See bottom of the Road Running page for listings of WCAC members’ best times over all road distances, and in parkruns, in 2016.

WEST CHESHIRE Athletic Club members are aiming to make 2017 a year to remember.

The Ellesmere Port Sports Village-based outfit is preparing for a second season in Division One of the North of England Track and Field League as well as summer campaigns in the Youth Development League Under 13/15 Premier Division and Under 17/20 North West League Division One.

Olivia Montez-Brown, Isobel Griffin Morris, and Sophie Percival will be hoping they can continue their impressive form after achieving high-ranking performances last year.

All-rounder Montez-Brown, who is studying at Augustana University in America, ended 2016 with a best heptathlon points score of 5,254 points, which secured eighth spot in the UK women’s heptathlon ranking list and second place on the UK under 23 women’s list.

Her performance was achieved at Braderton, USA, on May 27, and she also ended the year ranked 25th in the UK women’s long jump rankings after celebrating 5.91m at a meeting held at Sioux Falls, USA, on April 10.

Griffin Morris finished 2016 with the English Schools title and at the top of the UK under 17 women’s discus ranking list after hitting a mark of 46.48m at Wrexham’s Queensway Stadium on September 4 in a Cheshire League match, and she attained 12th spot in the UK senior women’s list.

Percival powered her way to fifth spot on the UK under 20 women’s javelin ranking list after nailing a winning throw of 42.08m while representing England at Cardiff in the Welsh International Meeting held on July 20, and she added 13th position on the under 20 women’s shot put list with a throw of 11.53m at Chelmsford.

George Hyde, who celebrated an English Schools intermediate boys’ shot put title last year at Gateshead, ended 2016 ranked third on the UK under 17 men’s ranking list with 15.23m.

Other West Cheshire members to achieve top-20 UK rankings included Emma Howe, who finished 2016 in second spot on the under 17 women’s javelin list with 41.11m, Abigail Pawlett who compiled 2,899 points to finish 2016 ranked seventh in the under 15 girls pentathlon list, James McMahon, who ended 2016 ranked 11th on the under 20 men’s decathlon list with 5,869 points, and Matthew Pagan who posted 48.85 seconds for 11th position on the under 17 men’s 400m list.

Ethan Milligan cleared 1.92m to secure 15th place on the UK under 17 men’s high jump ranking list, while Evie Tipping powered her way to 16th place on the UK under 15 girls hammer throwing list with 43.72m, and Ewan Bradley launched himself to 19th spot in the UK under 15 boys pole vault list with 3.05m.

LUCIA PYNE showed good form ahead of this Saturday’s Cheshire County AA Cross-country Championships being held at Birchwood Forest Park, near Warrington.

The youngster, who is one of more than 50 West Cheshire members entered for the annual fixture, clocked a new personal best time of 21 minutes 5 seconds to finish first lady at the Ellesmere Port 5k parkrun.

Pyne was joined at the Whitby Park-based event by Rob Freeman, who was fifth man in 21:35; Harvey Tegg who was seventh in 22:41; and Darren Shillington (21st in 26:30).

ETHAN GREENLAND of West Cheshire AC posted 18:29 for second spot at the Delamere 5k parkrun, ahead of club colleague Emma Howe (30:29).

FIXTURES this weekend include the Cheshire AA Cross-country Championships at Birchwood Forest Park, near Warrington, on Saturday, and the Manchester Indoor Open Track and Field Meeting at Sportcity, on Sunday (10.30am start).

The timetable of cross-country races at Birchwood is: 11.30am, under 11 boys and girls; 11.50am, under 13 boys and girls; 12.10pm, under 15 girls; 12.35pm, under 15 boys and under 17 ladies; 1pm, under 17 men and under 20 ladies; 1.40pm, under 20 men and senior ladies; 2.30pm, senior men.

Congratulations to winners Ellie and Mark, to women’s second and third-placers Anest and Kay, to men’s equal second-placers Andy and Andrew, and to all who took part. Results now available near the bottom of the Road Running page.

MATT JACKSON and Louise Webb celebrated success at the popular Essar Chester Round the Walls race.

Jackson, representing Liverpool Harriers, posted a winning time of 21 minutes 35 seconds after negotiating the multi-terrain 6km event hosted by West Cheshire Athletic Club, nearly one minute ahead of his nearest rivals.

And Webb, a member of Birmingham-based Birchfield Harriers, clocked 24:16 for victory in the women’s race, 39 seconds clear of second-placed Emily Kearney (Wirral AC), and Vale Royal AC’s Kate Titlow who was third in 25:20.

