Senior Women win Hampshire League Cross Country title

The 2019/20 Hampshire League came to a conclusion yesterday, with the final match at Popham. In near perfect, calm weather before the storm and with no mud in sight, the Reading AC women took 1st, 2nd and 3rd places (jess Gibbon, Naomi Mitchel and Anna Boniface) in their final race, to win team Gold for the first time! Jess also won the individual gold, with Naomi in Silver and U20 Georgia Hayes in joint 3rd overall and gold in the U20s. The Vets Women team also finished the season in 2nd place and Sarah Urwin-Mann won the individual Vet award.

The men’s team finished 4th in the final race and 4th for the season, with Dan Thorne saving his best run to last and finishing 3rd yesterday.

Reading also had success in the girls races with Naomi Harris winning the U17 race, finishing 2nd individual overall and the U17 team (Naomi Harris, Lara Tolson and Oonagh O’Driscoll) winning on the day and winning gold for the season. Unfortunately the U17 men didn’t have a complete team yesterday, but Laurie Baker and Issac Mileham represented the club well and the team finished 4th for the season.

In the U15 girls race Reading packed well in 4th, 5th and 6th (Ella Newman, Holly Haldene and Evie Elson), but unfortunately Southampton had 1st, 2nd and 3rd, so we were 2nd and 2nd for the season. In the U15 boys, Oli Snoxall had a strong run to finish 5th, the team were 6th and 6th for the season.

The U13 girls finished 5th team yesterday and 4th for the season. The U13 boys were only represented by one runner yesterday, Jacob Sheikh who finished 29th. The team finished 6th for the season.

Well done to everyone who has been racing in the mud and rain this season, especially those not named above who help the team even when not counting, as backup runners and pushing other team’s runners further back. Let’s have more boys out racing next season to keep up with the girls!

County Sports Hall Winter round up- Gold for U11G team and silver for U13G

All our under 11 and under 13 teams have competed well over winter in the county Sportshall programme. The 3rd of the mini league matches took place last Sunday when our top year 6 (U11) Girls’ team were worthy winners while our best under 13 Girls’ team took 2nd place.

Our U11 Boys’ teams found the competition tough going to finish mid table but our U13 Boys finished 3rd in a close contest.

We are hopeful some of our athletes will now be selected to represent Berkshire in the regional final on Sunday 22nd March.

Grateful thanks to all parents for their superb support at these matches!

Jess Gibbon wins Gold at SEAA XC, while U20W take silver

Jess Gibbon made club history by being the first Reading AC winner of the women’s senior title in the SEAA cross country championships at Parliament Hill yesterday. She had a clear 20s lead by the finish, as she lead the field of almost 700 runners home.

The U20W team who struck silver were lead home by Georgia Hayes in 4th despite a fall, Kirsty Walker finishing strong in 7th, Abi Hancock in 33rd and Herminie Walker in 50th. Every place counted as they were only 1 point ahead of 3rd place Shaftesbury Barnet.

The club had a great turnout across all the races, with 7th places for the U15G and U17W teams and 9th place for the Senior Women’s team.

County Sportshall medals for Reading Athletes

Our U13’s were in action in the indoor County Sportshall championships at Egham yesterday. Our top Girls’ team were winners by 25 points and were ably supported by our other 2 teams finishing in 5th and 9th place.

Our one U13 Boys’ team did very well and were placed 3rd in a close match.

In the individual all rounder competition, Charlotte Ashby came 3rd and Kahlon Nneke was 2nd!

Well done everyone who took part in a great afternoon of Sportshall athletics!!

Further photos of all the action can be found here:  

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/phxkg15ybqvs326/AAD0VUkPlOs5GxFrjXj9nFIEa?dl=0

Merry Christmas!

Wishing all our athletes, coaches, volunteers and parents a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

There is no training at palmer Park this week or next Tuesday. We will be back to normal on 2 Jan, when work begins for the summer season ahead and all the dedication to training in the cold, torrential rain and wind pays off.

Medals for Reading AC athletes at the Southern Indoor Combined Events

Seven Reading AC athletes competed at the South of England Combined Events Championships at Lee Valley Athletics Centre on the 14th and 15th December.

Day one saw the start of the Heptathlon for Kevin Cranmer and Joe Frew who competed in the senior men and U17 age groups respectively. Unfortunately, Sammy Ball was still recovering from a recent injury he picked up whilst representing England at the Home Country Schools Combined Events, so he could not join them although he spectated trackside.

