Our intrepid long distance runners were in action.
Lee Taylor and his brother Jason headed to Amsterdam as did Georgia Couzens.
Times:
Lee 2:48:36
Jason 2:48:36
Georgia 2:48:36
Also in action was Stephen Kirsh who headed to York and returned with a 2:40 time and 28th place
Two of our athletes made the trip for the first in a series over the Winter
60m 3 Emily Lewis U11G 9.22
60m 3 Clara Rowles U13G 9.46
200 1 Emily Lewis U11G 31.13
200 3 Clara Rowles U13G 32.36
The ever popular relays were held at Weald Park – great conditions and a lovely undulating course that was great for spectators.
Whilst there were no Golds there was a Silver and 5 bronzes including a first ever V60 Women Medal!
Well done to all who ran and a particular mention to all those who ran despite knowing that they wouldn’t score because of incomplete team – some becuase of illness on the day.
And thos like Alistair and Zilda beginning their journies in Cross Country
Also a special shout to Lindsey Colman who is still recovering from the physical and mental scars of a nasty bike accident a few weeks ago
This was an odd set of races in many ways.
One complaint we won’t have is a magnificent 1- 2 in the Senior Men – Bob Sporle and Sam Norris.
And what a team performance as well – 62 points – 64 points ahead of arch rivals Havering on 126.
When you read the results you will also find a team within a team – Team Randall. Luke, Ollie and Matt – an excellent way to celebrate Matt’s 50th birthday. Their celebrations continued as the headed into London to see their team win 4-1.
One sad reflection is that we only managed one runner across the U13 age group – well done Olivia Atkinson. There were none in the U11s either.
When you see the standings for the U13s you will see why!!
Another day of Southend winners – 16 year old Toby Jones wins in 32:15. His ambition is to beat Adam Hickey’s time of 29:59 set in 2016. A very worthy ambition. No contest today as Adam had to withdraw after 4km because of an asthma attack.
Southend took the team prize as well – Lochlan Dyer also 16 4th in 33:16 and the relative old boy – 3o year old Rhys Gillard in 5th 33:24.
A moral victory in the Ladies Race – ex Southend athlete – Hayley Lamkin in 38:19.
Team prize I think is Southend Ladies. There are a couplea of errors BUT stick with Juliette Le Mare 7th in 40:26, Abigail 11th in 41:32 and Annabelle Matthews Smith 14th in 43:31.
To round off the day Lewis Jopling had a dominate performance in the 3K winning by 25 secs from his team mate Otis Tabor
Miscellaneous from 3K and 10K
John Staunton never knows when to give up!!
It is not long since his injury on the bike and somewhat inadvisadly taking on IM Wales.
He says
“I finally know what it’s like to finish an Ironman before it’s dark!!!!
Click on Image for Results
Anne Jenkinson – 1st ever Parkrun and an 8th Place
Well Done David Smale – time of 02:21:42.
Clearly a gold standard marathon – first 15 were East African.
David you were the 5th Brit
Yet another winner – Adam Hickey – 01:05:42. Apparently quite a hilly course – so good time.
Over 6 mins ahead of 2nd place!!
Good news from the Eastern Combined Events at Peterborough on Sunday. Emma Frisby won the U13 competition with 2574 points – 200 ahead of 2nd. She is both Essex and Eastern Area Champion.
This ranks her Number 1 in the UK, 20th of all time and breaks the SAC U13 age group record achieved by Sarah Wilhelmy with 2551 points in August 1992 . One further point to mention – one of the top 20 was Katherine Merry. I think there is potential!!
The achievement is more notewothy I feel because the weather conditions particularly for the early part were atrocious. I should know – I was there and got absolutely soaked starting!!
If you don’t believe me – look at the videos!! Her commitment is 1st class – everything you expect in an athlete
The inclement weather was the theme of the weekend. Whereas the South East was generally enjoying sunshine Stoke on Trent did as well until 4pm whenthere was a biblical thunderstorm.
At the English Schools National Combined Events the Junior Boys had finished 4 events with 800m to go.
From what I can gather the 800m was probably abandoned.
A fantastic performance by Ajay Whiteman, the top scoring Essex competitor. His Shot by his standards was off the mark BUT his series of jumps in the High Jump was phenomonal PB by PB (to 1.74m. Previous PB before Saturday 1.60m – 3 jumps 1.68m – 1.71m -1.74m.
His 8th place was out of 40 boys from all over the country!!
To round off the curtailed day Ajay made a massive contribution to Essex Boys winning Gold.
