unfortunately, at the time of writing, not all of the official times have been published, so let’s start with those which have. Starting proceedings off in the British Milers Club 1500m A race Will Gurton (U20) took 7 seconds off his previous best time to record the 3rd fastest outright time ever by a Vale athlete with 3:55.70. This time qualifies Will for the English Schools and leaves him just over 3 seconds to find in order to gain the World Youth Olympic qualifying time.

In the BMC B race Dan Gurton (U20) with a strong final lap stopped the clock at 4:04.74 an improvement on his previous best by 3 seconds. James Davis is in his first year as an U17 runner and can be pleased with his new pb of 4m 37.9s, 8 seconds off his previous best following a very fast opening lap.

The following have been timed by Nick who is usually very close to the official times, but we still keep our fingers crossed until we have confirmation. Anna Madry who is also a U20 athlete competed in the 1500m steeple chase and we have a time of 5m 34s for her performance. If this is correct, it is 6 seconds inside the ESAA qualifying time. It is certainly a new Club Record, breaking Jenny Bantham’s 2006 record by well over a minute and puts her 3rd on the 2011 Power of 10!

Earlier in the week, at the Watford Open meeting, 3 younger athletes achieved new personal best times.

In the 800m Harri Kane (U13) stormed around the track to finish in 2m 37.02s knocking a further 4 seconds off his pb of 10 days ago with a bonus of winning his race!

Two U15 girls ran in the 1500m at the same meeting; Abbey Winterburn completed the distance in 5m 17.01s; approximately 20 seconds better than her previous best. Alice Wright, a first year in this age category, ran a time of 5m 20.95s in the same race, a pb despite falling at the start of the second lap.

Virgin London Marathon - VOAAC Results

Sunday’s London Marathon made headline news with record breaking times for the Men’s and Women’s races; it was an event hard to miss in the media on the day. Amongst the 36,000 plus runners were 9 members of The Vale of Aylesbury AC. Unfortunately 2 further members had to pull out, Mick O’Connor through injury and Sophie Delderfield who was unwell.

However, our runners put on a fine display as usual in conditions not ideal for marathon running. Unsurprisingly the first of our athletes to cross the line was Anuradha Cooray, recently back from injury, who finished in 27th position in a time of 2h:21m:11s. We are very proud to say that he was the 9th UK athlete to cross the line. Although delighted with his time which is again a Commonwealth qualifying time, Anuradha would have liked to have hit 2h:18m which would have qualified him for the World Championships. As a Sri Lankan national, it is still possible that he can be selected to run for his country in these Championships, though he is also considering a run in the Berlin Marathon to achieve the time which would qualify him for the London 2012 Olympics.

The next to come through for the Club was Dave Maisey in 2h:48:31 which although a minute outside his 2006 pb, was in fact 7 minutes faster than his London time last year. David is naturally delighted and commented, “The crowds were unbelievable, particularly at the 6/7 mile mark where the noise was deafening. As usual the race was superbly organised, if you only do one marathon in your life, do this one!”

A collection of runners came through in the 3-4 hour slot; Phil Corbet, Sophie Green, Charlotte Steptoe and Alan Roberts. This was Alan’s 27th London Marathon and whilst he was happy with the first half of his race which went to plan, he was disappointed in the second half which gave him his slowest time at 3h:53m:11s. Henrick Hartman and Adrian Huntley took just a little longer.

Sadly, Ian Thompson had to stop at 16 miles with a pulled calf muscle, a great shame as he had gone through the half way mark in 90minutes feeling very comfortable.

place overall	place gender	place category	name	runner no	category	HALF	finish time
27	27	26	COORAY, ANURADHA I (GBR)	1073	18-39	01:08:06	02:21:11
413	406	77	MAISEY, DAVID J (GBR)	32056	40-44	01:22:30	02:48:31
1354	1285	754	CORBETT, PHILLIP J (GBR)	26133	18-39	01:29:19	03:04:30
2852	298	209	GREEN, SOPHIE P (GBR)	31071	18-39	01:37:57	03:21:05
3019	322	222	STEPTOE, CHARLOTTE (GBR)	412	18-39	01:34:03	03:22:48
7637	6256	962	ROBERTS, ALAN F (GBR)	33176	45-49	01:35:57	03:53:11
13510	10494	5639	HARTMAN, HENRIK G (GBR)	26135	18-39	01:44:03	04:19:04
25059	17655	2332	HUNTLEY, ADRIAN (GBR)	33319	45-49	01:39:45	05:08:11

