Derbyshire Mini League Cross Country

A reminder to all interested in cross country. The final fixture in the Mini League is on Saturday 17th December at the pitches and parkland around Moorways Stadium, Derby. All runners aged 9 to 15 welcome. Meet the team at 10.30am for first races at 11am. £1 payable on the day. All runners must have a club vest or T-shirt.

It looks very likely that AVAC will bring home again the overall trophy, and there will be several individual medalists too, so all runners are asked to stay for the presentations, celebrations and photos which will happen fairly soon after the last race has finished.

Any U11 runners are reminded that there is only one other club cross country league competition left (January 7th) that they can take part in so take the opportunity of running on Saturday while you can

North Midlands Cross Country League - Match 3 at Berry Hill Park, Mansfield, Saturday 3rd December

Amber Valley AC cross country runners were out in force again on Saturday running around a soggy Berry Hill Park in Mansfield in the 3rd North Midlands league Cross Country match. In the first event of the day our U15 girls were dominant with Tamara Armoush winning very comfortably, followed by Alex Turner in 3rd with Olivia Pell 11th. This was enough for our girls to win the match and close the gap with the League leaders, Kettering so that now only 1 point separates the two teams. With one match left it will be an exciting event at Sutton in January.

For Ben Connor (unbeaten at any level so far this season) it was a relatively easy run to take 1st place in the U13 boys event and with Chris Dawe 3rd followed by Michael Bosworth 17th (despite nearly missing the start and having to run in trainers!) the lads have opened up a massive 25 point lead over 2nd placed Nene Valley.

In the U13 girls, strong performances from Leanne Cartledge (5th), Lori Marshall (7th) , Jessica Riley (16th) and Rosanne Pell (23rd) have kept them in 2nd place overall behind the consistently strong Mansfield team who won the U13 girls national relay event last month.

In the U17 women's event, Leila Armoush had an excellent run finishing 5th with Rob Love and Nathan Ahlfors 4th and 6th in the U17 men's race.

In the U15 boys race, Rory Dickenson was 13th followed by Michael Feeney and Nick Rowton in 24th and 30th.

As ever, our U11's performed well in a hotly contested event with Jessica Turner once again the first girl home followed by Jenny Lockwood who was 6th girl. Andrew Fenwick was 3rd closely followed by David Narborough only a few seconds behind in 7th place.

Full results can be found on the N.Mids website www.northmidsxcleague.co.uk

Derbyshire Mini League, Sportshall Athletics

The fourth match will be on Sunday 11th December, at Queens Park Leisure Centre, Chesterfield. Meet in the Sportshall at 1pm to register and warm up. £2 payable on the day. Open to all athletes aged 9 to 15 years.

A programme is available on www.dcaa.org.uk under Sportshall Athletics.

More information from one of your coaches or on the notice board at Charles Hill.

Only the December and January competitions left for U13 and U15’s to improve their times and distances for hopeful selection for the Derbyshire team. The Regional Final is at Grantham on 5th February. U15’s should make sure that they are doing a range of events to increase chances of selection.

COME ALONG, HAVE SOME FUN AND SUPPORT YOUR CLUB

Presentation Evening and Disco Saturday 26th November

This years annual 'do' was, according to those present, the best yet! Riddings Community Hall was packed with athletes of all ages, family and friends, for a night of celebration and partying.

We were lucky to be joined by international middle distance athletes Ricky Soos and Lisa Dobriskey who made the presentations of trophies and certificates to the athletes, ranging from our younger athletes receiving Shine Awards, through to our older athletes receiving awards for high achievement. To thank them Kelly-Jay Payling, Jessica Turner and Charlie Waterhouse presented Lisa and Ricky with a bouquet and a gift voucher.

Bob Boyd thanked all the athletes for their commitment and effort, and all the coaches and volunteers for making the club the success story that it is. In particular, retiring (not through age!) coach Carole Eagle was surprised to be presented with a gift in recognition of her time at the club. It was probably the first time in six years that we have known Carole to be speechless!

The club has also been fortunate to receive a substantial donation from the Catelupe Lodge of Freemasons, Ilkeston, with which the club has bought a projector as an aid to coaching. Peter Whysall, Brian Collyer and Phil Singleton from the Lodge made the presentation to Bob.

