PETE’S POST, AUGUST 2023
Well, what a month July turned out to be for C&C, as we celebrated local, national, and international successes!
Thanks to Julia working away at [email protected] our achievements have been widely reported already, so just a brief summary here.
The month began with the English Schools Championships where C&C had a good level of representation. Liam Conway spectacularly won the gold medal in the 3000m, and Leah Wagstaff was second in the 80m Hurdles, meaning that they both qualified to compete for England. This international event was held at Grangemouth later in the month, against the top young athletes from the other Home Nations. Proudly wearing their England vests, Liam came 5th in the 3000m, and Leah took the Championship gold medal in the 80m hurdles!
Congratulations to all of our young athletes, and to their parents, and coaches.
Congratulations too to Shannon Flockhart who won Bronze at the European U23 Championships, joining Tom Keen and Alex Melloy who also won European medals in recent years. Thomas Bridger was also at these Championships, competing in that most grueling of events, the 3000m steeplechase. Although he didn’t qualify for his final this time, he is still young enough to return to these championships in two years time!
Then there were the English Senior T&F Championships, where Adam Cross made it to the final of the 100m, and Jack Gray (Silver – 5000m), and Sam Clarke (Bronze – 110m Hurdles) won medals. Sam was also 4th in the 400m hurdles. Fantastic stuff! Congratulations again to athletes and coaches.
Also in July, the 3rd Arkwrights 5k of the series, this time held at Carver Barracks, Wimbish. Another fantastic turn-out from the club, well done to everyone for being part of the team. Such was the level of C&C participation, plus the sheer quality of our top runners (the 1st, 2nd and 3rd females : Libby Brown, Charlotte East and Joey Colley, and 1st and 2nd males: Michael Gilbert and Sullivan Smith were all C&C), that another victory was achieved, and we remain at the top of the league. The race finished with a lap of the new track, and there were many comments about what a wonderful surface it was to run on!
Hopefully by the time you read this, we will have had a similarly good result in Race 4 of the series, on 3rd August at Kedington.
The C&C SAL team had a fantastic victory at Southend. This was a magnificent team effort across the board. Now, with one match remaining, we are laying in 2nd position out 18 clubs in the league (see the top of the table below).
CLUB MATCH POINTS LEAGUE POINTS
1 Northampton A.C. 717 16
2 C&C 798.5 15
3 Herts Phoenix 771 15
4 Harlow 721.5 14
5 Ilford 719.5 14
6 Luton A.C. 683 14
7 City of Southend 672.5 12
The top 4 clubs get promoted. It’s still tight, but we have worked our way into an excellent position. We have a decent chance of not only gaining promotion, but of coming top! However, this won’t happen by itself, we need to make it happen! One more great turn-out, one more big team effort, and 19th August at Colchester could be a big promotion day for the club!
A team coach has been put on again, so get your places booked! You really want to be part of this!
This leads me to the picture above. It’s from 1990, and shows the C&C team that won the EYAL that year. The team manager was non other than Noel Moss (what a servant to the club that man has been, and continues to be). I am hoping that we will be seeing another promoted team photograph on the 19th August! These youngsters made a little bit of club history back then. The SAL team of 2023 now have a chance to do the same. Let’s give it everything, and run, throw, and jump, our way to the next level!
Finally, just a quick mention for the Round Norfolk Relay taking place on 16th-17th of September. The club have competed strongly in this event many times, and we are looking to do well again this year. It’s a total of 198 mile in distance, completed over seventeen stages. The stages are of different lengths ranging from 5.49 to 19.67 miles. There will be some great running, and great fun to be had! For more information, or if you are interested in joining the squad, contact Kris at: [email protected]
Have a great August, let’s continue to keep Julia ([email protected]) busy!