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Amber Valley Athletic Club

Amber Valley AC - runner-up UK Athletics National Awards, Club of the Year 2007

National Young Athletes League Midlands Div 1 East, Champions 2008

January - March 2006

Membership Reminder

Membership renewals are now due and you have until May 1st to do so. Membership forms are available from training or downloaded here.

Forthcoming Competitions

Why not get in some early season competition with the following Open Meetings. Details from training or the relevant website.

Don't forget the Mini League fixture at Moorways on Saturday 22nd April (U11, U13 and U15). Details from training. Entries need to be to Judy Payling by 19th April.

County Championships 13 / 14th May. Details from training or www.dcaa.org.uk  Closing date for entries to County Sec by 21st April

North of England Championships entry forms for individual and combined events are now on the North of England website.

Well Done Lisa!

Those who came to AVAC's presentation evening back in November will no doubt remember the delightful Lisa Dobriskey (and boyfriend Ricky Soos) who made the presentations to our athletes. What a surprise and pleasure to see Lisa winning the Commonwealth 1500m Gold today! What an inspiration she will be to young athletes everywhere. Well done Lisa from all your supporters at AVAC.

Memberships Now Due

A reminder that annual memberships are now due. You have up until the end of April to renew existing memberships. Lapsed members will not be eligible to compete or be selected for the club. Membership forms are available from the payment desk at training sessions or you can download one from this site.

Training Sessions

Use of the newly opened track at the Rutland Sports Park is now getting established. All young athletes / parents are requested to meet in the tennis centre at the beginning of the session and not go straight down to the track. Training fees have to be taken and we also have to take a register so that we know is attending. As the weather improves this situation may change, but please, in the meantime meet and start warming up in the tennis centre.

Don't Keep It To Yourself

If you compete at one of the early season Opens that are around at the moment, please remember to pass on your performances to Julie Feeney. Your performances could help with team selections, Standards Grades and / or Club records, but if you don't tell us we won't know!

New membership form now available.

The 2006 Membership form can now be downloaded here - membership is due for renewal on 1st April 2006.  This covers the year to 31st March 2007. 

 Memberships not renewed by 1st May 2006 will be considered lapsed. 

UK Inter-Counties Cross Country, Saturday 11th March 2006

In addition to Ben Connors wonderful win and Tamara Armoush's excellent, now confirmed, 14th place, our other athletes finished as follows.

It's worth remembering that being a County based competition, the standard of athlete is extremely high and most races in the younger age groups featured over 300 runners per race.

Ben Takes Gold Twice in One Race

Ben Connor left no-one in doubt as to who has been the dominant force this winter at U13 cross country. At the eagerly anticipated UK Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships at Wollaton Park on Saturday 11th March, he showed his class by winning the U13 boys 3K race. The win also gave him his 4th UK Cross Challenge win which was more than enough to take the overall Champion title.

The only blip on an otherwise faultless season came a fortnight ago when he was beaten at the National Championships at Parliament Hill, London by a sprint finish to the line by newcomer Rikkie Letch from Surrey. Pre-competition speculation in the athletics media made Letch the favourite for Nottingham. Ben knew otherwise and whilst getting the measure of the opposition in a leading bunch of 6 in the early stages, he emerged into the main park spectating area front running, keen to break the pack. He was closely followed by M Shaw representing the North East until Bens strength showed in the final 0.5K by striding further and further ahead to cross the line with 9 seconds to spare.

Ben's clearly made an impact on the athletics scene this winter. Spectators lining the course could be heard to say 'That's Ben Connor!' urging him on by name, and complete strangers coming up to us and asking 'What's the secret of Amber Valleys success?' and congratulating our young club.

Straight after his win he was whisked off for press and live TV interviews as the whole afternoon was covered by Sky Sports 3. The quiet lad that he is would rather have run the course another 10 times than do live TV, but it's definitely another one for the Connor scrapbook. He took to the winners podium twice that afternoon receiving a medal fro his Inter-Counties win, and a trophy and vouchers for the UK Cross Challenge victory.

