52 Year Old Record Broken

Another busy weekend of athletics competitions!

Reading ACs Reuben Henry-Daire won the Southern U20 400m title at Bedford this weekend with a fantastic time of 48.03 secs. The time broke the previous record of John Edwards set back in 1969.

Meanwhile, elsewhere Reading AC’s Jonathan Davies broke his own Senior Men’s 5,000m record at a meeting in Nice, France by clocking 13:21.56 mins that cut almost two-and-a-half seconds off the previous record.

At the Berkshire Schools championships at Palmer Park, Reading, Sammy Ball jumped 7.17 metres to break his own U17 and U20 records keeping his lead on the national rankings and hopefully securing his place at the English Schools Championships in Manchester in July. Mia Greenidge-Knell also broke the U17 Women’s shot put record at the same competition with a best put of 12.74m.

Overall, Reading AC had 31 athletes take part in the Berkshire Schools, with twenty-five finishing top three and sixteen first places and sixteen new pbs. Also standing out was Hagen Mzee running a 10.9 100m to go second U17 in the UK .

At the BMC in Watford there were almost pbs all round for the four female athletes who went. Lauren Church knocked ten seconds off her 1500m time, with 4:25.65, Emma Howsham ran 4:29.23, Kirsty Walker 4:33.60 (sb) and Anna Boniface ran a 5000m pb of 17:00.63.

A Weekend of League Competitions

There was a convincing victory for our U13 and U15 athletes at the first Lower Group YDL fixture held at Bedford on Saturday 5 June 2021.

It was nice to see the Reading AC vests back in action in league competition for the first time in a couple of years, with the youngsters recording 34 PBs during the afternoon.

Meanwhile, the senior men and women travelled to Portsmouth for the first match of the newly constituted National Athletics League where U17 Sammy Ball , in his first venture in the senior league, achieved an U17 long jump club record of 7.09m which also allows him to claim the U20 record.

Twelve Club Records In Fifteen Days

The Reading AC warm up series has so far proved a great success. In all, twelve club records were achieved in fifteen days, and the series is not yet over.

See the table below for the record makers:

12 Records May 2021.jpg

Good work from athletes, officials and parents alike. It’s great to see the track and field so vibrant again.

Click the links below to see photos and links for the recent Reading AC Warm Up events.

Update From Berkshire Schools' Athletics

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT BERKSHIRE SCHOOLS THIS YEAR:

U15 and U17 (Year 8/9 and 10/11) will take place on Saturday 12th June at Palmer Park Track in Reading (with the exceptions of hammer and discus - venue TBC)

U19 (Year 12/13) will not be in person and they will need to make sure they are competing in club competitions / South U20 champs (12th June) and will submit their best performances to the committee for possible selection for the English schools competition

U13 (Year 7) will take place on Thursday 1st July (4-6pm) at Palmer Park Track in Reading

There will be more information coming out very soon about how to enter as this will be very different to normal years where you would have to enter via district events.

For U15/U17 (juniors and inters):

For this year only we are allowing individual entries from individuals / schools / clubs via a google form. They will need to prove their performances (powerof10 competitions) and have achieved at least the district standard in their chosen event (only 1 event as per previously).

Once we have received all entries (the deadline will be Tuesday 25th May) then we will notify the top 12 athletes in each event and they will be able to compete in person on the day on the 12th June. Juniors will compete in the morning and inters in the afternoon with only 1 spectator (parent / coach / teacher) allowed at the venue.

As you can appreciate there are a lot of different things to consider when hosting events in covid times and we are governed by UKA / England Athletics guidance as well as specific guidance from the venue (Palmer Park). The way that we are running this event is in line with most other counties in the region and the best way to still have a championship event and allow the fairest method for selection for the English Schools Championships which has also had to change how it is being run for this year.

