SYAL - Cross Country - Newport

A promising start to the Young Athletes League Cross Country season for the junior SAC runners this weekend.

6 Members competed in the seasons opener at Newport Adams Grammar School, across 3 different age categories.

U11 Boys - Competitive debuts for Luke Howes and James Sharp, who joined Ross Kirby at the 1500m distance. A strong showing from all the lads who paced each other well during the early stages. Luke finished a superb 6th, edging out the fast finish of Ross Kirby. James ran strongly throughout to finish in 14th postition.

U13 Boys - A Shrewsbury 1-2 bodes well for the upcoming season as Jack Fielding secured the win, leading from the front. Ben Ashcrofts sprint finish to catch Jack was just a few yards short of paying off, both lads ran exceptionally well from the gun, finishing just a second apart.

U15 Girls - Our sole runner was Lydia Peet who stepped up this year to the competive category for the 3000m, two lap course. She battled well in the middle of the field finishing 19th and should be happy with her performance over the longer distance.

Well done to all the athletes.

Individually the scoring was strong for Shrewsbury, however to compete in the team events we need to field 4 runners in each race, which we failed to manage in any of the categories.
If any other junior members want to take part in the upcoming races please let your coaches know. Fixture information can be found on this site.

Nuneaton 10 mile

Three SAC runners travelled east to Nuneaton to compete in the Nuneaton 10mile road race this past weekend, with hopes of good performances on the 2 lap course.
A slightly overcast morning provided favourable running conditions for the 120 competitors on the 5 mile circuit in the rural outskirts of Nuneaton.

Despite the small field, there was considerable strength throughout, the eventual winner posting a time of just over 52mins.
Dom Kirby settled into a good pace early on, comfortable in the chasing group for the first lap before fading in the final 2miles, recent injury and lack of training apparent. A time of 61mins was enough to meet his target time exactly, and with it a 3rd Standard.
Chris Wakeman & Grant Lloyd worked well together to keep their own pace up, ensuring Lloyd completed the distance well within his target of 66mins to achieve a 4th Standard - a very good performance. Wakeman, another athlete running injured finished 45seconds behind Lloyd, a strong run from the veteran who just missed out on the prizes.

Unofficial race times:

15th Dom Kirby 61m 00s
31st Grant Lloyd 65m 42s
34th Chris Wakeman 66m 34s

Shropshire Young Athletes - Cross Country League 2008

Dates,times & venues as below for the clubs younger athletes competing in the Shropshire X Country League this season.

21st September - Newport Adams Grammar School
19th October - Oswestry
16th November - Much Wenlock
7th December - Bridgnorth

Please let your team manager know if you can/cannot attend any fixtures, we are planning to advertise the competition more widely to see if we can increase the numbers of Shrewsbury AC competitors.

Race times & distances will remain the same as in previous years:

1.30pm - under 11 Girls (1500m)
1.45pm - under 11 Boys (1500m)
2.00pm - under 15 Boys (4000m) and under 17 boys (5000m)
2.20pm - under 13 Girls (2000m)
2.40pm - under 13 Boys (3000m)
3.00pm - under 15 Girls (3000m) and under 17 girls (4000m)

Llyn Brenig 9 Mile Trail Race

On 6th September two SAC members travelled to Cerrigydruddion in North Wales to take part in the Llyn Brenig trail race. Atrocious weather conditions during the previous 48 hours resulted in a very different race to that anticipated with competitors forced to run directly up the centre of a fast flowing stream for 1.5 miles around the halfway stage before fighting against strong winds for the final mile across the Llyn Brenig dam. Even so, it was a successful day for the SAC members with Steve France (57:48) finishing in 5th place overall and picking up the 1st senior male prize, while Chris Wakeman (64:05) achieved 19th position overall and picked up the prize for 1st M50.
This excellent little trail race which is organised by Wrexham AC, really deserves a more prominent position in the local race calendar. Not only is it a super race in its own right, It provides first class preparation for the forthcoming cross country season.

Nesscliffe Nasty - Final Race in Pentarathon Series

A busy weekend for SAC athletes saw a number of successes in the final Pentarathon event hosted by Oswestry Olympians.
The wooded route around Nesscliffe was pretty well protected from the recent heavy rains with soft footing in large part.
Mike James again assumed his customary position at the head of the field, en route to a routine win over the 5mile trail race, winning comfortably by 2minutes for his 2nd victory in the series.
Dom Kirby managed his best ever placing, coming in 6th on the day to secure a 3rd place overall in the Series, while Stephen Hatton finished 11th to secure 2nd M45 on the day, a warm up for the Wolverhampton Half Marathon the following day!
Grant Lloyd benefitted from some recent training over the Nesscliffe trials on his way to a best ever finish in 16th position before he concentrated on official duties of presenting the prizes to the Overall male & female series winners on behalf of Rybrook BMW.
Leo Murray, Duncan Rose & Derek Owen were separated by less than 30seconds, Derek second M55 on the day.
Sheila Richards collected first F55 honours.

To complete the club successes, 11yr old Ross Kirby won the junior race and with it secured his own Pentarathon Series crown.

Full Pentarathon standings to follow when available.

27.36 Mike James
32.08 Dominic Kirby
33.11 Stephen Hatton
34.31 Grant Lloyd
37.35 Leo Murray
37.39 Duncan Rose
37.59 Derek Owen
55.28 Sheila Richards

Musgrove 5k - Sexarathon Series

Race 5 in the Telford Sexarathon Series saw 12 SAC runners venture East to compete in the 5k race with a reputation for fast times, no doubt some PB's were expected.

Competitors found that this years route had been changed slightly from previous seasons, the final distance was measured at around 5.39k this naturally affected the finish times. Despite our runners putting their all into the race in pursuit of the PB, all found their times were on average 90seconds down, a massive disappointment shared by everyone.

Local favourite Chris Davies (TAC) took the honours edging out Tom Humphries (Cannock & Stafford AC) by 10seconds.

Steve France edged out Dom Kirby on the line as the first 2 SAC runners finished in 19m 21secs. Following up was Steve Hatton in 19m 42s, with another Steve (Waters) 10seconds further back.
Nick Jones again raced strongly after working with Grant Lloyd for the early stages, Jones finishing in 20m 44s with Lloyd back in 21m 08s.

Complete SAC results :

19:21 , Steven France
19:21 , Dominic Kirby
19:42 , Stephen Hatton
19:52 , Steve Waters
20:44 , Nick Jones
21:08 , Grant Lloyd
21:14 , Chris Wakeman
22:09 , Daniel Fleetwood
22:13 , Duncan Rose
22:50 , Ben Nash
23:41 , Ralph Jones
29:07 , Brian Williams