Brill Hilly

Vale of Aylesbury athletes were amongst 150 runners who took part in the inaugural running of the Brill Hilly 10k last weekend. The event, in aid of the Intsika Trust is organised by Oxford Athletic Club and they are supporting the building of a school in Cape Town for children orphaned by AIDS.

We are delighted to report that our very own Charlie May won the event in 35m25s which must please him as he was unwell during his last race and didn’t finish as well as he had planned.

The race started at Brill’s famous windmill; a tough course with a runner’s nightmare – a steep ascent to the finish! The promise of the first 6k being downhill doesn’t sweeten the pill really, though Charlie waited until the course flattened out to take the lead, and went on to win by over a minute! The climb to the finish started at 8k and it was noted that the course measurer had to get off his bike at this stage! Once up the main hill it was a more sedate climb through the village to the finish at the sports and social club where a medal awaited those the survived the course.

Alan Roberts (V45) came 20th with Ian Tarvit (V60) 55th narrowly missing out on the over 60 award finishing second in his category, and John Gibson (V50) 86th.

Alan has been busy as usual; in the weeks before this race, he had been competing in the European Masters Championships in Belgium; incorporating indoor events. I think Alan would be the first to admit that 800m and 1500m are not his forte! However, he finished a respectable 9th in the 3000m and 38th in the 5k Cross Country, delighted to beat a fellow GB athlete who took the bronze medal in the 1500m.

PB's for Aylesbury Juniors at the Bracknell Open

The Bracknell Open meeting was one of the first of the year, and Vale’s athletes can be pleased with their performances.

Lawrence Neil (U15) set a pb (personal best) time of 13.31s in the 100m, as did Alice Wright (U15) in the 150m and Liberty Crawford (U17) in the 200m; 27.26s. Liberty and Alice are both in their first year of their respective age groups, so this will be a season of hard work on their times ready for next year. They both achieved season’s best times in their 800m runs and Liberty, who is training for the Pentathlon, also got one in the Long Jump.

Abbey Winterburn (U15) was delighted with her 800m time; again she is in the first year of this age group, and achieved a pb of 2:37:15 winning her particular race. Finally for the girls, Alice’s sister Emma Wright (U17) achieved a pb in the 250m with a run of 29.72s.

Let us not forget the rest of the boys. Kieran Lindars ran a strong 1500m with a winning time of 4:39:93 which is also a new pb; not to be outdone, younger brother Daniel (U13) competed in the 1000m and finished with a pb of 3:38:90. Ryan Gallagher (U15) is a middle distance runner, but took part in the 200m and achieved a pb of 32.41, followed by a season’s best in the 800m (2:47:39).

European Masters Championships at Gent: Alan Roberts

I ran in the European Masters Championships at Gent in Belguim last week.

My first event was a late evening (9.30pm) 3000m indoor final. With two races in the over 45 category I was in the technically "B" final. I was seeded number 8 going into the event so finishing 9th in 11.27.96 was not too bad just a few seconds from finishing in my predicated finishing place. My GB colleague Simon Anderson from Plymouth took the bronze overall. It was then an eraly 9am start for the 800m heats the next day where I got hammered in the 800m finishing a tired 8th and last in 2.41.75. At least I did not progress to the final the next day which gave me chance to recover for my main event the European Masters Cross Country Champioships held at the same venue. A 5 lap course of approx 5km saw me finish 38th in 21.22 (I had the satisfaction of beating the 3000m and later (next day) to become the 1500m bronze medalist - Simon Anderson!). A day later was the 1500m finals, again they had 3 straight finals and I was predictably the slowest of my race finishing 11th in 5.23.14 just outside my indoor best.