Another significant race from the AVAC point of view was the U15 girls 4K race which featured Tamara Armoush. With consistently high standard performances over the winter, Tamara was clearly one of the ones to watch. However, during the fast and fierce 200m uphill start Tamara was unable to find room to run free amongst the several hundred competitors and found herself boxed in. She had to work hard to catch the leading runners but by then she was clearly feeling the affects of a recent cold and was unable to figure in the leading bunch as anticipated during a closely-fought race. She still finished a worthy 13th place. Her finishing place in the UK Cross Challenge series is, as yet, not known.

7 other AVAC athletes were competing for Derbyshire; Michael Bosworth and Leanne Cartledge, Lori Marshall and Jessica Riley at U13, Alex Turner at U15, and Rob Love and Leila Armoush at U17.At the time of writing their finishing places were not confirmed. We will update as soon as possible.

 

Easter Graded meet at Mansfield

Mansfield Harriers are hosting their EASTER GRADED MEETING on Monday 17th April at Berry Hill Park, Mansfield (supported by UP & RUNNING of Huntingdon Street Nottingham). 

All events are mixed. All age groups – U’11’s to Vets .

More details can be found here or by visiting www.mansfield-harriers.org

 

New edition of Trackline

The latest edition of the Club newsletter Trackline is now available. Click here to download it.

Alex is Amber Valley's golden girl at AAA indoor champs !

Saturday and Sunday 4th/5th March was the AAA indoor track & field championships for U15/17/20 athletes at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham with the top young athletes from all over the country competing for medal glory. In total, 6 Amber Valley athletes were in action with most achieving PB's and club records in a range of events and in some cases getting very close to medal winning positions.

The highlight for Amber Valley was Alex Turner's sparkling performance to win gold in the U15 girls 800m thus becoming the Clubs first AAA title holder. In the initial heats on Saturday Alex won comfortably enough to secure her place in the final the next day with the fastest time of the day but this was the AAA champs and Alex would be up against the best in the UK.

In the initial stages of the final the pace was set by the experienced Jessica Hicks of Gloucester with Alex tracking her closely. By the 3rd of the 4 laps Hicks was still in the lead with 3 girls including Alex and Rotterdam's Abby Vernon close behind, but as they heard the bell at the start of the 4th lap Alex came from around the back of this little group and accelerated past them all. Within a space of 50m as they started down the back straight of the 200m track Alex had opened up a decisive lead and those of us familiar with Alex's powerful long striding action in full flow knew then that the race was hers. As she blasted down the back straight and round the final bend it was clear that no one was going to catch her and she crossed the finish line 3 seconds ahead of the pack who were fighting for silver and bronze.

It was an impressive piece of aggressive running by Alex which simply demoralised the opposition - a fine example of 'if you are going to go early, you had better mean it !' Look at the picture of Alex reaching the finish line - the expression on her face says it all - this is her gold medal and no one else is having it!

Congratulations Alex.

Hurdlers Sam Stone and Emma Komocki both made their respective finals in the 60m hurdles in great style. Emma, competing in the U15 event, easily won her heat setting a new PB and club record but was just outside the medals in 4th place in the final against a class field. Sam's U17 final was closely and aggressively fought, finishing in 5th place, he too set a PB and new club record. Both can be satisfied with being worthy AAA's finalists.

Andrew Szarkowski had to work the hardest of all the AVAC athletes. He won his heat of the U17 mens 400m early on the Saturday. He lowered his PB and club record in the semi-final later that day, then had to come back the following day for his final. Andrew ran the race of his life, knowing that a medal was a possibility having recorded the 4th fastest qualifying time of 51.02 in the semi's. However, despite being in contention throughout the 2 lap race he had to settle for a well-deserved 4th place.

David Feeney and Claudia Rogers contested their heats of the 60m hurdles. David set a PB despite only resuming full training a week ago after injury problems, yet neither were able to progress to their race final. Claudia just missed a place in the semi's for the 60m flat but had the satisfaction of a PB and new club record.

National Cross Country Championships - Saturday 25th February, Parliament Hill, London.