Jackson carved a decisive lead from the start of the race in front of the Chester racecourse grandstand and powered his way to the men’s title in the field of 493 finishers, ahead of runner-up, Leon Foster (Leeds City AC) in 22:43, and third-placed James Smith (Southampton AC) in 22:51.

The annual event attracted nearly 500 finishers, including six runners from America, one from Spain, one from Switzerland, and four finishers were competing on their birthday. Liverpool Harriers’ Andrew McQue was fourth in 23:05, ahead of Ian Wetherall, (Sale Harriers), who posted 23:08 for fifth spot, Ieuan Kearney (Wirral) in sixth place with 23:40, Helsby’s Colin Bishop, who was seventh in 23:43, Chester Tri’s Adrian Bellwood, eighth in 23:46, Wirral’s Arran Kearney, ninth in 23:50, and tenth-placed Simon Roberts in 23:53.

Deeside’s Ethan Ackroyd posted 24:32 for 20th position, just one place ahead of West Cheshire’s first three finishers Dan Mitchell in 24:41, Everest adventurer Alex Staniforth who clocked 24:56 for 28th spot, and Jac Goodall (29th in 25:11).

Ellesmere Port Running Club’s Nicola Whitfield Bird finished fourth lady in 26:08, ahead of Sarah Kearney (Wirral), fifth in 26:18, Wrexham’s Emma Crowe (sixth in 26:22), Pensby’s Lisa Grantham (seventh in 26:40), Helen Whitby of Vale Royal (eighth in 27:02), Wrecsam Tri’s Helen Davies (ninth in 27:20), and Wirral’s Aileen Kearney (10th in 28:11).

Host club, West Cheshire AC’s other finishers included Greg Jones (53rd in 26:54), first over-60 veteran Joe Joy in 27:32, Rob Freeman (third over 60 veteran in 28:14), Julian Tegg (100th in 29:43), Ian Ackroyd (121st in 30:27), Daniel Jeory (143rd in 31:06), Phil Howe (241st in 34:07), Brian Beattie (third over 70 veteran in 36:19), and Andrew Gore (445th in 43:28).

Well done to all who took part today – results are now available here.

CARYS ROBERTS, Isaac Tait and Katie Clarke secured West Cheshire Athletic Club a hat-trick of victories at Stafford.

The trio won their respective age group races during the final round of the North Staffs Cross Country League held at Stafford Common.

Roberts finished 11 seconds clear of her nearest rival in the under 11 girls race in 6:20 to claim the overall title, finishing ahead of supporting West Cheshire club mates Georgina Duffey (seven minutes 12 seconds); Jessica Lark (7:14); Ruby Carlile (7:27); and Martha Willetts (7:52), to earn West Cheshire third team prize overall.

Tait powered his way to success in the under 13 boys race with a time of 10:13 to finish the three-round series in fourth position, ahead of team mate Henry Robinson who clocked 11:29.

Clarke continued her rich vein of form by winning the overall under 20 age group award and finishing second woman overall, after finishing second in the senior ladies race with a time of 21:33.

The junior race ace was backed up by Anest Muller, who finished fourth overall in her over 35 age group, Ellie Robinson, Pam Ackroyd, Lisa Davies, Kay Hayes, and Anne-Marie Tait to earn West Cheshire third team place in Division Two.

Dave Alexander and Issy Clarke were both presented with runner-up awards in their respective age groups. Alexander finished second overall in his over 45 age category after finishing 15th in the men’s race at Stafford in 29:49, and Clarke registered second place overall in her under 17 ladies age group after finishing third at Stafford in 16:55.

Alexander was backed up at Stafford by team mates Richard Hayes (31:24), John Parlevliet (32:04), Andrew Clague (32:16), Greg Jones (32:22), and Peter Smith (41:14), to help secure West Cheshire sixth team position in Division Two.

Lucia Pyne was presented with third prize overall in her under 13 girls age group after finishing seventh at Stafford with 6:30, one second behind sixth placed team mate Imogen Pughe, while Jodi Bemand clocked 7:25.

Sion Roberts (15:41), Harvey Tegg (16:26), Matthew Douglass (16:41), and Liam Farrell (16:41) helped West Cheshire finish second overall in the under 15 boys team competition.
Ethan Greenland (19:59) finished 19 seconds adrift of third-placed training partner, Ethan Ackroyd (Deeside AAC), who was presented with the overall runners-up prize in the under 17 men’s age group.

