Summer Newsletter. Richie

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1 Summer Newsletter SOUTHAMPTON ATHLETIC CLUB NEWSLETTER JULY 2012 Chairman s Corner Welcome to the Summer edition of the Southampton AC newsletter. With the Olympic Games almost within touch we wish all GB athletes the very best of luck and let s hope for loads of medals preferably of the gold variety. Apart from the Olympics it has been a very exciting time for our club enjoying success in all age groups from the Wessex league to the men s veteran league. We are at the time of writing top of the BAL division 3 and 4th in the UKWL Division 1 and top in the Southern Athletics league having won all the matches so far. We have won our division in the UK Young Athletes league and preparing for the area final. In addition we are in second place in the Itchen division of the UK Junior league and taking the Wessex league by storm. We have won the Hampshire veterans league again barring a disaster. I was privileged to attend the last Wessex league event at Poole, where all you could see was red and white having possibly half of the entire field. In one event the competitors were all from Southampton. I must thank all the athletes who have contributed to our success and I don t mean just the winners but also perhaps the young athlete who fights hard to finish 7th of 8 and scores valuable points for the team. In the last newsletter I did suggest that it would be really good if athletes thanked their coaches once in a while and several people have come up to me and said that they do so on a regular basis. Our coaches give huge amounts of their time and their only reward is the success of their athletes. We are fortunate to have some truly amazing coaches and I must thank them all on behalf of the committee. Richie Olympic Torchbearers Roger and Richie Appeal for help and chance to earn some money! A request to all members, and in particular our younger members. We have been requested by the West Quay shopping centre to put on a promotion during the two weeks of the Olympics with an athletic theme to publicise the club, handing out leaflets etc. ( I am awaiting further details) We require members in full Southampton AC attire to help out for 4 hours per day from 11 to 3 each day starting 30th July including weekends and we will pay members 20 for each 4 hour slot they can complete. Please contact me preferably by richiepearson@ntlworld.com (contact details also on web site) if you wish to become involved. Please do come along and help out. It should be fun and a great chance to earn some holiday money!

2 Young athletes summer season The young athletes at the club are having an unprecedented season. As well as individual championship success at county, regional & national level, all the young athletes continue to support our team competitions. As well as winning all 3 of our Wessex league matches, the young athletes team has qualified for the South area final of the UK young athletes league for just the 2nd time in our history. The area finals at the Barnet Copthall stadium in Hendon on the 29th July provide the club with a chance of a top 5 finish and a place in the national auxiliary final for the first time ever. Despite a terrible summer of weather, the boys have set an incredible 11 club records across the age groups with the girls not to be outdone have set 16 age group club records. All of the young athletes recognise the dedication and effort of our fabulous coaches that enable this standard of performance but of course the greatest credit must go to the athletes themselves who continue to improve so rapidly. The establishment of the athletic academy this season should ensure progression from our youngest age groups from school year 4 through 8 to our more established coaches and this has been a great success with numbers continuing to grow. Remaining Summer Fixtures 14th July SAL Walton 21st July Super 8 Yate/Luton 21st/22nd July British Masters Outdoor Championships Derby 22nd July Wessex League Bournemouth 22nd July NJAL (U20) Brighton 28th July BAL Derby 28th July UKWL Trafford 29th July NYAL Area Final 12th Aug NJAL (U20) 18th Aug BAL Swansea 25th 27th Aug CAU Inter Counties Bedford 1st Sept NYAL Aux Final 1st Sept SAL Milton Keynes 2nd Sept NYAL Main Final 2nd Sept SVL Final Ashford 8th Sept Super 8 Final (TBC) 16th Sept Open Medal Meeting Southampton CLUB MERCHANDISE HOODIES AND T-SHIRTS CLUB MERCHANDISE - HOODIES AND T-SHIRTS Hoodies (grey, all sizes) 15 Cotton T-shirts (White with red sleeves) 6 Cool-max t-shirts (Red with white stripe) 8 All merchandise is available from Frances Payne francespayne@gmail.com Competition vests are still available from membership secretary Fiona Webb (small sizes from Fran) and everything will be sold in the portakabin. Please come along and support and participate, particularly in the open meeting on 16th September

