Five Worcester AC athletes represented Hereford and Worcester Schools in the recent English Schools Track and Field Championships at Gateshead. These are traditionally the highest level domestic competition available for young athletes in England. To qualify for the team, the athletes have to win at District then County Schools level, and also achieve entry standards which are extremely high.

The athletes representing the county were:

Helen Reeves Junior Girls 800 metres
Alex Bradnick Junior Boys 200 metres
Jenny White Intermediate Girls 300 metre hurdles
Doug Howie Intermediate Boys 800 metres
Richard Colado Intermediate Boys High Jump


Three of the athletes went on to achieve top 5 places in their events:

Jenny White – 1st place

After winning her heat Jenny had a rare defeat, coming second, in her semi-final, before coming through strongly in the home straight of the final to take first place.

Richard Calado - 4th place. 1m 93cm

At 1m 90cm Richard had his supporters worried before a huge clearance on his 3rd attempt. He then cleared 1m 93 at his first attempt before 3 narrow failures at 1.96 giving him 4th place in blustery conditions.

Alex Bradnick - 5th place 23.5 seconds

After winning his heat in a new personal best time of 23.12 seconds, Alex then qualified for the final by taking second place in his semi-final. From an awkward inside lane he ran an excellent bend to put himself in contention, finally coming 5th in his first English schools championships.

Mike Bennett

The Pitchcroft 10k and Fun Run took on an international theme this year with entrants from Kenya and Tanzinia joining more local runners. This plus a record field plus excellent running conditions made for a very fast race. The Men's race was won by Ezekiel Cherop in 31.12 which was not quite a course record however the first 6 runners all broke 35 minutes. In the Ladies race Winifrida Kwamboka of Kenya broke the course record with a time of 34.38. Both runners had previously won the Manchester 10K.The fun run was a smaller field than normal however the range of ages was from 3 to 77! At the front it became a battle between the Rathbone brothers with Luke just pipping his brother Sam to win in a time of 10.27 followed by Alex Swan just 4 seconds behind. In the ladies race Liz Tillot won in a time of 12.05 followed by Hetty Swan in 12.46 and Zara Von-Benzon in 13.36.

Congratulations to all competitors and once again a big thank you to all who helped on the day.

Mark Hill

Mark Hill, Chris Crosswell and the Acorns Race Committee would like to thank all the members of Worcester AC who turned out on Sunday to marshal and steward the Acorns Triple Run Malvern Half Marathon. Your assistance was very much appreciated by us and not least the competitors who took part; particularly the lady who collapsed and required emergency treatment. You’ll be pleased to know that she was discharged the same day.

The event is a much needed fundraiser for Acorns Children’s Hospice and is totally unique in bringing participants of all abilities, age and fitness together in one sporting event. All those who generously gave up their time will have been inspired by the courage displayed by some young entrants. Please continue to give up your time so that we can as an athletics club support such worthwhile events as this. It is only through our involvement and commitment that road races of this distance will remain on the athletics calendar for all our benefit.

Picture Gallery at BBC.co.uk

Acorns Results at Raceahead

Chris Crosswell

At the Midland Counties on 24 May '08, Helen Reeves achieved Bronze for the 800m under-15 Girls and Alex Bradnik struck Gold at the 100m for under-15 Boys. Congratulations to you both!
Furthermore the DASH Quadrathlon for under 9's and under 15's will take place at Sportcity in Manchester on 22 June '08, for more information please click on the link or go to Fixtures.

Finally got through the backlog! For starters, several new reports have been added regarding award winning WAC members and the sports:hall round up of 2006 to 2008. Please go to Results and click on Reports. Also in Results a new section has been added for all the sports:hall records. The fixtures list has been updated and in particular the Acorns Triple Run/Half Marathon/Spring Run, please click on the link or go to the Fixtures table for all the relevant documentation, entry form and WAC volunteer form, including all the Team Challenges. And finally the entry forms for the England Athletics Outdoor Championship are available for download from the Fixtures table.

Loads of new results have been added! Please check out the Results section for the WAC Open meeting, Cross Country and Tipton Games results. Also the latest newsletter of April '08 is available, visit 'Newsletters' to download your copy.

On Sunday 13^th April, Richard Calado won the under 17 men’s high jump at the Tipton Games with another new personal best of 1.98m. This ranks him third in the UK (for U17 men) and sets a new club record. In the six months Richard has been at Worcester, he has increased his PB from 1.75m to 1.98m, which is a massive improvement. To jump over 2.00m is a major milestone and the highest jump in the UK by any under 17 man in the past three years is 2.05m. Go for it Richard!