March

End of the Winter season February and March saw the end of the Cross Country and Indoor seasons.

NATIONAL CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS Cross Country continued into March with the England National Cross Country Championships taking place at a very muddy Parliament Hill in London.

Eleven VoAAC athletes took part and managed to navigate the course with the U13 girls and U13 boys fielding enough athletes to make a team. In the U13 girls race it was Lucinda McRonald leading the VoAAC charge finishing in 235th. She was ably assisted by Isabella Banks (278th), Natasha Bradley (280th) and Riley Brown (383rd) to help the team to a 35th placed finish. For the U13 boys, Charlie Crafts was the first VoAAC athlete home in 273rd, backed up by Lucas Garner (291st), Joseph Storey (296th) and Digby Martin (368th.) The team managed a creditable 39th overall.

Lucy Cuthbert (296th) and Iona Esslemont (324th) were our U15 girls representatives and Alan Roberts soldiered round the senior men’s race finishing 1752nd in a race that included over 2000 finishers!

MARLI JESSOP COMPLETES A GREAT INDOOR SEASON!

18 year old Marli Jessop, who trains at VoAAC under coach Scott Grace, completed her indoor season by reaching the 60m hurdles final at the British Indoor Championships held in Birmingham in February. Anyone who missed Marli competing in Day One of the championships can watch her race again via the British Athletics website (see link here top right). https://www.britishathletics. org.uk/.../day-1-live.../ (Heat can be found at 4:20:08) (Final can be found at 6:08:40)

February also saw Marli winning the BUCS British University Championships in Sheffield, and the Southern U20/Senior Championships at Lee Valley as well as winning a silver medal at the England U20 championships. Marli finished her 60m hurdles indoor season ranked 4th in Europe, 2nd in the UK and 6th on the UK all time ranking for u20. Her indoor 60m hurdle time was also confirmed as 5th fastest in the world for her age group (U20)!

ENGLAND ATHLETICS U15/U17 COMBINED EVENTS INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS VoAAC had one athlete at the national combined events indoor championships in Sheffield. Olivia London took part in the U17 women category and came away with a creditable 31st place. During the competition, Olivia managed two PB’s (in the Shot Put and 800m) and was only just outside her 60m hurdles best, while also jumping within a couple of centimetres of her bests in the Long and High Jump.

TEDDY HALL RELAYS March also saw VoAAC Senior athletes fielding a team at the Teddy Hall Relays in Oxford. It started (and finished) at the famous Iffley Road Track (where Roger Bannister first broke the 4 minute mile barrier). The VoAAC quartet consisted Oz Ellis, Andy Byerley, Andy Stephenson and then James Davis bringing the team home. They managed a very creditable 20th place out of 49.

KIERAN LINDARS TAKES PART IN THE CHALLENGE SALOU TRIATHLON VoAAC Triathlete Kieran Lindars took part in the Challenge Salou event in Spain and managed a superb 12th place finish in an event which had the swimming section cancelled due to the low temperatures in the morning and was changed to a duathlon of a 4km run followed by 85km cycle and then 21km (half marathon) of running. Kieran’s time of 1hr 10mins for the half marathon at the end was the 3rd fastest time of the day!