SHAFTESBURY WIN ON HOME TRACK

On the 4th of September at Copthall Stadium, Hendon, in the prestigious 'Premier' League Cup event for the Jo Smith Cup, Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers (232.0) were the team who had more strength in depth on the day. However the result was not concluded till the final event, when they had moved away from the holders for several years Woodford Green & Essex Ladies (229.5). Birchfield Harriers (226.0) took the third place in the joint scoring event reports Alastair Aitken for Runners Digest.
    Shaftesbury's young teenager RICHARD GOODMAN, who considers himself more a cross-country specialist, has beaten all his personal track best's this year and at Copthall he won a very tactical 800m in 1:53.47 and Martin Duff of the Athletics Weekly turned round to him and said ' You should have run faster. A 51 last lap!' Goodman replied
'It was not bad for a 5000m runner!'

Run Fast = Girls hang out......   Goodman continued talking to Alastair for the 'X' man " That 3000 I did at the Grand Prix at Crystal Palace was amazing for me. I was injured that week then, I just stayed in the gym and kept cross-training going. A week of rest really helped, then I came out and said to myself on the line ' I can win this and did!'
    Goodman had a really 'Great' cross-country season but had not had the sufficient amount of experience to take on the World Class Juniors " It is difficult for a young person to compete on the World Stage. People had 3 or 4 years on me. I knew I had over-cooked it and was not racing well.'
    ' It was disappointing but my coach knows what training is needed to be done and when to taper'
    Regarding competing ' I don't want to do too much too soon and so, I can have good things for the future like the European cross country and, we sat down and discussed where I want to be in five years time, with things like the European, Commonwealth and Olympics."
                 
                            DANIEL DAVIS (22) HAD A BREAK THROUGH AT HENDON
 
Davis did his personal best for the 110 hurdles for Woodford Green and won well in 13.97 from Nick Gayle (City of Manchester) 14.04. " That was the first time I have done it legally  (-03 wind). I ran 14.04 at the McCain UK Challenge Final at Cardiff on the 28th of August. I was really happy with that. All the hard work in the season is finally paying off. That was also a personal best for him. Davis is an interesting subject not documented too much yet.
    " I started in Primary school. I was useless at football and other sports but I could run quick. that was how it started. I did the hurdles in secondary school. There were two fast boys at our school and one of them did the 100 so they said could I jump in the hurdles. I had seen it on TV and thought, you just run and jump. I went and did that and won and was picked up by my local club Sutton & District. There was a guy called Les Alden. He passed away  few years ago but he was my first coach and I owe everything to him for staying in the sport."
    Was he inspired by any hurdlers at the time he started to do the event
    " I really looked up  to Tony Jarrett and Allen Johnson who was a consummate professional. Technically he was rock solid with his strength and flexibility.'
    In the last month he has been with Tony Jarrett and Lorna Booth and it has made an immense difference to his athletics life "Training with Tony now, obviously with a role model, with every session you have got to bring your 'A' Game' as you don't want to let your idol down.
                  
             MONIQUE WILLIAMS OF WINDSOR SLOUGH & ETON A NEW ZEALAND SPRINT CHAMPION
 
Monique Williams had been looking for some competition after her training load in order to sharpen up a bit for the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. She is the New Zealand Sprint Champion and will be running the 200 in India.
 She won the guest 100 race in 12.1 at Copthall then ran 11.92, in the match event in second place behind Shaftesbury's Abi Oyepitan (11.70)..
    " I ran 22.90 for 200 in New Zealand and I have been trying to get in as many races as I can for the Commonwealth Games so I will do a couple more competitions'
    Going back in time " I started running when I was 4. I had older brothers. One was six years older than me. We raced.I have always been involved in it. I never started training seriously till I was in a teenager at 13/14. My Dad Chris is my coach. He thought training was following my bothers around in long runs. I used to do 800's  when I was young so, when I got good I thought 'Why run further and further. I did 2.09- for the 800 when I was 15 and, went to the World Youth at 16/17. I went down to the 200/400 I don';t want to run more than one lap but I have done 51.4 for the 400.
 In a couple of years I might step up to that event but you can't train for '2 and 4' they are quite different. Last year was my first year just training for 200."
 

