July - September 2004
Young Inter Counties Match - Harvey Hadden 2004
An excellent achievement from all of Derbyshire's young athletes made second possible for the County.
The match result is as follows:- Warks 483, Derbys 414, Lincs 376.5, Leics 365, Notts 361.5, S.Yorks 333, Humberside 329.
Well done to all the athletes who took part and to the parents for giving them your full support.
Many thanks to www.dcaa.org.uk for the photos.
Heart of England League Match 3, Tamworth, Sunday 5th September
In an eagerly fought contest it appeared that all 8 clubs had pulled out all the stops to get complete teams across the age groups in a bid to either win the league or, like ourselves, avoid relegation. After 3 seasons in Div 2 we really did not want to go down into it again after only one season in Div 1. We need not have worried.
In unseasonably hot conditions, there wasn’t one team that seemed to be dominating nor, to the other extreme, struggling, making an educated guess at the final outcome very difficult to gauge. What a surprise then, to find that we finished equal 2nd overall on the day! The final results after the 3 matches is yet to be received but an unofficial tot-up looks like we have finished 5th overall out of 8 teams – we survived our first season in Div 1 in what was a good quality league.
Despite being late season the club record books have had to be re-written again, non more so than the U11 boys . Charlie Waterhouse and William Dennis were our only 2 athletes in this age group but both excelled. They both clocked the same time in the 75m of 11.1 which is a new shared club record. U11 scores don’t count in this league to the overall scores but they have medals for the top 3 performances in their events across the whole 3-match season. William and Charlie thus share a bronze for the 75m. Charlie got another bronze for the third best long jump, and William, in a blistering run on the day not only got a new PB, but he also increased his own club record and won the gold medal for the fastest 600m time this season.
Louise and Michael Feeney both increased their own club records with good performances in the 400m and LJ respectively.
Ian Ellis, as an U15, holds a couple of club throws records. Now, after a break away from the club, his return brought maximum points for the club by winning the U17 shot and taking a new club record too. Still at U17, Richard Szarkowski had a fantastic high jump competition to finish an excellent second place but he also soared to clear 1m 80 at his first attempt – a new PB and club record!
With both A and B strings counting equally to the final score some athletes gave us valuable points in both. At U13 the hurdling double-act of Emma Komocki and Claudia Rogers didn’t disappoint with wins from both. The 800m races proved exciting with Alex Turner having to fight every metre for her first place whilst Jessica Riley came home for a well deserved B 2nd place. In the boys, Jordan Martin shattered his PB to take a 2nd place whilst Michael Feeney came first for the B.
At U15 Rob Love took first in his 800m, while Tom Mayer picked up a useful B 2nd place. Team-mate Nathan Ahlfors won his A 400m and Katie Noonan won the A shot. At U17 David Feeney won both his 100m and LJ.
Club Championships
Unfortunately we have had to take the decision to cancel the annual Club Championships. This has been due to the unavailability of our local tracks and a misunderstanding over bookings, all issues outside the clubs control.
At this late stage in the day it is almost impossible to find a suitable alternative. We are sorry to cause any inconvenience and know that it will disappoint many of our athletes.
Entry fees that have already been paid will be refunded.
Marathon Challenge Saturday 4th August, Charles Hill
Normal training was suspended for one day for the annual ‘fun day’.
This years event was the sponsored running of a Marathon relay-style around a
football pitch at Charles Hill. Around 60 runners of all ages and abilities took
it in turn to run a leg (in most cases several legs) passing a baton from one
runner to the next.
Everything went very smoothly and it was great to see the very youngest of our athletes handing over to our County standard athletes, all tearing along the course in the brilliant sunshine! Even the coaches took their turns – a real club effort.
Our total time was 2hrs 8 mins 30sec, so not enough to match the best men in the world but we broke Paula Radcliff’s world record, and all the athletes put themselves through a good sprint interval training session without knowing it!
Refreshments, a tombola, cake and biscuit decorating
stalls helped to bring in over
£100 on the day, plus we hope for a lot more when we start to get sponsorship
money in. All funds raised will go towards the clubs share of the thousands of
pounds needed to build our new all-weather training track at Charles Hill.