Click here for full results

Event	Perf		Pos		Venue	Meeting	Date
800	2:41.75	i	8	h1	Gent, BEL	European Masters' Championships	17 Mar 11
1500	5:23.14	i	11	1	Gent, BEL	European Masters' Championships	20 Mar 11
3000	11:27.96	i	9	2	Gent, BEL	European Masters' Championships	16 Mar 11
ZXC	21:22		38		Gent, BEL	European Masters' Championships Cross Country	19 Mar 11

Alan Roberts, 28th March 2011

BMAF X Country Champs

The Vale of Aylesbury had 4 athletes competed in the British Masters Athletic Association's British Cross Country Championships held at Perry Bar Park, Birmingham on Saturday 12th March.

On a virtually flat park land course over a 2k lap and a stiff breeze Julia Austin ran a strong race and came home with a superb silver medal in her age category In the men's event the 3 finishes all bunched well and would undoubtedly have won a team medal had Declan Hamblin (Bucks & Chiltern league Veteran cross country champion) had run! unfortunately he damaged his hamstring in a 5 mile road race the previous weekend and was forced to miss the event.

Women 35 and up
Julia Austin 22nd overall and 2nd W45-49 in 24:48
Men
M 35-64 8k Rob Taylor 52nd overall 10th
M35-39 in 29:35 Andrew Rolt 58th overall 18th
M40-44 in 29:51 Dave Maisey 60th overall 19th M40-44 in 29:57

Andrew Rolt, March 2011

Milton Keynes 1/2 Marathon

Anurahda Cooray won the race setting a new course record for his first appearance in the Grand Prix. Matt Raden in 1:18:52 for19th entered under his former Stourbridge running club whilst waiting for his transfer to the VOAAC to be rubber stamped.

Charlie May was ill hence his poor result but did enough to claim top spot in the Grand Prix standings after 4 rounds.

Henrik Hartmann set a new PB with Ian Thompson gaining 1 bonus point for the 2nd best age graded performance behind Anurahda.

Colin Mawsdley having completed all rounds of the GP moves into 3rd overall and has yet to play his Joker with Adrian Huntley the only competitor to play his Joker (all be it apprehensively) on this occasion A little further down the results list Steve Rooney was eventually found completing his first race for ages, following injury. There were 2516 finishers.

The previos weekend Phil Corbett had a fantastic result at the Silverstone half marathon last weekend. Running a new PB of 79:15 in 31st from well over 2000 finishers.

Full results can be found here http://mcs.open.ac.uk/mkac/11mkhalfall.htm

The next race in the GP series in the Maidenhead 10 Miles on Good Friday the 22nd of April.
The Vale have been very competitive in the event in recent years both individually and team wise and another strong turn out is expected this year but be sure to enter soon as the entry limit is always reached before the closing date of 15/04/11 Entry form available at www.maidenheadac.co.uk/images/Easter%20Ten%20Entry%20Form%202011.pdf

Ian Thompson/Andy Rolt 14th March

Sophie's Half Marathon PB

In blustery conditions and over a hilly but rural course on Sunday, Sophie Delderfield improved on her personal best over the half marathon distance at Berkhamsted to finish an excellent 50th overall which was good enough for 3rd lady in a race that attracted some 1207 finishers. Another of our distance ladies Sophie Green finished 21st lady in another excellent time of 98.09 in an overall position of 232nd .The Veteran men were led home by Alan Roberts who finished 105th (13th over 45) in 91.00 followed by another improving athlete Stuart Kirk who was competing in the over 40 category and finished 286th overall in a time of 140.51.

Meanwhile at Silverstone there was no shelter from the wind but after 3 laps of the famous racing circuit London bound Phil Corbett sped to a nippy personal best of 79.33 to finish 31st overall in a field of 2,000 to record the fastest of the Vale’s half marathon times of the day

Alan Roberts, 9th March

Winslow 10k GP Race

A new start avoiding Furze Down School's mole-infested playing field was to Vale senior man Charlie May's liking on Sunday as he took 29 seconds off his 2010 winning time in the Lion's Club of Winslow 10K.