It was then time to draw the lucky winning tickets in the Prize Draw, grab a plateful from the buffet, then on with some lively dancing. Ricky and Lisa were kept busy by the athletes answering questions such as 'What it's like to go to the Olympics?', signing autographs and posing for photos with proud athletes.

Like most things the club does, putting on the evening was real teamwork and many peoples efforts over several weeks need to be appreciated and thanked, so HUGE THANK YOUS to:

• Berni, Wendy and Linda for organising the food and clearing away (and thank you to everyone who baked or brought food)

•  Paul Noonan for organising the Prize Draw. Over the weeks he's badgered everyone to sell tickets, he's begged for prizes, he's sorted prizes and folded subs. Huge effort and I'm sure the club will be rewarded with a nice addition to club funds. Paul also booked the venue and sorted the excellent disco.

• Everyone who donated a prize for the Draw.

• Jim and Amer for organising the video footage.

• Ruth Szarkowski for sorting all the trophies and hundreds of certificates, Amer for helping to collate, and Julie for keeping stats throughout the year.

• Jane Rogers for organising the special presentations and gifts, the Shine Awards and helping Paul with the Draw.

• Jim for securing Ricky and Lisa's services.

AVAC in Athletics Weekly

Amber Valley Athletic Club featured in the recent issue of Athletics Weekly and you can download the article here.

It was brought about by the success at the National Cross Country Relay Championships and there also some photos of the events including Ben Connor.

Ben Connor does it again.

Four Amber Valley AC runners competed in the 2nd of the UKA Cross Challenge events at Parliament Hill, London on Saturday. This series of cross country races is aimed at providing top class competition across all age groups. In his Cross Challenge debut, Ben Connor (hero of the previous weekends English Cross Country Relay Championships) had an impressive win in the U13 boys event.

Tamara Armoush in her first year as an U15 was 6th in the U15 girls gaining useful experience of competing in this age group at national level.

Rob Love had an impressive run finishing 10th in the U17 mens 5km event and Rory Dickenson was 37th in the U15 boys.

For further info on the UKA Cross Challenge series visit the UK Athletics website at www.ukathletics.net

Club Athletes on the Winning Side Again

Ten AVAC athletes were part of the Borough sportshall athletics team that were, once again, victorious in their regional final. Amber Valley Borough Council Sports Development Unit, in conjunction with AVAC, get together a team of the best young athletes in the borough to compete in the Norwich Union 'Fun in Athletics' U11's series. This annual event attracts teams representing county, district and school teams.

The squad of 30 boys and girls are selected from their performances at local school cluster sportshall competitions. Naturally, several AVAC athletes who are already experienced in sportshall, make the team. A couple of training sessions later and they were all off to Meres Leisure Centre, Grantham on 13th November.

Up against 6 other teams the squad didn't have it all their own way, but a fine set of relay victories in particular gave them the edge over the Nott's county team to win both the girls and the boys competitions. Full results and more info on sportshall athletics can be found on www.sportshall.org

Well done to club athletes David Narborough, Bradley Coope, Abby Siddall, Jennie Lockwood, Kelly-Jay Payling, Amy Holloway, Lorna Glenn, Jessica Turner, Rosie Blount and Bethan Griffith. We hope that the other boys and girls in the team continue with athletics, and are welcome to come to our training sessions on Saturdays and Wednesdays.

Thank you to the team managers / coaches Judy Payling, Nigel Smith and Julie Feeney, and to Jeanette Glenn and Dave Turner for assisting with the field event scoring on the day.

Another fine victory for Ben Connor in the Cross Challenge.

Hot on the heels of his impressive win in last weekends London UKA Cross Challenge event, Ben Connor repeated it in Liverpool in his second Cross Challenge event. Including the English Cross Country relay champs that makes 3 consecutive weekends where Ben has dominated the U13 boys event at national level - something which is getting him (and the Club) noticed regularly in Athletics Weekly. This time Ben had a fight on his hands for most of the fast 2.8km course but finished with a 6 second lead .

In the U15 Girls event Tamara Armoush was 6th as she was in London but the competition was stronger as reflected by the fact that there was only 25 seconds between the first 6 places. Tamara also beat 2 of the girls who finished ahead of her in London. Its good to see Tamara making progress and holding her own at this level in her first U15 season.