3 Y O U R H E L P R E Q U I R E D P L E A S E! T h e N e e d f o r O f f i c i a l s Ever since the humans first raced to see who was best, a need was felt for an independent arbiter or judge. Today we cannot hold an athletics or road running meeting without such Officials and a shortage has now led to most Leagues that we compete in awarding points for bringing the Officials as well as for the results achieved by the competitors. Unfortunately this season we have lost some of these point, in particular for the lack of a Timekeeper, which is a real shame. If UKA succeed with their proposals for next year we might need even more teams of Officials which in general consist of a Timekeeper, a Track Judge and up to four Field Judges. Sadly very few clubs have that number readily available and if they do they cannot necessarily attend every weekend. In addition for Home Matches we also have to supply a Chief Timekeeper, a Track Referee, a Field Referee, a Starter, two Marksmen, a Clerk of the Course, an Announcer and Recorders. It really means we have to use every volunteer we can to supply refreshments, carry messages and help out generally. So this is an appeal to all those supporters who come to our matches who are not engaged in Team Managing or Coaching to come and get involved and consider taking a course and help support your club. It is usually a fun and rewarding day helping out amongst a team of motivated club members. Courses, to qualify as a trained official usually require only a few hours on one day and are locally held in Hampshire. The next ones will start after the close of the Track Season sometime in November and The Club will pay all your fees to attend, plus during the season will provide free refreshments at home meetings and free transport to away venues. If in the meantime you want to come along and try it out alongside one of our existing officials why not come along to one of the following fixtures and support our teams who are having a cracking season. The open meeting in particular is a great opportunity to come to a local venue and join in with an exciting day of athletics REMAINING FIXTURES FOR OFFICALS 2012 Southern Veterans League Aldershot Monday, 9th July We re top of the league!. Southern Athletic League Walton Saturday, 14th July We re top! Super8 cup semi-final Brighton Saturday, 21st July National Junior Athletic League Guildford Sunday, 22nd July We re second! Wessex League, Bournemouth Sunday, 22nd July We re top! National Young Athletes League - Regional Final Barnet Copthall Sunday, 29th July National Junior Athletic League Brighton Sunday, 12th August Southern Athletic League Milton Keynes Saturday, 1st September Doreen Old Open Medal Meeting Southampton Saturday, 16th September We need our Supporters to go one step further. Join the Barmy Army of Officials. Contact Alan Cropp, Officials Secretary at alan.cropp@talktalk.net or chat on

4 CLUBMARK The club has recently been awarded a new Clubmark Accreditation for the next 3 years. Clubmark is a nationally recognised, sport-wide sign of quality and to receive it we had to provide evidence that the club has all the appropriate systems and procedures in place for a sports club with members of all ages. More information can be found on the clubmark website A certificate was presented by Christine Benning to our president Doreen Old at our Celebration Evening at the track on Tuesday 26 June. A lot of athletes turned out for cake and photos and the award was publicised in the Daily Echo and on the England Athletics website. South Downs Way 100 Mile Relay Race ( Eastbourne to Winchester) Saturday the 2nd June 2012 It was a cold, very windy morning with the threat of rain in the air, when Frankie and I arrived at Beachy Head to await the arrival of our Virgin South Downs relay Team. Our team of 6 would set off at 8.00am and comprised Tim Sherman, Nick Willson, Mike Read, Jez Curtis, Pete Merritt and Martin Lilly, none of whom had any previous experience of racing along the South Downs. We had talked about this event after their victory in the 2011 Basingstoke Charity Relay Race and they had then decided to take on this new and more difficult challenge. From the beginning, the team had taken the challenge seriously and had recced their designated legs. However; it was now time to dot the I s and cross the T s. I have travelled the route many times and so was able to help out with navigation and logistics. Fifty teams had entered this year. By 07.30am there were already thirty seven teams en route. We were part of a group of seven who had estimated their time as twelve hours. The maximum time allowed is fourteen hours. The race is divided into eighteen legs. Changeover points are usually dictated by the terrain. The shortest leg is approximately three and a half miles, while the longest is eight miles. Each runner must run three non-consecutive legs. At the end of the day, it should even itself out to between 14/17 miles for each runner, with the terrain playing its part. The views are spectacular. The route goes from sea level, crossing several rivers, surmounting many hills, the highest being Dunction Hill 255m (828ft). To say that this is an undulating course would be a vast understatement! Jez took the first leg and by the time he had completed the four miles, the sun had broken through. Chalk reflects heat and with there being little shade, it is essential to keep up the intake of fluids. If teams keep strictly to the code, each runner will complete their first leg in the morning, second during the hottest part of the day and the third in the afternoon or early evening. That is why pace can be more important than speed. Gradually the stagger starts to unwind and you meet teams that started before you and later in the day are passed by the faster ones. Our team was in close contention with teams from Basingstoke, Stubbington Green, Steyning and Phoenix AC. We used two vehicles in order to leapfrog a couple of the shorter legs where we expected some traffic bottlenecks. One last minute change given to us at the briefing concerning a local festival, caused a several mile road detour. We only had one hiccup when one of the vehicles got blocked in a car park causing us to be late at a changeover. Apart from this, no one got lost and all ran extremely well. The finish is just outside Winchester at the Chilcomb Sports Ground, by which time the stagger was unwinding rapidly and there were several hundred people enjoying the evening while downing a few well deserved pints The team finished in 11th place in a time of 11hrs.34mins.52sec. This was 34 seconds behind Stubbington Green A team. In fact only 6 minutes separated teams finishing 5th to 11th. Although tired at the end of the day, they expressed a unanimous desire to run again next year. With the experience gained, I am sure there will be a significant improvement! Once again many congratulations to the team for a fantastic result. Written by: John Cork