Both athletes started well as they ran PBs in the 60m and progressed well through the day with Joe getting another PB in the high jump at the end of the day.

Day one also saw the U17 women’s and U15 boys’ pentathlons. Georgina Ashby and Hollie Cranmer were both returning after long periods off the track and so were very nervous about their first pentathlon of this age group. Both Hollie and Georgina performed amazingly well overcoming hurdles that have caused them problems in the past to put together great scores for them to use as targets for their next competition. 

Hal Rust-D'eye competed in the U15 boys pentathlon. This was Hal's first indoor pentathlon but you wouldn't have guessed it as he stormed through the field securing the silver medal in the final event, 800m, with an impressive PB to add to the 3 others he attained in the 60mH, long jump and high jump.  Hal’s high jump was arguably the highlight of the day.  Clearing 1.47 m, Hal jumped 20cm higher than his previous best.

Day two saw the conclusion of the heptathlons and the U15 girls’ pentathlon. Charlotte Ashby, Charlotte Bigmore and Annie Jonkers all represented Reading AC in their first ever U15 pentathlon.   All three girls started the day perfectly with PBs in the 60mH. The PB tally continued to grow for all three with both Charlottes attaining PBs in the high jump and the shot put.  Notwithstanding the shot is heavier than the previous age group, the girls still managed to beat their previous best distances. 

Annie jumped big PBs in the long jump,  just short of the 5m ‘milestone’ and it will surely not be long before that mark is reached. Annie finished the day with a huge twelve second PB in the 800m bringing her up to 6th in the overall competition standings in a very large field of athletes.

For Kevin and Joe, the second day again started well with Kevin hurdling just 0.06 seconds off his PB in the hurdles and Joe running the fastest time for his competition of 8.60 seconds.
In the pole vault again Kevin only marginally missed out on a PB with 3.53m and Joe vaulting an amazing 2.53m in his first ever competition in that discipline.

The 1000m brought their competition to an end with Kevin again just missing out on a PB by less than a second with a time of 3.03. Another first for Joe saw a time of 3 minutes exactly to secure the bronze medal for the championship.

Congratulations to all the athletes.

Report by Mike Dyer

2019 Berkshire Cross Country - Silvers and Bronzes for Reading AC Boys

There were medals for Reading's lads in all the age groups on Sunday in the Berkshire Cross Country Championships, with an individual silver, two team silvers and a team bronze. The tough undulating and waterlogged course at Ashenbury Park in Woodley was compensated for somewhat by the gloriously sunny weather, but nevertheless it proved a severe test for all the competitors.

In the U15 boys 4km race Ollie Craggs was soon among the leading group, and although forced to let the leader go after halfway he continued to run strongly, finishing in a clear second place in a time of 13.33. Ollie was backed up well by Oli Snoxall, whose decisive finishing burst took him into sixth in 14.05, and by Edward Lewis, whose determined running gave him ninth, recording 14.42. In a very close team competition Reading's total of 17 meant they lost to Windsor by a single point, while finishing ahead of Bracknell by the same margin. Meanwhile Adam Methven's ankle problem unfortunately prevented him finishing.

For the U17s in their 6km race, Mattie Raynor was prominent in the early stages, running in the leading group of four, but eventually had to give ground. Nevertheless he hung on well to finish fourth in 21.24, while Reading's other scorers were Alfie McClennon in an excellent seventh place with 21.51 and Laurie Baker with a good effort for ninth in 22.12, with Reading's total of 20 giving them second place behind Windsor. Reading's non-scoring runners also did well, with Aryan Gupta in 12th with 23.05, Rohan Brooks 14th in 23.23 and Isaac Mileham 17th in 30.42.

Maddox Gillas and Samuel Lindsey-Halls were among the early leaders in the U13 boys 3km race, but in the second half of the race it was Maddox who proved the stronger, as he finished fourth in 10.46, with Samuel holding on well for eighth place in 11.10. The scoring team was completed by Josh Smith in 12th, with a fine run for a time of 11.44, and Reading's total of 24 gave the team third place. Jacob Sheikh and Tommy Elson both ran well, finishing close together in 15th and 16th with times of 11.59 and 12.02 respectively, but both Billy Newman and George Bundy had the misfortune to have to drop out with twisted ankles.

Report by Keith Whyte.