Paul Noonan who was the brains behind the day is to be congratulated on his organisation of the event. Thanks also to Judy Payling, Carole Eagle and Jane Rogers for the fundraising stalls, and also to all those parents who helped marshal the course and organise the runners.
Thanks to everyone who made the day a great success!
www.avac.org.uk to your Inbox
You can now receive AVAC updates directly to your inbox so you don't miss out on any information on events, training etc. Click here to send an email to register.
Club Track and Field Championships Berry Hill Stadium, Mansfield
Please note that the date for this has been unavoidably changed.
It will now take place on Sunday 26th September, NOT 19th Sept.
All other venue, time and programme details remain the same as per the green entry forms available from training or by clicking here.
Marathon Challenge Fun Day Saturday 4th Sept 10am - 1pm - ish
Only a few days to go till our autumn fundraiser! All athletes, mums, dads, coaches are encouraged to take part in our Marathon Challenge.
We are going to run a Marathon relay-style on a course around Charles Hill fields. Each leg is only a matter of metres not miles so anyone with a pair of trainers can do it. We just ask that you get sponsors (using the forms available from training) or give a donation.
There will also be a tombola and other stalls. All money raised will go towards our share of the building of our new all-weather track at Charles Hill so it's for a really good cause.
Annual Tamworth Games Bank Holiday Monday, August 04
Our athletes turned in some good late season performances at the annual Tamworth Games. This popular Open always attracts a large number of good quality entrants due to the accuracy of the electronic timing and measuring.
Only two of our athletes won a coveted ‘winners’ t-shirt. Tamara Armoush won the U13 girls 800m in a difficult to pace time-trial race, and Richard Szarkowski took full advantage of his fellow competitors’ no-heighting in the U17 pole vault to take a cheeky first place, clearing 2m 70. Richard actually came away with a full set of medals. He won a silver in high jump and bronze in the javelin.
Abby Wood had her first opportunity at competitive hammer and took a pleasing second place. Having only been practicing this event for a number of weeks there is clearly more to come from the versatile thrower. She also took a further second in U15 shot. Other silver medals went to Michael Feeney in the U13 800m and Ricky Kiggins in U15 high jump. Bronze medals were won by Rob Love and Rebecca Herring in their 800m races.
Disappointingly the weather was cold and windy, but the sprinters in general turned this to their advantage with some very fast times being recorded by the winners, helped by the strong following wind. None of our sprinters could match the medallists, but Claudia Rogers made the final of the U13 75m, Andrew Szarkowski took a 4th in the U15 400m, and David Feeney made the final in both the U17 100m and 200m, getting equal 4th at the shorter distance, setting new PB's and club records for his efforts.
Change of Venue
There has been a change of venue for the Heart of England match on 5th September - it will now take place at Tamworth instead of Rugby.
Click here for more details
AVAC Athletes get County Selection
A record number of our young athletes have been selected to represent Derbyshire in the annual Inter-Counties match for young athletes. 16 athletes will compete at Harvey Hadden Stadium, Nottingham on 5th September.
They were selected following their performances from the County Championships (back in May) plus the four Mini League matches over the summer.
The
list includes 3 athletes who have been selected for the Derbyshire team for the
first time - U13's Ben Conner, Anthony Knighton and Charlotte Hobbs. Others
selected are Danni Alldread, Abby Wood, Katie Noonan, Josh Cartledge, Andrew
Szarkowski, Ricky Kiggins, Rob Love (U15's), Tamara Armoush, Alexandra Turner,
Emma Komocki, Claudia Rogers, Michael Feeney and Jordan Martin (U13's).
North of England Inter-Counties Match 21st August, Cudworth
Five
AVAC athletes have already represented Derbyshire at the annual North of England
Inter-Counties match. This match was for U15's, U17's and Seniors and the
standard is generally very good.
Abby Wood was one of Derbyshire best performers with 2nd places in the U15 girls shot and discus. Louise Feeney and Rob Love found the competition tough in their events ( 80m hurdles and 1500m respectively).