Rory Willson (22:49), Alex Mason (23:08), and Patrick Tait (23:40) completed West Cheshire’s contingent of under 17 finishers.

Reece Munro (6:36), Dan Willetts (6:56) and Leo Green (7:12) combined for West Cheshire in the under 11 boys race, while Beth McMahon (20:06) completed the under 17 ladies race, and Eve Duret (12:01) and Lily Moorhouse (14:37) completed the under 15 girls race.

LAURA TURLEY of West Cheshire AC celebrated success at the Manchester Indoor Open Meeting. The under 20 junior sprinter clocked a personal best of 8.12 seconds in the 60m and posted a new 300m pb of 42.31 seconds.

West Cheshire’s George Hyde powered his way to a new under 17 men’s shot put best of 15.85m, while Ethan Milligan cleared 1.90m for second spot in the under 20 men’s high jump.

Alan Littler clocked 41.70 seconds in the men’s 300m, and Joseph Morrison posted 1:30:13 in the under 20 men’s 600m.

THE countdown is on for Monday’s Essar Chester Round The Walls Race being hosted by West Cheshire Athletic Club from Chester Racecourse.

The popular festive fixture which starts at 10.30am on Boxing Day, has attracted an entry limit of 500 runners who will tackle a course of approximately 6km.

BIRCHWOOD Forest Park, Warrington, is the venue for the Cheshire County Cross Country Championships, on Saturday, January 7, and the closing date for entries is Saturday, December 31.

THE Cheshire Schools Cross Country Championships will be held at Knights Grange, Winsford, on Saturday, February 4, and Warrington will be the setting for next year’s Cheshire AA Track and Field Championships on Saturday and Sunday, May 13 and 14, and for the Cheshire Schools Track and Field Championships on Saturday, June 10.

FURTHER details about West Cheshire Athletic Club can be obtained by logging onto: www.westcheshireac.co.uk

1. WCAC Endurance Points Competition.

The revamp of scoring from that used in previous years has provided a much closer competition. Your comments would be welcomed.

In the absence of any comments I was proposing providing the usual first 3 awards, male and female at the end of the season (the main trophies need returning for engraving). Partway through the year I suggested, in response to Jon Tipping’s e-mail inviting comments on the Presentation evening, a dialogue on the awards as the Points Competition is different from the rest of the club awards, but nothing happened.

2. WCAC Road Running Championship.

This was an experiment so I was intrigued to read on the club web site that the there would be awards at the presentation evening.

I have had only one response since the final result was issued.

I have to express disappointment over the lack of support for most of the GP races and also for some of the other individual races added in to give you more choice to make up 8 scoring races. Only 4 of the 20 races (all Borders League races) had 25 or more WCAC senior and older Cheshire club runners. The number of races increases to 6 if we reduce the number to 20 or more runners and to 9 races if the number is reduced even further to 15, but the Chester Spring 5 (18 WCAC seniors) adds a further race into this total.

Against these totals for comparison I have 56 males and 20 females (senior and older) this year in the Points Competition.

I am not convinced this serves any useful encouragement and it would need a radical rethink if the club wants a Road Running Championship.

I am aware that the club has had some significant success in the Borders League over the past two seasons and is continuing to do so. Also particularly this winter it has been rather good to see us finishing teams in cross country events. Both of these aspects were the original major motivation for introducing some form of club endurance competition, particularly which does not compare performances between athletes (the points competition).

Actions – for you!

Comments, suggestions, etc are invited – including discontinue one or both competitions ( I would not be offended – I might then get some free time for other interests!).

Are you happy with the points competition as currently constructed?

Do you want a Road Running Championship – of some form?

Do you think we should include younger members – that is, those who are less than 20 years old? This would be a problem in the Road Running championship as there are age/distance restrictions. Also I am not too keen to encourage younger athletes to race frequently on the road. However we should recognize the superb road running performances of two “young” athletes. Using the BDS handicap system Katie Clarke ran 5.4 in the last Borders League race (5.5 miles) and Christy Mageean achieved 7.1 in this year’s Christleton 5K – Katie’s performance is the best so far this year for a female club member of any age and distance, while Christy’s is only 0.1 slower than the best male performance this year – by Tom Booth also over the 5K distance.

I look forward to your responses.

Best wishes for 2017.

John Driscoll 23 December 2016

([email protected])

Sorry, entries for the Essar Chester Round the Walls race are now closed, as the race entry limit has been reached. A start list is available here.

Entry  is £16 or £14 for UKA Affiliated Runners