An enthusiastic squad of Amber Valley cross country runners were in action last Saturday at the spectacular but tough Parliament Hill course in London for the National Cross Country Championships. Most of the runners and a band of supportive parents/team managers traveled down on Friday afternoon and spent the night in a Youth Hostel near Hampstead Heath .

The day of the championships was dry and bright but with a biting wind on the exposed Parliament Hill site. This is always a tough course with the massed start of each race facing directly up the imposing hill for the first 1/2 mile followed by several other uphill sections before a high speed chase back down along the western side of Hampstead Heath. As ever, the event attracted large numbers of enthusiastic and supportive spectators to encourage the large number of competitors.

As expected with Ben Connor and Tamara Armoush competing, Amber Valley got plenty of mentions on the live PA system coverage as the races unfolded. Tamara was up against some really tough competition in her first national championships at U15 level but she was not deterred by this. In the tough uphill early stages Tamara kept in contact with the leading group and had moved up to 3rd place by the mid stages just behind Lincoln Wellingtons Blue Haywood with Aldershot's Charlotte Purdue well in the lead. By the time the race was in its closing stages Blue and Tamara had been joined by Bea Swords of Oxford with Purdue still about 12 seconds in front and there was a dramatic battle between the 3 girls for the silver and bronze medals which went all the way to the finish line. Tamara couldn't hold of Bea Swords but just managed to get past Blue Haywood to claim bronze . Final times show a spread of only 1 second between these 3 girls - a really exciting finish in front of hundreds of cheering spectators. Congratulations to Tamara for getting a bronze medal in a national championship - and still in the same age group for next year.

The eagerly awaited under 13 boys event featuring Ben Connor (seen as one of the pre-race favourites) was also a duel to the end. Ben wisely held back in the early uphill stages but took the lead in typical fashion in the mid stages of the 3km course and stretched the field out. However, the strong Rikki Letch ( a relative newcomer from the Aldershot, Farnham and District club) managed to stick with Ben's relentless pace. Letch's speed and strength were decisive as they came down the final downhill section and in to the home straight and he powered past Ben to narrowly take the gold. Well done to Ben for a silver medal - an excellent and determined performance.

It is a measure of how far Amber Valley AC has progressed that we can go to a national championships and expect to pick up medals - Ben and Tamara are clearly established as top endurance athletes for their age groups and a terrific inspiration to others.

It was a day of mixed fortune for our other runners but everyone gave 100% and the team spirit was superb.

In the U13 girls event Leanne Cartledge started well and was in the top 30 (out of 376 finishers) but half way round the 3kn course she twisted her angle and had to pull out. Lori Marshall was not far behind Leanne and went on to finish strongly in an excellent 53rd position. Rosanne Pell and Jessica Riley were 314th and 352nd respectively.

Supporting Ben in the U13 boys race were Michael Bosworth (80th), Chris Dawe (163rd) and William Dennis (252nd).

In the U15 girls, Olivia Pell finished 164th (out of 293) with Alexandra Turner further back in 205th position clearly still feeling the effects of a recent viral infection. Alex's priority is next weekends AAA indoor championships where she is a medal prospect in the 800m. Our 4th U15 girl was Charlotte Noonan (250th) in her first cross country race since November. It was good to see Charlotte running again but the National Champs at Parliament Hill is a tough way of getting back in to racing !

Rory Dickenson was 237th (out of326) in the U15 boys 4.5km event

Our sole U17 girl was Leila Armoush who ran well to finish in a very respectable 65th place and Nathan Ahlfors showed he is steadily getting back to fitness with a solid136th place in the U17 mens 6km event.

Final Sportshall Match

The final match of the 2005/06 season was a closely fought contest, with AVAC winning by3 points but it wasn't enough to overhaul Chesterfield's lead. AVAC triumphed in 2 of the age groups, U11 Boys and U11 Girls. Jodie Wills received a special sportsmanship award, for the sacrifice she made at the regional finals for the benefit of the team.

There were lots of records equaled and set - in Match 1 Jessica Turner equaled the record in the 2 lap, in Match 2 she set a new record for the 3 lap, also in this match our U15 girls broke their own record to set a new one in the relay. Match 4 saw the U13 boys equal the 8 lap parlaaf record, Rory Chambers equaled the Standing Triple Jump and in Match 5 he equaled the standing long jump record.