Southern Vets league Final 2010

"That meeting on the 5th of September at Julie Rose Stadium, Ashford, in mild weather, had tremendous spirit and atmosphere, more than in any other veteran event I have attended for sometime and with most people doing more than two events" said Runners Digest reporter Alastair Aitken
    HERNE HILL HARRIERS won the Men's Match for the second year running with 294 points ahead of previous winners Blackheath & Bromley Harriers who scored 272 and ahead of the local club Ashford third (250.5).
 In the Women's match Epsom & Ewell Harriers won with 273 points to Winchester & District's 239. Cambridge Harriers women, who came 5th of the 7 clubs with 218.5, were unlucky not to be higher after they had a lead very early on in the match. However, to my mind, they had the athlete of the match in 47 year old, Clare Elms, who won the 200, 800, 1500, 3000, was 2nd in the 400 and ran in the 4x400 relay.
    Herne Hill were helped by the strength in the younger age groups from 35-50 and two of their double winners were from the M35 group Dave Peters 800/1500 and Ben Paviour 1500' B' plus the 3000.
    Epsom & Ewell women were very strong in the field with 'Over 60' thrower Liz Sissons in good form winning the hammer, javelin, shot and second in the discus.
    It was good to see Allan Williams, Blackheath's ex-international pole vaulter who achieved an M55 British record last year, back focused after a poor Summer with the best overall vault of the day of 3.60m.

CECILIA MORRISON AND CLARE ELMS 'STAR' MIDDLE DISTANCE RUNNERS OF THE BRITISH MASTERS AT CARDIFF

CECILIA MORRISON ran to two World Age Records at Cardiff in the 40th British Masters Championships on the 3/4 of July. Cecilia won the W70 1500 in 6:04.59, on the Saturday and 5000m on the Sunday in 22:19.99. Then she went on to the European Masters Championships (15-24 July in Hungary) to win the W70 1500 by a large margin in 6:11.05. Ritter of Germany was second in 6:28.67. The UK's Betty Stracey was 5th in 7:27.42
    She told Runners Digest correspondent Alastair Aitken " I started running when I was 61, doing a couple of marathons which I hated doing but, then turned to the 1500 which I love doing. I have always enjoyed the 5k anyway. In the Winter I do 10k's for endurance."

STEVE SMYTHE, a good veteran runner for Dulwich Runners and Cambridge Harriers, with a Best marathon of 2:29 and also, the Results Editor ot Athletics Weekly, has been an invaluable coach to CLARE ELMS (Born 26/12/1963) who won the W45 1500/5000 at Cardiff in 4:44.58/17:25.88 and, he talked about her amazing two weeks leading up to those Championships.
    " 4:33.27 in the South of England Championships at Crystal Place in the senior race was the most outstanding, when she ran to a W45 British record.She led the race for the first two laps. If she had been actually able to follow somebody  there I think she could have got close to breaking 4:30. She beat the British record by seven seconds anyway. The last two weeks have been her best running ever. 400 PB on Monday, a 2 mile PB last week and a mile PB nine days ago so, she has set 200, 400, 800, 1500 and mile PB's and an outdoor 3k.'
    He added ' If anything her run at Dulwich was her best run when she ran 2miles in 10.32 when, she broke the Dulwich Senior Women's record held by Meredith Pannett, who was a very good runner.'
    Probably 'Age for Age' grading 4:33, which was a British record by seven seconds, because of the way the race was run. After she led for 800 then got into a box and had to get out of it. If she followed someone in something, like a BMC ne I am sure she could run a bit quicker.'
  In the British Masters cross country Championships in Ireland she beat runners much younger to win outright?
   " Yes, since I have come into veterans athletics it has always been like the big cross-country to me but, maybe, the Home International might be slightly better. It was always something I wanted her to do well in. The first couple of years she did not do perhaps as well as she could. Because it was at Belfast I think the standard was down. She beat everyone, after only going with 600 to do and she won by 15 seconds. The very next day she won against good people in the Southern Veterans cross-country Championships, including Lisa Elmore who finished in the top 20 in the actual Southern senior race. That was only 24 hours later.. She did not lose a cross-country race against seniors since November. Obviously she would not have won if she had run the Southern or National Senior race but she won Kent Leagues, British Masters, Kent Masters and a Surrey League.
   Exactly a year ago Clare was injured and unable to run at all?
   She has a slight niggle now but she came to the British Masters last year injured, having to drop out after only two laps of the 1500 and had May to July out and was always catching up but she has caught up and sort of gone by!
  
           