David Feeney and Richard Szarkowski helped the U17 mens team to come an excellent 2nd place out of 9 counties. David came 2nd in Long Jump and 4th in 100m hurdles, whilst Richard earned valuable team points from javelin and triple jump.
Katie Noonan 5th U15 LJ, Josh Cartledge U15 100 and 200m, and Andrew Szarkowski 5th 400m U15 were also spotted taking part.
Help Raise Club Funds and Run a Marathon!
Not on your own of course. On Saturday 4th September all athletes, coaches, mums, Dads etc are encouraged to help the club raise funds that will go towards the building of our track at Charles Hill. We will be attempting to run a marathon, relay-style around the fields at Charles Hill, taking it in turns to run a very short leg each (but several times, so great speed interval training!).
We ask that you get sponsors
using the forms that are now available from training. It is a fun event to
(almost) round off the summer track and field season. The event starts at 10am
with a likely finish time of around 1pm - if we run quick enough! There will
also be a raffle and cake stall etc so please come down to run, help out, and /
or support the club.
North of England U15 Pentathlon Championships Gateshead, 21st August
Ricky
Kiggins was our only club athlete who made the long journey to the North East
for this Championships. It was well worth his while too as he came away with a
bronze medal. Not only that (by my reckoning) he also did a PB in every event!
Athletes have to complete 5 disciplines in one day, with each performance
gaining a certain number of points.
Ricky started the day with an equal PB in the 80m hurdles, one of his best events. Next came shot where he added 30cm to his previous best. He added 1 cm to his high jump best, clearing 1m 62, and jumped 4m 74 in the long jump, a PB by 20 cm. Finally, Ricky reaped the benefit from recent consistent middle distance work by running 2.19 for the 800m, a good run coming after 4 other events.
His grand total was 2301 points,( 250 points improvement on his PB) which is a new club record.
Well done Ricky.
Updated Events Information
Click here to see the freshly updated list of events for you to take part in - opportunities for Track & Field and Cross Country through to April 2005.
Also find the entry form for this years Club Championships on Sunday 19th September.
UK Athletics Young Athletes League
After 5 fixtures in this league (well it should have been 5!) AVAC finished in a pleasing 7th position out of 17 clubs in Midlands Division 1 East. The top 2 clubs gain promotion to the Midlands Premier Division. In our first season in this division our aim was to finish mid table, and we finished higher than several larger, more established clubs than ourselves.
The 5th
match was due to be hosted by ourselves at Moorways, and a good match against
strong clubs Coventry and Grantham was being anticipated. However, with only
days to spare, Moorways cancelled the match for various reasons. A new date and
venue was sought but sadly agreement between the clubs involved and the League
could not be reached, despite the valiant attempts of Nigel Smith caught
somewhere in the middle of all the wrangling.
The
clubs involved were awarded league points based on previous finishing totals -
not quite as satisfying as getting a team out and actually competing!
The League produces rankings of athletes performances achieved during the
matches across all divisions, nationally. See these for yourself on
www.natyal.co.uk - three of our athletes
have faired very well:
Tamara Armoush is ranked 7th fastest in both the U13 1200m and 800m. Abby Wood settles at 5th best performance in the U15 shot, whilst Emma Komocki's U13 70m Hurdles time of 11.9 is the 4th equal fastest. The 3 girls are certainly up there with the best athletes in the country for their age group.
Well done!
Derbyshire Mini League 14th August, Derby
After 4 matches in this league, in the end, all that separated
ourselves from Chesterfield was 5 points! That’s what it came down to after
another excellent days competition, with Chesterfield becoming this years Mini
League Champions. AVAC has been the proud owner of the league trophy for the 2
years since the competitions began.
AVAC held on to a slender lead during the majority of events until Chesterfield
showed their dominance in the relays to grab a narrow victory.
Despite being toward the end of the season, athletes are still getting PB’s and
breaking records. Emma Komocki was awarded female Athlete of the Match for her
70m hurdle performance which increased both her club record and league record.