A big well done to everybody who took part, and a special thank you to Jane Rodgers and Judy Payling for being team managers.

Sportshall Reminder

The final match in this seasons programme is on Sunday 19th February at Queens Park Leisure Centre, Chesterfield. Races start at 1.30pm and usually finished by 3.30pm. Please meet in the foyer or sportshall at 1pm.

Any club member aged 9 to 15 years can take part. Just turn up (£2 payable on the day to team managers) and run. Club vest or T-shirt is needed. A programme of events and more info is on the Derbyshire Athletics website www.dcaa.org.uk

Being the last match, there will be presentations of age group trophies to the winning teams at the end of the match. Let's see lots of you there.

Annual General Meeting Tuesday 28th Feb 2006

All members and interested parents are invited to the AGM to be held at Sammy's function room, Belper Leisure Centre, at 8.30pm. The meeting has the purpose of receiving the annual reports and financial accounts from club officers, and the election of officers for the coming year.

Any nominations for Office and any other appropriate business must be received by the Secretary in writing by 18th February.

Clerk to the Committee Urgently Required

Would you like to become more involved in the running of the club? The Committee needs a suitable volunteer who would be responsible for taking the Minutes at the monthly (on average) meetings, distributing (usually via email) and producing the agenda for each meeting. A PC and email set-up is essential. The tasks are straight forward, and a basic knowledge of the club and athletics is useful (or a willingness to come up to speed). Meetings are informal and friendly, usually held at Belper Leisure Centre, Charles Hill or a local pub (Denby / Belper). If you would like to find out more, please speak to Julie Feeney. We hope that this vacancy can be filled at the AGM, ready to start at the following general meeting in March.

Scunthorpe Winter Warm-Up Open

The first outdoor track and field meeting in this area is on Sunday 19th March, at Quibell Park, Scunthorpe. All those who are itching to get competing on the track after a long winter can enter a variety of events from U11 to Senior. Being an Open, any club member can enter, but entries must be made to the event organisers, not AVAC, and no transport is provided. Details and entry forms are available from the payment desk at training.

Ilkeston Track Opening Still on Track

We are still hopeful that the Ilkeston track will be open for club use as from early March. Conversations with Erewash staff indicate that the final finishing touches to the landscaping and the pavilion are on schedule. We'll give details on opening dates and any changes to training times, days and meeting places as soon as we have the go-ahead, via the website and at training. You might also be interested to know that the complete facility (tennis centre, cricket pitch, track etc) is now to be known as 'The Rutland Sports Park' rather than 'Sport Erewash'.

U15 Girls Make National Final

Congratulations to Emma Komocki, Charlotte Noonan, Chloe Smith, Claudia Rogers and Alex Turner (along with Abby Glover and an injured Emily Buckley from Derby AC) who were triumphant at last weekends East Midlands Sportshall Athletics Final in Grantham. They saw off the challenge from the teams from Notts, Northants and Lincs to take a sack-full of individual and team medals, including the top 4 places in the all-rounder category. They now go through to the National Final at the NIA Birmingham on 9th April.

Derbyshire Schools Cross Country Champs - Saturday 4th February, Ashbourne.

On Saturday 4th February the Derbyshire Schools cross country championships were held at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School featuring many of our Club athletes. In total we have seven Amber Valley AC athletes selected to represent Derbyshire Schools in the English Schools Championships to be held in Mansfield on 25th March which is a record for us. For info, the first 8 in each race are usually selected with the next 4 places as reserves.

Highlights were Michael Bosworth winning the year 7 race with a determined and dominant run from start to finish. As a year 7 Michael is unfortunately too young for the English Schools Champs but winning his age group at County level is a real demonstration of how well he has developed over his debut cross country season.

In the Junior (years 8 &9) boys race Ben Connor (year 8) had a real battle on his hands against year 9 Josh Moody of Matlock.  The two lads were close together for the first lap with Josh pushing the early pace. On the 2nd of the 2 lap race Ben began to steadily pull away to win by a significant margin. Rory Dickenson (9th place) just missed out on automatic County selection but as first reserve still has a good chance of making the team.