After a blistering start that saw Charlie making his intensions clear from the gun opening up a sizable lead over the field after the first 100 meters on a blustery, bright morning, the Vale man finished in 33 minutes 52 seconds, comfortably ahead of Bedford Harrier Simon Fawcett (34.19).

Also going well for the Vale over the undulating country lane course was an in-form David Maisey (6th, 35.53, just 5 seconds outside his long standing pb), emerging Vale talent Phil Corbett (9th, 36.41improving his pb by almost 2 minutes) Both proving their London Marathon training is going well. These were then followed by stalwart Andrew Rolt (10th, 37.10). On his way back to some form, Mark Richards held off a chasing pack up the tough final km to claim 12th in 38.18. Vale would surely have won the team prize if the event awarded one... It didn’t… so we didn’t!

Henry Edwards-Evans was next home in 38:50 for 17th followed by Alan (The Star) Roberts (26th 40:47), Colin Mawdsley (45th 43:38 a pb) and Ian Tarvit 69th and 2nd Vet 60 in 45:38 and finally but certainly not least was David Blackburn in 49:39 for 114th.

Vale of Aylesbury ladies had an excellent day too, with Julia Austin 2nd woman overall and first vet 45 back in 42.11 and Chloe Oldfield fourth woman overall home and 3rd senior in 43.09. Heather Fallaize meanwhile finished 96th in 47.43 her best time for over 6 years. Some 238 runners completed the race, up on 2010's 217.

For local race completists, this year's T-shirt was postbox red, adding to the blue, yellow and green of previous years. With it's merry Lion motif, the Winslow 10K T-shirt has to be the area's best after Tring Running Club's classic Ridgeway designs.

Age graded bonus points went to Charlie (2) and Dave (1) Charlie beating Dave by just 0.11% !!!

With the ladies being Julia (2) and Heather (1)

Age category placing bonus points went to Charlie, Julia, Chloe and Ian.

The next race in the series is the Milton Keynes Half Marathon on Sunday 13th March full details are at http://www.mkhalf.co.uk/

With Andrew missing this event and Charlie & Julia having also played their Jokers it’s a chance for others to close the gap on the leaders.

Henry Edwardes-Evans, Andrew Rolt

Will Breaks 800m Club Record

Vale of Aylesbury’s Will Gurton competed this weekend at the England U15/U17/U20 Indoor Championships at the NIA in Birmingham.

Will competed in the 800m category where he won a silver medal last year as an U17 runner. This is his first of three years as an U20 athlete and on Saturday he stepped up for the heats against some of the best in the country. Will had the third fastest time of the day; 1m 53.53s which smashes the Club Record of 1m 58.63s set by Paul Erwood in 2004. It is also the second fastest time ever run by any athlete of any age group at the Club.

Will came 5th in Sunday’s final, in a time of 1m 54.07s which is a very good run. It must be remembered that he was running against athletes older than him as he is only in the first year of this age group and he was the youngest in the race. Will’s progress at this distance is consistent, and we are sure that he will continue to work hard and have a good chance of a medal next year.

Ann Taylor, Feb 28th

Hardwick X-Stream

The ground was extremely saturated making the going round the whole course very hard going. Charlie, though, had a flyer! The rest of us just grinded it out!

Photographs can be seen in the gallery

Hardwick X_Stream 6 Mile Road Race, Sunday 20th Feb 2011

Team3rd

: Vale of Aylesbury AC

Race

Place.Overall/Women

Time

Name

Race Age Category

73rd/5

0:48:33

OLDFILED, Chloe

Senior Women

106th/13

0:51:47

CARD, Joanna

Senior Women

271

106

135th/17

0:53:39

MAISEY, Sharon

Female Vet 35

275

135

143rd/21	0:54:35		SHELDON, Vicky	Female Vet 45	308	143

3:28:34

Totals

Team3rd

: Vale of Aylesbury AC

Race

Place

Time

Name

Race Age Category