For the meantime please put this date in your dairies. Let your athletes know that they need to be competing in club level events to try and achieve the district standard in their event to be able to apply to enter (these are attached). Athletics age groups are Junior (U15) - years 8 and 9, Inters (U17) years 10 and 11 and Seniors (U19) years 12 and 13.

I will be sending out the google form for entering in the next week. I will also put this on twitter, facebook and the berkshire website. Please encourage your club athletes to attend club events to get times / distances in their respective events making sure that they achieve at least the district standard and then to enter when the google form comes out. They will have to the weekend of the 22/23rd May to complete any competitions. Hope this all makes sense!

Many thanks

Pip Kirkby

BSAA

Training expected to restart from 29 March

Following the publication of the latest Government advice, we expect group training to restart from 29 March. We still need confirmation of when the track will reopen and will let everyone know as soon as we hear. In the meantime the club will be reviewing and updating Covid procedures and athletes should check on all the latest England Athletics advice on returning to training.

Training suspended for lockdown

 Guide to Mental Health Resources for Reading Athletes/parents and coaches). 

With the recent Government announcement of a second lock down on Thursday 5th November 2020 until December (and potentially extended)- we hope that information regarding  the following  resources  may help you if you are feeling anxious, stressed, depressed or unable to cope for any reason. 

Struggling to cope emotionally is recognised as one of the key effects of lockdown and we want to stress that you are not alone if you are going through such feelings. This is a common occurrence and asking for help is a sign of strength as it shows we care for our mental wellbeing and the wellbeing of people around us. 

We hope this guide to resources you can access will be helpful: 


KOOTH is a free online counselling service open to Berkshire residents aged 11 years to 19 years. You can sign up for free . Counsellors are available from 12 noon to 10 pm on Mondays to Fridays and at weekends too. Please sign up for free with this confidential service by visiting Kooth.com. You can access via tablet/lap top or mobile phone. 


The NHS Every Mind Matters website also has expert advice and practical tips on how to look after your mental health and wellbeing. Link is: www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/


Young Minds, mental health support for young people, parents and teachers. Link: https://youngminds.org.uk


Mind UK -General Mental health advice and support. https://www.mind.org.uk


Helpline for mental health sufferers- https://www.samaritans.org


Berkshire CAMHS (Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services, self -referrals https://cypf.berkshirewhealthcare.nhs.uk/ourservices/children-and-adolescent-mental-health-services-camhs/ 


No5 Young People’s Counselling Service -101 Oxford Road Reading.RG1 7UD. 

This provides a free confidential counselling and emotional support to anyone between the ages of 11 years to 25 years. Website: No5-counselling.

e-mail-info@no5.org.uk

Tel: 0118 901 5668-do not leave a message as no-one is in the office. 


Bharti Dhir.

Welfare Officer-Reading Athletics Club




CLUB CHAMPS 2020

Entries are now open for Day 1 and 2 of club champs (subject to UKA permit being granted: https://webcollect.org.uk/rac

If you entered the previous club Champs, cancelled in April, then please get in touch about transferring your entry.

To keep the event Covid Secure there are NO late entries and only 1 guest spectator per athlete, unless guests are also helpers. We will require lots of extra help to allow this to go ahead, so please volunteer by indicting on the entry form or getting in touch.

Day 3 details will be worked out after further clarification on events we can hold.

Athlete Survey Results

Thank you to everyone who has filled in the athlete survey. It has been very useful to find out what you are all up to. I am sorry that so many don't currently have access to coaching, but this is understandable given the restrictions in group sizes, some coaches may need to shield and the lack of a proper training venue with equipment. We still have no news on the track reopening and with indoor gyms not on the list of venues allowed to open the council may decide to keep PP closed until the gym is also open.

On the competition front, most people seem keen on local or club competition when possible, which makes sense given the lack of training for some. The 1m+ social distance rule may make this easier and thank you for the many offers of extra help to allow this to happen. In the meantime, I will set up another virtual athletics competition.

Julie (Chair)