Tamara Armoush, as expected, romped away with the Junior Girls title with Alex Turner (4th) and Leanne Cartledge (8th) also gaining County selection.

In the intermediate (year 10 & 11) girls race Olivia Pell finished 8th and hence gaining a county place. Leila Armoush just missed out on a reserve place by finishing 13th.

In the intermediate boys event Rob Love had a strong run to finish in 2nd place with Nathan Ahlfors in 5th. For Nathan this represents another welcome step on his return to full fitness.

Our sole Club representative in the senior girls event, Rebecca Herring did well to finish 7th but the selectors have unfortunately decided only to take the first 6 runners to the English Schools event for this age group.

Full results are in the excel spreadsheet.

Athletes Chosen for County Sportshall

Twelve AVAC athletes have been selected for the Derbyshire Sportshall team.

They compete in the East Midlands regional final at Grantham on Sunday 5th. Congratulations and good luck to Sam Glenn, Charlie Waterhouse, Michael Bosworth, Ben Connor, Jodie Wills, Jessica Riley, Alex Turner, Charlotte Noonan, Chloe Smith, Claudia Rogers and Emma Komocki (Shaun Rathbone was selected but will miss due to injury).

NoEAA Cross Country Championships, Witton Park, Blackburn, Sat 28th Jan, 2006

The event organisers arranged for DE Photo to take photos of the event and these can now be ordered online:

They can now be viewed at www.dephoto.co.uk > View Photos from Event > Running > NoEAA X Country.

According to the company the images may look a little dark on the website but are fine when printed.

They can be contacted via the website or at:  Ian Hughes & Alexandra Addams, DE Photo, Tel: 01524 409606

 

Amber Valley athletes in the medals again at the NoE Cross Country Championships.

Athletes from Amber Valley Athletic Club were once again in medal winning form at the annual North of England Cross Country Championships last Saturday. Runners from all major clubs north of Derby competed in bright winter sunshine over the testing course at Witton Park in Blackburn. Conditions for both competitors and spectators were near perfect despite some boggy sections on the undulating course. A number of runners were suffering with illness or injury so the teams were a little depleted with only the U13 boys having the necessary minimum of 4 runners to qualify for the team championships.

The star Amber Valley performance of the day was from Ben Connor who, in characteristic fashion, took the rest of the high quality field apart leading from the start to win gold in the U13 boys 3km event. This was despite losing a shoe half way round the course which was later handed in by someone clearly unaware of the potential future value of such a souvenir ! With the National Cross Country Championships in London 4 weeks away Ben has to be considered a real medal prospect and potential champion. Well done Ben. Michael Bosworth was the 2nd Amber Valley runner home in the U13 boys in 33rd position which is an excellent result in his first competitive season in this age group. Chris Dawe bravely finished in 54th position despite suffering a groin strain during the race. Completing the team was William Dennis (109th), also in his first year as an U13. Overall, the Amber Valley team just missed out on the medals with 4th place.

The U15 girls event was exciting from an Amber Valley perspective with 13 year old Tamara Armoush battling it out over the 4km course with Kate Avery (2005 U13 national champion and England team mate of Tamara). Kate pushed the pace in the early stages with only Tamara able to keep with her. Eventually Kate's strength on the uphill section of the course proved too much for Tamara who fell back towards the high quality chasing pack which included Blue Haywood (the 2004 national Champion and another of Tamara's England team mates). Tamara managed to keep ahead of the bulk of this group but was unable to shake off the challenge of Macclesfield's R Craigie who stole a lead over Tamara with about 600 m to go. Not to be deterred, Tamara challenged again and almost caught the Macclesfield girl finishing in 3rd place by 1 second. This was a particularly strong field and 3rd place in such a major event in her first year as an U15 is a further indication of how well Tamara is developing. Alex Turner (last weekends indoor 800m NoE gold medalist) was the next Amber Valley runner in a highly respectable 23rd position with Emily Cotteril 151st.

