News

With the track closed for a fortnight over the Christmas Period, squads opted to continue their hard work in the parks in Stevenage and North Hertfordshire during the festive break.

The Endurance and sprints squads were at the lakes on the Sunday before Christmas for hills sessions. Fairlands Valley was also the venue for the Jumps/Hurdles Squad on the 23rd Dec, while a park in Shefford has seen the older members of the group in action on the 20th, 22nd, 27th and 29th. The last session for this squad before returning to the track on the 4th January is in Shefford on the 30th at 10.30am. The sprints and endurance squads will be back at Fairlands Lakes this coming Sunday morning (also 10.30). The cross country and indoor competition season resumes early January, with athletes competing at County, Regional and National Level Indoors and Out (fixtures lists are on the Club’s website).

The draft summer fixture list should be available mid January.

U17 Bobby Pitman took part in his first Indoor Combined Event Championships at Lee Valley at the weekend. Competing at the South of England Combined Events Championships, this was Bobby’s first competition as an U17.

Day 1 saw PBs in the 60m 7.87, LJ 5m10 (first time over 5m that wasn’t wind assisted), SP 8m63 with a 5kg shot, and HJ 1m51. Day 2 started with the 60m Hurdles, Hurdles now at 91cm in height and 100m spacing were daunting but completed in 9.36. This was followed by the pole vault – Coach Shannon Rapacchi has fitted in a couple of training sessions in the fortnight before and the reward was a new PB of 2m56. The final event the 1000m was completed in 3.02 min.

Bobby’s final point score of 3,386 saw him finish in 4th place – a great result as a first year U17.

Christopher Westcott was delighted to earn another Personal Best in the Hatfield 5 on Sunday. Finishing in 12th position overall (2nd V40+), his time was 27:37 for a 39 second improvement over his previous fastest at the distance. It was a cold but beautiful morning for a run on a fast, flat course. The race also doubled as the County Senior Championship, with Christopher 7th fastest.

Congratulations to Dani Mainstone (newcomer to officiating) and Helen Pickard (unsung hero) who were both winners at the England Athletics Eastern Regional Awards this evening. Both very well deserved for their hardwork over the last year. Dani officiated at all of our matches home and away over the summer , often leading field teams. Helen has managed the new booking system, kept track and trace records, welcomed people to sessions, looked after the waitng list, dealt with 100s of emails from members and much , much more without which we would not have been able to return to trainng post Covid.

Without volunteers like Dani and Helen we would not have a club so thank you to both of you from everyone at SNHAC!

Saturday saw the second race in the Chiltern Cross Country league. More runners took part as it was a UK Athletics Cross Challenge event, which added a further competitive edge to proceedings. The weather was overcast; no rain fell so conditions were good for athletes and spectators alike. The course was quite technical with some steep sections.

After two rounds our Juniors stand in fourth place overall in Division 2, an excellent position. 28 athletes ran for Stevenage. Our new U11s performed superbly: notably Hazel Spitzer coming 8th in the girls’ mob match and Oliver Rose 9th in the boys’ mob match. James Cook ran too (42nd).

6 took part in the U13 boys’ race: Aubrey Murray was the first SNHAC runner home claiming an excellent 4th place; followed by Evan Robson (7th), Patrick Thorne (10th), Harry Thompson (11th), Matthew Thompson (12th) and Harry Price (18th).

4 ran in the U13 girls’ race: Lauren Griffin was the first Stevenage runner in 7th place; Jane Griffin came 11th, Gracie Hall-Watts came 12th and Hannah Cook was 17th.

5 ran in the U15 boys’ race: Calum Fairey secured an impressive 2nd place; followed by Jack Thompson (13th), Thomas Redfern (14th), William Toffa (21st) and Harrison Lund (25th).

4 ran in the U15 girls’ race: Abigail Manson also came 2nd; then came Charlotte Livingston (15th), Imogen Rose (20th) and Lilly Ash (21st).

Will Galliford and Isaac Whitten ran in the U17 Junior Men’s race, with Will coming in a strong 9th and Isaac was 12th. Amelie Hobbs flew the flag for Stevenage in the U17 Women’s race coming 13th.

Our Senior Men ran in a hotly contested race with almost 550 mob runners. Adam Searle came 51st, a great result, with Club Coach Bob Whitten in 179th place. Rebecca Pickard was our lone representative in the Senior Women’s race, coming a creditable 64th.

It was a good day for Stevenage and North Herts. Well done to all, particularly to those who were running for the first time. See you at the next race in Luton!