A close run between participants – Richard Maskell – 44.58 and Robyn Bartholomew -45.38
| High Jump | ||||||
| 1 | 1 | Thomas LAY | 8 | Essex | 1.93 | |
GBR | ||||||
| 5000m | ||||||
| 5 | 5 | Max STAPLETON | Senior | 8 | Essex | 15:55.91 |
GBR | ||||||
| 6 | 11 | Nathan WALLER | U20 | 8 | Essex (U20) | 15:59.47 |
GBR | ||||||
| 1500m | ||||||
| 3 | 1 | Jessica WALKER | U20 | 8 | Essex (U20) | 4:56.03 |
GBR | ||||||
| 800m | ||||||
| 2 | 5 | Joshua ROBINSON | U20 | 8 | Essex (U20) | 1:56.47 |
GBR |
| 400 U17M | |||||||
| Pos | Perf | Name | AG | Year | SB | PB | |
| 2 | 50.7 | Matthew Agbolegbe | U17 | 1 | 49.71 | 49.71 | |
| 400 U17M h1 | |||||||
| Pos | Perf | Name | AG | Year | SB | PB | |
| 1 | 50.07 | Matthew Agbolegbe | U17 | 1 | 49.71 | 49.71 | |
| 800 U17M | |||||||
| Pos | Perf | Name | AG | Year | SB | PB | |
| 1 | 01:56.7 | Andrew Adesanya | PB | U17 | 2 | 01:56.7 | 01:56.7 |
| HJ U15W | |||||||
| Pos | Perf | Name | AG | Year | SB | PB | |
| 3 | 1.58 | Emily Archer | U15 | 2 | 1.62 | 1.62 | |
Whilst Nathan was at Horspath plying his trade in the 500m Mark Waller I was second in the EMAA Inter Area V50 1500m running for EMAC.
This race was an Essex Championships Race and from what I can gather an Eastern Champs.
Southend Results below
| Pos | Race No | Name | Gun Time | Net Time | Category | Cat Pos | Gen Pos |
| 1 | 180 | Adam HICKEY | 01:05:57 | 01:05:55 | Ages 15 – 39 | 1 | 1 |
| 6 | 48 | Shane BOXALL | 01:09:51 | 01:09:49 | Ages 15 – 39 | 5 | 6 |
| 12 | 326 | Oliver RANDALL | 01:14:04 | 01:14:01 | Ages 15 – 39 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 235 | Stephen KIRSH | 01:14:42 | 01:14:39 | Ages 15 – 39 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 191 | Christian HOLMES | 01:14:49 | 01:14:47 | Ages 50 – 59 | 1 | 14 |
| 16 | 387 | Lee TAYLOR | 01:15:16 | 01:15:13 | Ages 40 – 49 | 2 | 16 |
| 113 | 7 | Matthew AITKEN | 01:34:25 | 01:34:15 | Ages 50 – 59 | 23 | 104 |
| 119 | 159 | Sarah GRIFFITH | 01:34:51 | 01:34:47 | Ages 15 – 39 | 7 | 10 |
| 342 | 384 | Jacqueline SUTTON | 02:15:48 | 01:56:29 | Ages 40 – 49 | 41 | 105 |
Adam Hickey champion and course record (and EMAC champion)
SAC team gold (Adam Hickey, Olly Randall, Shane Boxall)
SAC team bronze (Steve Kirsh, Christian Holmes, Lee Taylor).
V45 Champ – Lee Taylor
V50 Champ – Christian Holmes
EMAC v55 bronze – Matt Aitken
Alistair Kendrick – Silver V70
Spare a thought for Jacqui who read last years e-mail and turned up a few minutes late – note the difference in gun time and net time
On Friday Sam Norris ran 15:02 at Battersea 5km and Sam Schubert ran 15:58 which is a massive pb.
A great performance by our Vets at Milton Keynes
Report from Greg Goodrem.
Sorry no videos or pictures – they wouldn’t download from WhatsApp
A sterling effort by all today with everyone doing either multiple laps or events and every single one of you contributing to a decent score!
We came 4th however the fact we had only 11 athletes across 44 events is a huge achievement!
Everyone really dug deep today and the group of individuals named the ‘Alpha Vets’ which consisted of 5 men covering all the M50 & M60 events was truly amazing!
I hope next year we can build up the M50s and M60s so you can all focus on 1 or 2 events instead of the 4 or 5 you all had to contend with today!
A small band of athletes travelled to Hornchurch. There were great results particularly for those attending Combined Events next weekend
Outstanding performance of the day which I gather may have beaten an age group record – a hammer throw of 30.26 by Stevie Makepeace which will catapult her up the UK rankings
A big shout out to Lochlan Dyer, our only representative, who travelled all the way to Shropshire – 42nd out of 163
The picture says it all – our only representatives at the Final – well done boys, Team Manager – Nigel Hills, coaches, parents etc.