In the U17 mens 6km race Rob Love finished in an impressive 12th place (another athlete in his first year in a new age group) with Nathan Ahlfors 88th in his first race since recovering from illness.

Other Amber Valley performances were Lori Marshall and Jessica Riley (51st and 145th in the U13 girls), Rory Dickenson (102nd in U15 boys) and Leila Armoush (68th in the U17 woman's)

Full results are available on the NoE website www.noeaa-athletics.org.uk

You can also download a video of the Girls U13 race start here. (This is a QuickTime Movie file of approx 4MB - right click the link to the left hand side and select Save Target As)

 

Alex makes the UK All Time Ranking List

It's now official. Alex Turner's time of 2m 16.86 for her indoor 800m has made it onto the UK All-time rankings list. To put it in perspective, only 10 girls of her age group have ever run the 800m indoors faster!

If you want to see what it takes to get on there yourself take a look at www.gbrathletics.com.

 

Alex and Emma are Northern Champions! Sheffield 21/ 22nd January

Several AVAC athletes took part in the North of England U15, U17 and U20 Indoor Championships at the English Institute of Sport, Sheffield, with 3 athletes winning coveted medals. The Championships attract an entry list of the best young athletes from the North over a weekend of competition.

Top of the tree were Alex Turner and Emma Komocki who each won gold in their events. Alex was expected to do well in the U15 girls 800m with one of the fastest declared PB's. However, the way she destroyed the field in both the heats and finals ensured that she not only won gold, but she also shattered the existing Championship Best Performance by 4 seconds. Taking a glance at website statistics it looks unofficially that her time would just get her into the U15 all-time indoor 800m rankings, an indication of her strong performance.

Emma, in the U15 60m hurdles, got a superb start, quickly dominating the race from the front to win with metres to spare. Her time was also a new PB and club record. Earlier in the day she added another medal to her growing collection with a bronze for her third place in Long Jump.

Another successful hurdler was Sam Stone who took a well deserved silver medal in the U17 mens 60m hurdles. In a close race, only point two of a second divided the medalists. Like the girls, his time was also a PB and new club record.

Just missing out on the medals were Michael Feeney and Chloe Smith who took 4th place positions. Both set PB's and new club records in the U15 boys 60m hurdles and U17 women's triple jump respectively.

All these athletes will now turn their attentions, and hopefully more success, to the National Indoor Championships in around 5 weeks time.

 

UKA Cross Challenge - Cardiff 22nd January.

In addition to the excellent indoor performances, Amber Valley athletes were competing in the UKA Cross Challenge series at Cardiff. This is a series of races held throughout the cross country season featuring the best endurance runners in the country.

In his third race of the series, U13 Ben Connor chalked up his 3rd consecutive win thus maintaining his unbeaten record for the season. He was however given a tough race by the chasing pack but managed to hold on to the lead for the whole race.

In the U15 girls event Tamara Armoush finished 2nd and its hard to remember that this is still Tamara's first year at U15. In the overall series Ben is in equal first place with Tamara currently 4th.

Also competing in the same event were Rob Love (12th U17 men), Rory Dickenson (41st U15 boys) and Chris Dawe (18th U13 boys).

 

 Sportshall Athletics - coming soon!!!

The next Mini League Sportshall Athletics competition at Queens Park Leisure Centre, Chesterfield is on Sunday 22nd January. Meet the rest of the team at 1pm. This is last chance for possible selection for the County Sportshall team which will be selected immediately after the competition. Have you run, jumped and thrown far enough?!

We still need to keep the pressure on Chesterfield and keep our winning margins in certain age groups so it's important that we have a good turn-out. Any club member (aged 9 to 15) can take part. All you need is a club T-shirt or vest and £2 entry.

 

AAA's and North of England U20 Indoor Combined Events Championships, EIS Sheffield, 14 / 15th January

David Feeney started his indoor season by taking North of England silver medal in the U20 mens Heptathlon. Being a joint championships, his final points score of 4601put him 5th place overall in the AAA's National championships, his best ever finishing place in any national championships. Despite being content with this achievement he missed out on the North's gold medal (and 4th AAA's place) by only 6 points (which equates to only 2cm in long jump or a hundredth of a second in the hurdles!). He also had to contend with a painful muscle strain in his back picked up in training a fortnight ago which threatened his ability to actually complete the event at all.