Southern Track Champs 2010 Day 2

The 5000m was won by 'Raw Talent' 20 year old MEHRETAB SOLOMON of London Heathside in 14:40.31 The 20 year old made a mid race surge that took him well  away from the field and beat his previous best of14:43.6 but he declared afterwards " I had to run with a leg strain so I could have run faster. I want to do under 14 minutes this year!"
    The London CC Champion was followed in by MARK SANFORD of Basildon (15:02.6) and Neil Phillips, Aldershot & Farnham (15:07:16).
    Mark Sanford, now 32, has run 3:46.01/4:06.40/8:57.44- 1500/mile/3000 steeple) " When's Solomon went it was a long way out so I thought he would come back or I would settle for second'
        He continued ' The biggest influence on my athletics was Eamonn Martin from my club and Nick Wetheridge as well'
    'I have been doing the 5000 to get stronger for the shorter distances because at 30 to recently, I have wondered if I still have it, after having been in athletics since I was 13-14 which is a long time. My current coach Jeremy Freeman has been a great help in getting me back to thinking I can still perform. I was 3rd in the Inter-Counties and second in the Essex 5000, which was good, as the other three Southend boys had all run for Great Britain which included Adam Hickey who won."
    BOB SMITH, the Manager of the UK's top club Newham & Essex Beagles had some interesting comments regarding Mehretabe Solomon when like me he watched the race at Crystal Palace
     "He is hugely talented. He has the ability to go a long way. He put in a 66 with 4 1/2  laps to go and took 50 metres out of some club runners in 200m. Mark Stanford who was second is a good runner. He could not live with that!
Did he think Solomon needs a little honing and possibly training with a group of very fast runners to improve?
 "There is going to come a time when things have got to be harnessed. There is rawness about his running which is tremendously exciting. At some stage there needs to be a bit more structure about his racing and getting him into the right races."

Solomon - "A Raw talent". Xman 2010 
THE SENIOR AND UNDER 20 CHAMPIONSHIPS 3000 CHAMPIONSHIPS FOR WOMEN WERE COMBINED IN ONE RACE.
   The race was a very close battle between 'Under 20' runners Grace Nicholls and Hannah Walker till, Nicholls sprinted away in the final straight. In third place was the first senior Clare Elms, the Home International Masters cross country Champion who had broken the W45 BRITISH RECORD for 1500 the previous day (On the Saturday) with 4:33.27. The times in the 3k on the Sunday were Grace Nicholls of Tonbridge AC (9:37.03), Hannah Walker, Decorum & Tring (9:41.64) and Clare Elms of Cambridge Harriers (9:58.11).
    GRACE NICHOLLS " In the race you can usually tell how you are going, my legs felt quite good and I was able to go with 100m remaining. I thought I would stick with Hannah as long as possible and rely on my sprint finish'
    ' I missed the National cross country because I was ill then I got a foot injury. The English Schools was my last cross-country race (1st in the English schools Cross Country in Manchester).'

Nicholls in action at the Southerns xc. Xman photo 2010              ' I started  doing multi events at the age of 11. I probably started more seriously at athletics when I was 14. I was with Ashford AC before I moved on to Tonbridge AC. Stella and Peter Brenchley coached me and I have known Peter all those years and he still advises me.  Lisa Dobriskey was at Ashford so she was a hero of mine, as you always look  up to the older one's who inspire you'
    ' My brothers Maximillian (14, Currrently ranked 5th UK Under 15 at 3000) and Euan ( Ranked 6th Under 13 over 1500 in the UK) are younger than me but  they are catching me up!. My favourite events are the 1500 and 5000'
         HANNAH WALKER  " I was pleased with the run. It was only my second 3k of the season. I had some time off travelling so getting back my fitness. I ran in the World cross country this year for the first time which was amazing. Cross-country is probably my strength and the longer distances" ( She was 32nd in the World Cross in Poland in March 2010 and, 3rd in the World Trial and National).

Walker grabbed 2nd in the 3000m (9.41.64) behind Nicholls (9.37.03) 

Southern Counties Track & Field Championships - New UK sprint find emerges from the shadows

On Saturday the 12th of June 19 year old, TREMAYNE GILLING, won the SCAAA Senior 100m in 10.44. His time in the heats were 10.5/10.37 to qualify in first place. Second in the Final was Eli Winn (E&H) in 10.61 and third Robert Graham (HHH) 10.68. (Tremayne Gilling was born 27/7/90 and now runs for Blackheath & Bromley but used to run for Sutton & District).
  "That was the first time I won a Southern Sprint Championship over 100m. I was 3rd in the Under 17 before. It is my best season so far!'
    He ran 10.34 coming second in the Loughborough International in May and emerged as a sprinting force when he had come 1st  in the British Universities at Bedford, where he ran 10.49 in the Final.
He ran a 21.79/200 in the United States in April.
    "I have been in athletics all my life. My Mum used to be an athlete. LORNA BOOTH ( Commonwealth 100 hurdles Champion 1978 and WAAA Champion in 1977). I took athletics seriously about four or five years ago. I was coached by my Mother at first and Matt Paviour but now by LLoyd Cowan. LLoyd is very good developing my strengths so I do not have weaknesses. As Lorna was my Mum I did not tend to listen to her'
I added that people don't always listen to their parents if they are in athletics themselves and, need someone separate to coach them, however close they are to their family.
    How much did he train now ' As I have to be at Middlesex University two days a week I have given myself more time to train and I do 9 or 10 times a week. It's a big step up.'
    As he has had so much athletics through his Mother in the family, he must have had heroes and he points to two
    ' Maurice Greene and Linford Christie"'