Lack of U11 boys bothering to turn up has been a
consistent problem for the club this season but 2 who did got their just
rewards. Charlie Waterhouse and William Dennis go straight into the record
books. They share the 80m club record and league record, Charlie broke the club
record for the 150m, and William (in his first ever race for the club) took both
the club and the league record for the 600m!
Michael Feeney also made it a double by breaking both the existing club and
league records for the 75m hurdles.
There were also wins from Tara Ward, Kelly-Jay Payling, Jordan Martin, Ben
Conner, Olivia Pell, Katie Noonan, Josh Cartledge, Andrew Szarkowski, and Ricky
Kiggins.
U15 and U17 AAA’s Championships 14th , 15th
August, Birmingham
Five of our higher performing athletes were in
action at the AAA’s Championships at Alexander Stadium, Birmingham.
Tough qualifying standards are needed which attracts the countries best young
athletes. At U15 Rob Love and Nathan Ahlfors ran in the 800m. They progressed no
further than the heats but Nathan had the satisfaction of a PB, breaking Robs
existing club record.
Abby Wood and Richard Szarkowski sadly performed below par in the shot and triple jump. David Feeney ran in the 400m hurdles and the 100m hurdles but didn’t do enough to reach the final in either event.
Derbyshire Mini League 24th July, Moorways
What a close match this was! It was neck and neck all the way through between ourselves and Chesterfield. In the end it came down to the relays where Chesterfield were able to just pull away from us. The last fixture on August 14th will be the decider - can we win for the third year in a row?
Abby Wood continued a brilliant season by setting a new Mini League record in
the U15 girls discus and increasing her own record in the shot. With this in
mind, and the fact that her shot performance was another Grade 1, Abby
deservedly was awarded female Athlete of the Match. Michael Feeney made it an
Amber Valley double with the male Athlete of the Match by winning the U13 75m
hurdles with a fine technical display of hurdling, equaling the long-standing
club record and well inside a Grade 1 performance.Josh Cartledge was in fine form, taking the 100m and 200m double, smashing the existing Mini League record at the longer distance and reclaiming his club record. Alexandra Turner had two firsts (200m and Long jump) and a second in 800m, whilst sister Jessica followed in her big sisters footsteps by winning the U11 girls 80m and second in the 600m.
There were also wins for hurdlers Ricky Kiggins, Yasmin Wilde and Emma Komocki, and Bethan Griffith won her first ever high jump competition at U11.
With only 12 points between AVAC and Chesterfield it's going to be an exciting finale.
Full results can be found on www.dcaa.org.uk
Young Athletes League, Match 4 Sunday 18th July, Telford
Despite this being a 4 club match there were
really only 2 teams in contention - ourselves and host club Telford. Fielding a
less than full-strength side against Telford who had A and B athletes in almost
all events we had to be content with another 2nd place, but this does still keep
us in the top half of the division.
There were double victories at A and B for Emma Komocki and Charlotte Noonan (U13 70mH and Long Jump), Rob Love and Ricky Kiggins (U15 800m), Andrew Szarkowski and Rob (U15 400m), Michael Feeney and Nicholas Rowton (U13 Long Jump).
Abby Wood and Alexandra Turner were awarded female Athletes of the Match.
Final scores were Telford 454, AVAC 277, Daventry 143, Sutton-in-Ashfield 40.
League positions can be found on www.natyal.co.uk
No training on Sat 24th July.
All of you should be at the Mini League match at Moorways, first events 10.30am!
Open to all U11, U13 and U15's (and guest U17's). Meet at the stadium by 10am. Remember club vest or T-shirt. No charge.
If not already entered, contact Julie Feeney 01773 880228.
Regional Medals for David and Richard
Two of our longest serving athletes, David Feeney and Richard Szarkowski, were triumphant at the North of England Combined Events Championship last weekend (17 / 18th July). Competing in the U17 mens Decathlon David was the convincing winner with a very respectable total points score of 5374, beating his nearest rival by over 300 points. Richard rounded off a very positive competition for him with the bronze medal.