Day 1 did not get off to the best of starts with a below par performance in the 60m and long jump. However PB's in the shot and pole vault brought his points score in line with the leading group. David began the second day well with PB's in the 60m hurdles and high jump. As is often the case with combined events, the finishing places were decided by the grueling 1000m. Despite running a PB by 3 seconds it was just not enough to hang onto the Northern gold. His final points tally was another PB, an improvement of 350 points from his best last season.

Richard Szarkowski also competed in the heptathlon and picked up PB's in his pole vault, 60m and 60m hurdles.

 

Latest edition of Trackline

You can now download the latest edition of the Club's newsletter Trackline here.

 

Derbyshire Cross Country Championships - Markeaton Park Saturday 14 Jan 2006.

Another good day for Amber Valley runners with 2 team wins and seven individual medals including two gold at the Derbyshire Cross Country Championships at Markeaton Park, Derby last Saturday. The races were, as usual, combined with the Nott's Championships which made the races more competitive but the events scored separately. In total 9 Amber Valley runners gained selection for the Derbyshire teams in the Inter Counties event in March. The familiar Markeaton Park course was soft underfoot and particularly wet and muddy on the uphill sections which made it harder work than usual. The day started gloomy but later improved and turned out to be quite mild and dry.

Rob Love was Amber Valleys only competitor in the U17 men's race finishing in 4th place over the 6km course. Rob is still in his first year as an under 17 so will be a real medal prospect next season.

Our U13 girls were next off and they delivered an excellent team performance with Leanne Cartledge in 2nd place followed by Lori Marshall taking the bronze medal ably supported by Jessica Riley in 6th place to give them the overall team championship in the 3km event . All three of our girls gained county selection for the first time at cross country.

Next race, also over 3km, was the U13 boys and, as expected, Ben Connor simply ran away from the rest of the field to win by a 42 second margin. Michael Bosworth took the bronze medal but we were without Chris Dawe due to illness and so the team had to settle for a bronze medal narrowly behind the strong Heanor and Derby teams.

Coaches Jim Feeney and Amer Armoush both survived the grueling senior/vets 10km race - enough said !

In the U17 woman's 5km event Leila Armoush won a well deserved bronze medal and county selection. Rebecca Herring was the sole AVAC runner in the U20 woman's event also gaining county selection.

In the U15 girls event, Tamara Armoush closely tracked Lincoln Wellingtons Blue Haywood (National U13 Cross Country Champion in 2004) for most of the 4km course but Blue pulled away on the boggy uphill section. Despite a late push Tamara could not quite catch her but as the first Derbyshire athlete, Tamara comfortably took the gold medal followed by Alex Turner taking silver. Olivia Pell had made a brave decision to compete despite feeling unwell before the race in order to ensure team victory but had to pull out half way round. The day was saved by Emily Cottrell finishing 14th to ensure the team prize did indeed go to Amber Valley.

In the U15 boys event Rory Dickenson was Amber Valleys highest finisher in 10th place supported by Michael Feeney and Nick Rowton.

Full results are available at www.dcaa.org.uk

 

Revised Wednesday Training Times and Other Information

Following our first session on Jan 11th at the Tennis Centre, Ilkeston please note the following changes:

Start Times:

Finish Times:

Training Fees :

Registration:

 

Amber Valley triumph in 4th and final NML Cross Country match, Sutton-in-Ashfield Jan 7th 2006.

In the last of this season's 4 North Midlands League Cross County fixtures at Sutton in Ashfield on Saturday 7th Jan Amber Valley runners put in some terrific performances with four individual race winners, 3 overall individual league champions and two team league trophies in the bag. There were also many other good individual performances over the testing course.

U11 star Jessica Turner won not only the girls race but also beat all the boys in the combined race. This made 4 wins out of 4 races for Jessica making her the overall League champion.

