RACE REPORTS

Forest stalwart Fiona Turner was the sole FoDAC Runner and she finished in a time of 1:42:38 which was good enough for her to finish 4th lady overall and 1st V45, and 133rd overall. All in all an impressive performance.

Report on Sarah Rossiter winning her GB Vest:
Sarah Rossiter has at last be rewarded with international selection as a senior athlete. Sarah ran for GB as an U20 400mts runner. After University she didn’t run much for a while then reinvented herself as a Long Jumper. Last year was Sarah’s most successful competively winning the UKA jumpsfest, UKA Challenge and finishing 6th in the National indoor and outdoor championships. She will have a very busy few days leaving the UK on Thursday she will compete in her first England vest in Budapest. The team moves on to Bratislava on Sunday then to Vienna on for a meet on Tuesday. Sarah has been a model of determination over the years having been overlooked for younger girls a couple of times she has put her nose to the grindstone rather than complaining. The Monmouth Haberdashers school teacher hasn’t enjoyed the benefits of the increased expenditure on sport recently. She still trains on the Redgra track at Five Acres and does weight training in her coach’s garage. Her school installed a new Long Jump run up and pit a couple of years ago and there are now several of her pupils training with her. The success of the group and Sarah gaining international recognition is a good pay back after such a short time.

PLOCK COURT REPORT AND RESULTS

Reports by Steve and Brian
 

Forest Athletes slither to glory.

Junior Athletes from the Forest of Dean Athletics Club ran through very slippery conditions in the Gloucester League meeting at a very wet Plock Court. Despite being one of the smaller clubs in the league, FoDAC continue to punch well above their weight. For many this was their second race of the day having already run in the morning in the County Schools final Schools.

The under 11 boys maintained their second place in the league, Emmett Thompson was third and now lies equal second in the league. Mark Eynott continues to improve and looks a promising prospect in this age group next year. In the under 11 girls Fenella Madley another athlete in the youngest group, came striding through the mud to fourth, place.

In the under 13 girls, Sam Roberts who won the mornings school race, sealed second place in the league with third place in the race. When Gloucester’s Amber Watson moves up to the under 15s Sam looks to be a good tip to be champion next year. The under 13 girls team were second overall.

The under 13 boys were fourth overall, with another fine run by an Kyran Hale leading the way for the team, exhausted but fourth following a fine run to schools victory in the morning. The under 17 men's team, who have dominated the team competition so far, were seriously weakened by the loss of Ethan Cross through ill health and the necessity for Richard de-Camps to run 2 races within 90 minutes. They were led home by Nico Constanti, himself suffering the effects of a heavy cold, in 9th place, with Richard 10th admirably backed up by Ben Jones in 14th and Rhys Williams 15th. Nevertheless, they suffered defeat for the first time in the competition and must now accept that fixture clashes weight any title chances heavily in favour of non Gloucestershire teams.

The results were:

Newent Triathlon, 1st October

Report by Fiona Turner
Two FODAC members took part in the Newent Triathlon on Sunday. As one contestant was overheard to say "I didn't realise that swimming was involved in all 3 events!"

While the athletes expected to get wet in the 400m swim, the torrential rain accompanied by thunder and lightening added a certain something to the 18km cycle and 5km run. Credit should be given to the 150 participants who competed and all the marshals who stood out in the rain for many hours

The event was certainly something of a baptism of fire to Bill Turner of Longhope who was competing in his first (and probably last!) triathlon. More used to rock climbing in the sun and doing the odd 5k race to keep fit, he was satisfied to finish just outside the top third in 53rd position, recording times of 8.40, 40.24 and 19.15 respectively.

Penny Cartwright was hoping to beat her previous times set last April, however the inclement conditions thwarted her attempt. However, Penny finished a very creditable 73rd overall with times of 7:04, 42:56 and 20:26.

The event's winner was Rob Buckland who completed the event in 0054:10.

BRITISH Milers Club Event Bristol

Sam Roberts & Emmett Thompson competed in the u13s and u11s respectively. Sam was the youngest girl in her age group but still took third place with a time of 6 min 4 s. Young Emmett lead the under 11s boys race across the finishing line in 6 mins 1 s to take the gold medal.

Nottingham Half Marathon

Senior Mens Club Captain Steve Cunliffe returned to running after a layoff with a PB over the 13.1 mile course. In 1 hr 26 mins which will stand him in good stead for another PB in the late Autumn Stroud HM.

Midland 4 stage road relays

Report by Carol Jones
Sutton Park hosted the Midland 4 stage road relays on 23rd September, the warm Autumn weather ensured that there were some fast times recorded throughout the day. FoDAC had two teams competing, the 'A' team finishing in 26th place and the 'B' team in 46th position. The winning team were Charnwood completing the 4 stages in 1.01.28.
Fodac times below.