5 SAC Summer Outing There are still a few places on the minibus to The Beast off road race at Corfe Castle on Sunday 2nd September This is a challenging 13 miles ish off road run through great scenery. Cost is 15 per person plus your entry fee to the race. Full details from Paul Harvey (harveys.peartree@btopenworld.com), Richie Pearson or Mirella Spalluto 2012 English schools track & field championships 6th & 7th July Gateshead Southampton AC athletes took a fantastic medal haul & made a string of finals & top 10 finishes in the 2012 English schools championships in Gateshead. In total Southampton AC athletes took 2 golds, 2 silvers, 3 bronze. They made 3 track finals and achieved a remarkable total of 18 top ten finishes. Sophie Merritt followed up last year s win with another victory in the junior girls shot putt demolishing the rest of the field by over 2m to set a new personal best and club record of 13.31m. Multi-event star Nicholas Hunt took gold in the interboys high jump in appalling conditions. Vicky Mould leapt to a personal best and new club record with a fantastic jump of 11.60m to take inter-girls triple jump silver. Joseph Brown also threw a massive pb & club record to take a fine silver medal in the inter-boys javelin. Freya jones took silver in the senior girl s javelin. Sean Adams took bronze in the senior boys 400m hurdles and Emily Green took bronze in the junior girl s discus. Millie Cavanagh ran the opening leg for the Hampshire junior girls sprint relay team who finished 3rd securing her a bronze medal. Oliver Bromby took a superb 5th place in the junior boys 100m final with a new pb of secs. Ronnie Young unfortunately didn t progress beyond the heats of the senior boys 200m. Emily Jenkinson made the final of the inter girls 300m where she was 7th & Dudley Mason made the final of the senior boys 800m where he was 8th. Cavanagh also ran a personal best & new club record of secs to be 7th in the junior girls sprint hurdles final. Emma Cowell was 5th in the inter-girls high jump and Rory Farrell 6th in the boy s equivalent. Sam Bass-Cooper was an agonising 4th in the inter-boys pole vault despite leaping a personal best 4.10m. Andrew Douglas didn t record a height in the junior boy s pole vault but will be back next year in the same age group. Adam Jones was a superb 5th in the junior boys long jump in a new pb of 6.09m, this despite being bottom of the age group. Eddie Jenkinson took a fine 7th place in the junior boy s discus and will be back in the same age group next year. Daniel Avery was 6th in the senior boys hammer with Henry Ridgers taking the same place in the senior boys shot in a new pb of 13.68m. Jordan Campbell was just out of the medals in 4th in the inter-girls javelin.

6 Team Managers British Athletic League - Todd Bennett and committee including Derek Warn, Tony Fern, Erik Little, Michael Coker and Gary MacDonald-Gray (todd455685@aol.com) UK Womens League - Tim Hall and Pete Wareing (tim.hallts@ntlworld.com, p_wareing@sky.com) Southern Athletic League (men) - Jon Tilt and Derek Warn (jon.tilt@googl .com, delwarn@hotmail.co.uk) Southern Athletic League (women) - Tim Hall and Pete Wareing (tim.hallts@ntlworld.com, p_wareing@sky.com) UK Young Athletes League and Wessex Young Athletes League and winter cross country league managers - U17M Brian Fisher (bfisher.nets@virgin.net) - U17W Gillian Seaman (gillianseaman@btinternet.com) - U15B Lisa Butler(butler-anthony1@sky.com) - U15G Andy Fisher (aj_fisher@btinternet.com) - U13B Kate Higgins (kate_higgins@sky.com) - U13G Harvey Hodgson and indoor sportshall (hhodgy@btinternet.com) - U11B&G Andy Fisher (aj_fisher@btinternet.com) National Junior Athletic League (U20) - Gillian Seaman (gillianseaman@btinternet.com) and Tony Campbell (tooncampbell@hotmail.com) Southern Counties Veterans Athletic League - Derek Warn (delwarn@hotmail.co.uk) SUBS: For those still outstanding, the subs renewal form can be obtained from the club website (details below) If anyone is not rejoining, please let me know as that is a great help too and I can let you know any information you need if you are wishing to change clubs. Membership Secretary (webbfdlk@aol.com) Fiona Club contacts: Website Membership Secretary - Fiona Webb, 79 Shanklin Road, Upper Shirley, Southampton SO15 7RG, webbfdlk@aol.com Secretary: Tim Hall tim.hallts@ntlworld.com Welfare Officers: Alison Beckingham, Mark West. s: alisonbeckingham@gmail.com, andwesty@aol.com