Many of you will also be interested to hear that one of our special guests from our presentation evening, Lisa Dobriskey , finished 2nd in the senior woman's race behind Liz Yelling at Liverpool. Lisa did the race as part of her preparation for the Commonwealth games 1500m but as a result is now selected for the GB team in the European Cross Country Championships. Lisa has yet to decide whether to accept her selection or whether it will interfere too much with her Commonwealth prep.

Derbyshire Cross Country Mini League

The second match in this league is on Saturday 26th November at Kirk Hallam School, off Boundary Road, Kirk Hallam. Any club member can run in these races (you don't have to be selected) provided they are 9 years on the day (U11's), or in the U13 and U15 age groups.

First race starts at 11am so arrive in plenty of time to find your team manager and walk the course. Club vest or T-shirt must be worn and it's £1 to enter.

Amber Valley AC in the medals at the English Cross Country Relay Championships – Berry Hill Park, Mansfield 12 Nov 2005.   

The English Cross Country Relay Championships are always a major highlight of the season set in spectator friendly Berry Hill Park, Mansfield. For this years event we had a glorious bright sunny day as a bonus. For those not familiar with this event, it basically consists of teams of 3, each running a relay leg with all major clubs in the country taking part so the standard is very high in the leading groups. As ever, the atmosphere was exciting with runners charging over the fast undulating park and wood land course cheered on by hundreds of enthusiastic spectators. Amber Valley AC have always featured strongly in the younger age groups in this event but this year we really excelled with some spectacular performances from our young athletes.

In the 3x2km U15 girls event Alex Turner took the race by storm taking the lead after about 800m. Despite a strong and brave run Alex couldn’t quite hold off the top level competition and handed over to Olivia Pell in 5th position but only 15 seconds behind the leader. Olivia did superbly well and managed to maintain her place – a significant achievement at this level and it illustrates just how far Olivia has developed over the last year running 36 seconds faster than previously. Tamara Armoush ran 3rd leg and worked tirelessly clocking the 9th fastest time of the day but could not quite get in to a medal position finishing 4th. This is a major achievement considering 2 of our girls are still in their 1st season at U15 level.

Our U13 boys were clearly inspired by the U15 girls performance and Chris Dawe put the team in contention on the first lap handing over to relative newcomer Michael Bosworth in 4th position. Michael showed real determination and battled round the course finishing in 3rd place before handing over to Ben Conner. At this point the Amber Valley supporters could sense a historic medal winning performance and the shouts of encouragement for Ben must have given him an ever bigger adrenalin rush as he charged off after the leaders. Ben ran the race of his life and pulled back to 2nd place winning the team well deserved silver medals and running the 2km course in 6 mins 51 seconds.

It was quite something to see our lads getting medals presented at a national standard competition, particularly after our U15 girls had come so close. In addition to a great team performance, Ben’s time was equal 1st fastest by an U13 boy on the day adding to the growing recognition he has as one of the best endurance runners of his age in the country.

During these 2 races the words ‘Amber Valley’ featured regularly over the live PA system race commentary and results announcements with more people than usual asking ‘where exactly is Amber Valley?’ Interest in the club included the reporter from Athletics Weekly who was keen to learn more about the club and couldn’t believe it when he asked where our track was and was told that we didn’t yet have one! (Take note Amber Valley Borough Council). Continued success like this is really starting to attract attention and get us noticed at national level.

Another team performance worthy of special mention was the U13 girls team of Leanne Cartledge, Jessica Riley and Lori Marshall who finished an impressive 11th out of 66 teams. Of particular note was Leanne’s time of 7:37 which was over a minute faster than she ran last year over the same course illustrating just how much Leanne has progressed. It is interesting to note that this time is only 1 second slower than Tamara ran at the same age.

In total Amber Valley entered 8 teams in the U13/15/17 age groups and the overall performance was our best yet. In addition to those athletes mentioned it was great to see so many running in this competition for the first time and gives us confidence that in the future we will continue to progress.

Full results are available at www.race-results.co.uk

If you want to have a look at how the AVAC athletes have done at the National Relays you can download 6 years of results here for the Club and see how far we have come.