The U13 girls the race was won by Leanne Cartledge after an exciting sprint duel to the finish line. This was Leanne's first victory in this league and well deserved. Leanne was closely followed by Lori Marshall (7th) and Jessica Riley(17th) with the team finishing an excellent 2nd in the overall league behind Mansfield.

Ben Connor continued his unbeaten record for this season by dominating the U13 boys race and thus winning the overall League title for his age group. Michael Bosworth and Chris Dawe finished 6th and 7th making them the 1st team on the day and also league champions for the 2nd year running.

In the U15 girls event, Tamara Armoush was 1st with Alex Turner and Olivia Pell 5th and 13th. This was enough to clinch the overall League team championship in a tight battle with the strong Kettering squad. Tamara also won the individual U15 girls overall League title in her first season as an U15.

Other notable individual performances were Rob Love (3rd in U17 men) and Leila Armoush (4th in U17 women).

Full results are available at www.northmidsxcleague.co.uk

 

Hat-trick of Medals For Multi-eventers

Not to be outdone by the endurance runners, Amber Valley athletes competed in the U15/U17 North of England indoor Combined Events Championships at the superbly equipped English Institute of Sport stadium in Sheffield, on Saturday 6th. The event also doubled up as the AAA's National Combined Events Championships for these age groups too. Athletes compete in sprint hurdles, long jump, shot putt, high jump and 800m in one day making it a challenging test of all-round athletic ability, with athletes coming from all over the country to compete.

Competing in the U15 pentathlon Emma Komocki had a highly successful day by winning the U15 girls North of England title with an excellent series of performances. Achieving a personal best score of 2616 points this also meant that she finished in 4th place in the AAA's competition. Getting the day off to a good start she recorded the second fastest 60m hurdles time. A decent long jump kept her in the top 3 overall, which she followed by a PB in the shot, her weakest event out of the five. Despite an excellent high jump the high standard of the other girls in this event caused her to slip a few places. As usual in combined events, the final event (800m in a pentathlon) decides the final places. Emma had a gutsy run to clinch the gold medal. Teammate Claudia Rogers picked up the North of England bronze medal, with good showings particularly in the hurdles and 800m.

In the U15 boys event Michael Feeney made it a club hat-trick by taking a North of England silver medal. In doing so he managed four PB's out of a possible five.

 

It's 'All Change' to Ilkeston

A reminder to all athletes and parents that the clubs training venue has now changed from Charles Hill Sports Centre, Loscoe, to the 'Rutland Sports Park' complex in Ilkeston. The first training session is on Wednesday 11th January at the indoor Tennis Centre. All athletes should meet at 7.15pm for a safety and procedure briefing, followed by training until 8.30pm. Subsequent Wednesdays will be 7 to 8pm for Recreation Group (Primary School age children), 7.30 to 8.45pm for those who have attended previous Tuesday sessions for strength and conditioning. Saturdays will be 10am to 12pm at the Tennis Centre for all age groups.

'Rutland Sports Park' is situated on West End Drive (not far from the fire station and bowling alley). Once on West End Drive the entrance to the Tennis Centre is almost immediately on the left-hand side. Currently there are no signs on the buildings so a club banner will be on the railings to give parents an indication of where to go. The site is still under construction so there is no parking within the complex until March. All cars must be parked on West End Drive or in a small car park next to the pedestrian crossing on Oakwell Drive (followed by a short walk). For your information the Tennis Centre phone number is 0115 9327243 or 078144 87088.

 

Mini League 2006

This years Mini League track and field fixtures are on Saturdays April 22nd, June 17th, July 8th and August 26th, all held at Moorways Stadium, Derby from 10.30am.

 

Making the move - update

More details of the facilities at Rutland Recreation Ground can be downloaded here.

 

Amber Valley Athletic Club - Making the Move!

There are some BIG changes due to take place regarding AVAC's training times, days and venues, which will affect you / your children).

Please download and read the attached information and save a copy for your future reference. All members, coaches, volunteers etc will receive this info, either by email (if I know I have a reliable address) or through the post. If you know of someone who comes training (perhaps it's a friend who you give a lift to) who hasn't joined the club, and therefore not on the clubs membership list, then please pass this information on to save a wasted trip to Charles Hill.

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