 
'A'  1 Caroline Jones            16.15
     2 Penny Cartwright         18.40
     3 Lynne Park                 19.17 
     4 Deborah Pritchard        19.53
 
Total time 1.14.05
 
 
'B'  1 Jackie Green            20.35
     2 Carol Jones              20.56
     3 Claire Morgan           22.52
     4 Aileen Griffiths          22.46
 
Total time   1.27.09

The fastest run of the day was Wendy Jones of Cirencester in 14.40

Woking

Report by Dave Lucas
A group of young athletes took part in the Woking Young Athletes Championships. Most successful athlete of the day was U17 Fiona Hunter Johnson. Fiona won gold in the Long Jump 5.35 and bronze in the Shot 8.59. Her series of jumps included 2 at 5.35 and a 5.19. Fiona narrowly failed to get a pb in the High Jump going out at 1.45 in 4th place. She looks in good form ready for the UK schools games in Glasgow this week. School and club mate Ellie Dawson finished 3rd in the LJ 4.63. Although below her lifetime best it was a seasons best.. Ellie was 4th in her heat of the 100mts but missed out on a final place. The 3rd medallist was U20 Alison Drew. Alison ran a very controlled race in her 2nd ever 400mts. Into the straight she had passed the girls outside her and looked lie winning. The 2 girls were more experiend though and fought back on the line.
Under 11s Youngest competitor of the day was Rebecca Madley. Rebecca had the biggest cheer of the day when finishing the 600mts. Sister Fenella was 6th in the LJ 2.68 and 11th overall in the 600 3.04. Mark Eyenott and Emmett Thompson both competed in 3 events. Mark was 11th of 21 in the LJ and 600. Emmett did 3.06 in the LJ and 2.03 in the 600 for 9th position.
Under 13s Sam Roberts & Jenny Probyn missed their High Jump after roadwork’s caused a delay. Sam was 2nd in her 800 heat, 6th of the 22 starters. Jenny ran in a fat 100mts heat and just missed a final place. In the LJ Jenny was 3rd in her pit and 6th best with 3.76. Alfie Thompson was 8th fastest of the qualifiers for the 80 hurdles. He then ran a cracking race in the final to come in 4th place. He then had to put in another sprint to get to the LJ and put in reasonable jump of 3.64. Kryan Hale had a fine day 5th in both the LJ 3.68 & the 800 2.31.
Under 17 Ben Jones & Richard de Camps ran in the same heat of the 800mts. Both were well outside their best Richard by 3 seconds and Ben by. They finished din 2.09 & 2.17 respectively.

Iron Man

Report by Ian Smith
It was the Ironman UK that I did in Sherbourne last weekend. I was really pleased with how it all went, and I finished in 10h 58min. (160th - 13th in age group, I think about 1000 finished in the 17h cut off) The swim 3.8km was 1h 7mins and very busy with bodies everywhere, about 6h on the bike (112 miles = 3 very hilly circuits trying to watch my HR all the time) and a 3.45min marathon, plus some bits in transition! All I can say is that at least the swim was flat, and as usual the run was a bit of a struggle with cramp as we completed the second half of the run along one lane of a dual carriageway (it was closed off) I can now officially tick that one off the list and wear the T shirt with pride.

UKA challenge final

Report by Dave Lucas
After a season of competion where performances were changed into points the top 8 athletes in each event were invited to take part in the UKA challenge final. Where some of the top 8 declined the invitation the organisers went down the list until they had 8. Athletes had to have competed in at least 4 events through the season to qualify for the final. This rule was overlooked in some events, one of them being the Long Jump. After finishing 3rd in the rankings for the season Sarah was denied the title of UKA Challenge Champion for now because of the relaxation of the rule. She finished 2nd to a competitor who had only jumped in 2 of the specified events despite the fact that there were 22 opportunities. The whole event was about consistent performances through the season and raising the standards in the specified events. Sarah had one of her most consistent series of jumps all season starting with 5.90 then 6.04, 6.03, 5.84,5.81 and 5.91. She wasn’t able to find the form of a couple of weeks ago when she went out 6.24. Normally jumping this well right at the end of the season Sarah would have been delighted. Unfortunately the last minute rule change left her very deflated. In the end she had to settle for 2nd beaten by 20cms.
The previous weekend Fiona Hunter Johnson had been delighted to finish 11th of 21 competitors in the AAAs multi events championships. Fiona had a fine set of results throughout the 2 days. 80 hurdles 13.84, High Jump 1.41, Shot Putt 8.79pb, 200 28.11, Long Jump 5.08 Javelin 26.79pb, 800 2.40.2pb. She finished with 3743 points against the winners 4752. The top Midlands athlete finished with 3996. Has this was Fionas 1st ever Heptathlon that total is easily within reach. She will have the winter to sharpen her events with Sarah who teaches and coaches her, Nick Walker and Dave Lucas. Unlike Sarah who will now be putting her feet up for a couple of weeks Fiona has an open meeting this weekend the UK schools games in Scotland and the Inter Counties the following 2 weekends.
There was more confusion at the county relays evening. In the 4 x 100 1st it was the Gloucester U15 girls who were disqualified but after the gold medals were presented to the FODAC U15 team it was discovered it should have been the Gloucester girls U13 team who were disqualified. So the Gloucester U13 and the FODAC U15 teams had to return their medals. The Forest girls Sam, Rebecca, Jenny and Sarah were much the happier at the end as at least they had silver medals to bring home. The U17 girls Danielle, Fiona, Ellie and Katherine were unopposed. They therefore settled for safe changeovers and finished 2nd in the race to Gloucester senior ladies.

Nick Walker Takes Second place in the British Masters Decathlon

Nick Walker the FoDAC Coleford based athlete took a well deserved 2nd at the Horspath Stadium, Oxford on the 12 & 13 August. Despite nursing a tender foot injury he came through the gruelling 10 event match with a silver medal.

His performances were:

100 m 1.78 s,
long jump 6.18 m,
shot put 9.98 m,
high jump 1 m 46 cm,
400 m 61.98 s,
hurdles 18.5 s,
discus throw 30.8 m,
pole vault 3.4 m,
javelin throw 40.23 m,
1500 m 5 m 55 s.

Nick excelled in the field events taking first place in the
javelin and pole vault.