North Midlands Cross Country League Match 2, 5th November, Shipley Park

It was a day of mixed fortune for Amber Valley's cross country runners, as they tackled the muddy and undulating terrain of Shipley Park. At the halfway point in this league, it is beginning to become clear which are the teams and the individuals who look likely to be victorious come the end of the league in January.

One such athlete is Ben Conner, whose dominant run on Saturday made it two wins out of two, and who leads the U13 Boys individual table. Teammates Chris Dawe and Michael Bosworth had excellent runs to finish 4th and 9th respectively, ensuring that the team top spot is still theirs, with a comfortable gap of 18 points building between themselves and the team from Nene Valley in 2nd.

By the time it came for the U13 Girls to get on the course, being the last race of the day, they had to contend with the worst of the strength-sapping mud and difficult terrain. However, the team of Leanne Cartledge, Lori Marshall and Jessica Riley finished in 3rd place on the day, and all the girls improved on their finishing positions compared to the first fixture at Markeaton Park. Leanne had a strong run to finish in 4th place, whilst Lori wasn't far behind in 6th, with Jessica in 16th.

Rob Love was the clubs only representative in the U17 mens 6K race. He had set himself a personal goal before the race, to finish in the top 8 and beat a local rival. This he did in fine style by coming 5th (and beating his rival!)

The U15 girls team were without Tamara Armoush, who was competing in Birmingham in the UK Athletics 'Cross Challenge' series. Alex Turner and Olivia Pell had very positive runs finishing 3rd and 7th respectively. Alex's run has pulled her up into 4th place in the individual rankings. However, without Tamara, the team could only manage 4th place on the day. They remain in 2nd place overall but a wide gap of 18 points has opened up between themselves and Kettering in 1st place.

Rory Dickinson was the clubs top finisher in the U15 boys race. He improved his finishing place to 14th from the first fixture in a large and highly competitive field.

It might be called a 'fun run' but the U11's attack the course with the same determination as their older teammates. Jessica Turner finished first girl again, making it two out of two, whilst David Narborough had an excellent run to finish in 3rd place.

NB: Apologies for the delay in posting reports over the last two weeks - this was due to the webmaster's holiday.

Cross Country Reminder

All cross country runners are reminded about the forthcoming fixtures, the first of which is the North Midlands League (match 2) on Saturday 5th November at Shipley Park. First events start at 1pm. Please meet the rest of the team at the club tent near the start/ finish areas (close to the Visitor Centre), at least 45 minutes before the start of your race.

Further league details can be found on www.northmidlandsxcleague.co.uk. Runners do not have to be selected and we welcome all abilities and ages (U11's to Veterans) to have a run.

The following weekend, Saturday 12th November sees one of the highlights of the cross country calendar - the very exciting National Cross Country Relays, conveniently every year at Berry Hill Park, Mansfield. With club teams coming from all over the country, and athletes of a high standard it's one not to be missed, competing or spectating!

As usual AVAC have entered teams and Jim Feeney will be making final team selections and legs soon. All athletes will be contacted via training shortly.

Annual Presentation Evening and Disco

This years extravaganza is on Saturday 26th November at Riddings Community Centre, Church St, Riddings, 7.30 - 11.30pm. It's the time of year to take a look back at our athletes achievements and present a variety of trophies and certificates.

It is an evening for all our athletes, coaches and parents so come and celebrate with us. This year we have two very special people to make our presentations - athletes Ricky Soos and Lisa Dobriskey. Middle distance followers will remember Ricky's 800m semi-final appearance in the Athens Olympics, and Lisa is a top class middle distance runner with several AAA's titles to her name and a bronze at the European U23 Championships. She has been selected for the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne next year.

Tickets are on sale at £5 per family or £2 per individual. The draw for the winning tickets in our Grand Prize Draw will be made on the night. Please remember to sell the books of tickets that most of our athletes have been given, and return counterfoils, money and unsold tickets to training before the night.

All proceeds go to keeping the club going - that's hire of facilities, buses to competitions, new equipment, coaching courses, entry fees to competitions etc etc so the proceeds will help ALL our athletes, and help our dedicated coaches and administrators' to help YOUR children in this wonderful sport!

Use the links below to browse the rest of the News Archives:

July - September 2005