A relatively small field of 10 athletes from all over the North attempted the
busy weekend, with the 10 events spread over 2 days.
The venue was the small Northumbrian market town of Hexham, which has a huge
reputation within the Combined Events world, particularly for the annual
International Meeting. So, not only was there the North of England Championships
for some of the best U20 and U17 decathletes and heptathletes in the north, but
also the senior men and women's competitions with European athletes going for
last-gasp Olympic qualifiers. It also heralded the much publicised competitive
return of Dean Macey (Olympic Decathlon bronze medallist pictured right).
It was a competition like no other I had been to. Set in the beautiful
stone-walled setting, there is no large stand or formality about the place.
Spectators and athletes alike just lined the small grassy banks to watch the
likes of Macey do their events and then mingle with between events. Macey, of
course, was the main attraction with a large press, radio and TV following. Up
close he is a giant of a guy but so awe inspiring to watch when in full flow. He
must have inspired so many of those young athletes there.
David lead the event from the start, only
dropping the cumulative lead once. He finished in the top 3 in all but 1 of the
10 disciplines. Richard also had his share of top 3 finishes, winning the
javelin and 2nd's in discus and pole vault. Well done to both lads.
Heart of England League Match 2 at Tamworth, 11th July 04 - Results
After 2 fixtures (out of 3) and out of 8 clubs
we finished:
At Tamworth 4th=
Overall 5th = Good news! We managed to pull out of bottom
(and relegation) place.
U13 girls
At Tamworth 1st
Overall 1st
U15 girls
At Tamworth 8th
Overall 8th
U17 women
At Tamworth 7th
Overall 8th
Overall women
At Tamworth 5th
Overall 8th
U13 boys
At Tamworth 4th
Overall 5th
U15 boys
At Tamworth 3rd=
Overall 3rd
U17 men
At Tamworth 8th
Overall 8th
Overall Male
At Tamworth 5th
Overall 5th
Total M and F
At Tamworth 4th=
After 2 fixtures 5th=
U11 Charlie Waterhouse is up in a medal position, recording the 3rd best 75m
time and the 3rd best long jump. Keep it going Charlie!
Heart of England League Match 2 at Tamworth, 11th July 04
It was hard to believe that it was July and not January when we traveled the short distance to Tamworth for the second fixture in this League. At least there was a slight back wind down the home straight which could have been the reason for our sprinters turning in some of their collective best performances of the season.
Jordan Martin had an excellent day with 3 PB's in
100m, 200m and 800m. Pushing him all the way in the 800m was club
new-comer Ben Conner, running his first 800m with a very respectable
time. Charlotte Noonan also came away with 3 PB's in discus, 200m and
1500m.
As usual, the sprint hurdlers give a good technical showing with wins for Emma Komocki and Claudia Rogers (U13 70m A and B), 2nd places for Michael Feeney and Nicholas Rowton (U13 80m A and B) and Sam Stone (2nd A) and Ricky Kiggins (1st B) in the U15 80m event.
In the 800m Rob Love and Alexandra Turner totally dominated their fields with some fine front running, and Jessica Riley picked up some useful team points by being the first B runner home in Alexandras race.
David Feeney also picked up much-needed maximum points in his U17 events by winning shot, high jump and 100m.
English Schools Finals
So, we got 5 athletes through to English Schools Finals this weekend (9th / 10th July), representing Derbyshire. How did they get on?
Abby Wood was our most successful representative. She finished a very creditable
5th place overall in the Junior Girls Shot. Her best throw was 10m 99, which was
also her seasons best outdoors so far and earned her a prestigious 'National
Standard ' award.
David Feeney found the going tough in his heat of the Inter-Boys 100m Hurdles. Nonetheless he ran well inside the qualifying standard with one of his best runs of the season.
The very high standard of competitors dominates all the events, and our other athletes Rob Love and Richard Szarkowski gave their best in the Junior Boys 800m and Inter-Boys Triple Jump, only to finish well down the field but inspired by the whole event which is English Schools.
Sadly, Nathan Ahlfors fell ill in the days prior to the event and was unable to compete.
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