Take a bow Team
Isaac Bajela
Joe Fotherby
George Hill
Lewis Jopling
Brandon Karabulut
Jackson Mendoza
Daniel Mendoza
Hayden Potton
George Thompson
George Webb
History
The Essex Way was conceived as a result of a competition organised by the Campaign to Protect Rural England in 1972.
The race was started in 1989 by Thurrock Nomads and by 2000 there were 7 teams. Just look at the results to see how many in 2024 – well beyond the wildest dreams of the original Thurrock Nomads.
Format
Running Order
Stage 1 Rhys Gillard, Robyn Bartholomew and Peter Binns
Stage 2 Steve Kirsh, Sarah Griffith, Zilda Brackenbury
Stage 3: Max Stapleton, Jennie Gall, Richard Lewis
Stage 4 : Ollie Randall, Becky O’KIll, Mat Warner
Stage 5 : Sam Schubert, Vanessa Mathers, Mat Gillard
Stage 6 : Ben Brooks, Izzy Carlin, Dave Girt
Stage 7: Lee Taylor Anne Jenkinson, Jackie Sutton
Stage 8 : Sam Norris, Juliette Le Mare, Mat Campbell
Stage 9 : Hugo Jones, Rebecca Taylor, Grace Ralston
Stage 10 : Toby Jones, Poppy Carlin, Mike Stapleton
Finish Approximately 6.45pm, total distance – 82 miles (approximately)
Southend Scorch to Victory
City of Southend won the Essex Way Relay with a record-breaking low score of just 12 points. Only Benfleet on stage 5 and last year’s winners Grange Farm & Dunmow on stage 6 stopped a grand slam of ten top spots.
The holders took second place on leg one and like the winners retained their position to the end. Billericay took third after a battle with Benfleet who were in third spot until stage six.
The ladies’ race was closely fought. On the leg from Epping, it was Grange Farm ahead of Southend and Leigh Striders. At Good Easter it was Southend leading from Springfield and Leigh Striders. Southend retained the lead into Little Leighs with Grange Farm bouncing back ahead of Springfield. At this stage just two points separated the top three.
Oscar got a silver in the 400m
Freya Homer got 2 bronzes in 1 and 2 hundred.
Evie Boygle got 2 silvers in 1 and 2
Erin Frisby got 2 gold in 1 and 2
Emma Frisby Gold in 100 and Gold in 70 m Hurdles with another pb 12.1
Held at Loughborough – 1500m Steeplechase – well done Andrew and Team Essex 2-3-4
Well done David 1hr 9mins 3 secs and 2nd place. Note not an elite time – he wasn’t in that race – for information he would have been 17th.
However he did beat Eilish McColgan 1hr 9min 40secs!!
A fantastic meeting with a good atmosphere plus good weather.
A total of 389 entrants. 73 races. Fantastic turnout considering there was another big open meeting at Lee Valley
A good day was had for our band of athletes and we came away with 3 medals – Lee Taylor Gold in VM 45, Vanessa Mathers Bronze in the VF 55 and Peter Binns Bronze in the VM 70.
The men were placed 12th and the women 6th
| Pos | Bib | Cat | Gen | Name | Time | Gen# | Cat# |
| 7 | 33 | SM | M | Shane Boxall | 25.49 | 7 | 6 |
| 17 | 66 | VM45 | M | Lee Taylor | 28.00 | 16 | 1 |
| 79 | 262 | SF | F | Sarah Griffith | 33.39 | 11 | 6 |
| 137 | 67 | VF50 | F | Rebecca Taylor | 37.59 | 35 | 8 |
| 138 | 214 | VM70 | M | Peter Binns | 38.00 | 101 | 3 |
| 145 | 369 | VF55 | F | Vanessa Mathers | 38.26 | 37 | 3 |
| 163 | 386 | VF40 | F | Jacqueline Sutton | 40.34 | 47 | 11 |
| 167 | 162 | VM70 | M | Alastair Kendrick | 40.54 | 116 | 5 |
The Walsh Brothers are at it again. If you follow them on Facebook you will see how much effort that they have put into training for this event. A message to us all!!
The race was a mixture of weather conditions from 35 degree heat when they landed to 26 degrees in the Swim(plus pouring rain), cooler on the run. The Swim was different as well as this allowed a non wet suit race – this was not to their liking.
Pat finished the competition in 10hrs 15 min – a trifle disappointed as he wanted the Pro Time of 9 hrs 45 mins. Tom posted a staggering 9hrs 25 mins
Huge Well done to everyone at Colchester on Saturday particularly for covering multiple events to ensure maximum points. Preliminary results suggest the Men came 1st(ahead of Colchester by 1 point) and Women 3rd with an overall 3rd behind
Colchester and Basildon.
Here’s is how the League wrapped up. Basildon will move up a Division is leaders. Potentially, we should be on top next season if we can get more athletes at the club to participate.
