News

The sun was shining brightly on Stanborough Lakes on Sunday but that didn’t mean there was no mud as nearly 30 SNHAC athletes took part in the Herts County Cross Country Championships. Best team performance of the day was the U17 Men (Will Galliford, Isaac Whitten and Tyler Wannerton) who took gold to become county champions. There were also 2 team silvers for the Under 15 girls (Abigail Manson, Charlotte Livingston and Imogen Rose) and Under 13 Boys (Aubrey Murray, Casey Wyatt and Evan Robson). Oliver Rose was a double medallist in the Under 11 Boys, in a fast finish he held off the opposition to take an individual bronze and was then joined by James Cook and Matthew Creak to take team bronze. In the Under 13 girls Esme Searle ran a fantastic race to take an individual bronze. The team of Esme, Jane and Lauren Griffin, Hannah Cook and Eleanor Roberts narrowly missed out on a team medal, finishing in 4th place. In other races Will Toffa, George Fifield and Harrison Lund made up the U15 boys team that came 6th and Hazel Spitzer (4th overall) and Ellie Morris made great debuts in the U11 girls races. Alex Gates (37th) and Adam Searle (57th) completed the senior women’s and men’s races respectively to ensure SNHAC had finishers in every race.

Meanwhile 150 miles north in Sheffield, Oscar Jopp was competing in the national indoor combined championships having travelled back from the USA. PBs in the 60m (7.63 seconds), long jump (6.30m) and shot (10.68m) saw him make a superb start before 3 fails in the pole vault saw him slip back to finish in 15th.

Club athletes return to action next weekend in the next round of the Chiltern Cross Country League in Milton Keynes as well as various indoor competitions through the rest of January.

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!