ATHLETICS: History for Rugby & Northampton as they defend title

The club’s senior men achieved their fifth series victory to clinch the title.

Leading the side home was fourth-placed Dominic Jones with a time of 33 minutes and 37 seconds, and he was followed shortly after by Stephen Marks (33:44) and William Gardner (33:48) in fifth and sixth respectively. Completing the team on the night was Jonathan Burke (36:54) in 26th.

Although Daniel Williams (37:03) just missed out on the scoring team, in 29th, he did clinch 10th place in the overall series, while Dean Oldfield (38:10) also produced a strong run to take 41st.

The senior women also performed impressively to finish as runners-up both in the race and in the series standings.

Amy Sarkies (39:06) secured fourth position overall and first in the over-35 category, with Vicky Nealon (40:19) crossing the line next in eighth. Lorna Latimer (44:18) completed the team’s scoring in 20th place, which was enough to grab third in the overall series standings.

Joining Sarkies in the veteran women’s team was Helen Jones (47:18) who clinched fifth in the F45 section on the night, and that secured fourth in the age group’s overall series standings.

Kate Williams (47:25) was the first over-55 to complete the 10k - that victory helped the team finish third on the night and climb to third in the overall standings.

The veteran men also completed the series in third, following a fourth-placed finish in Milton Keynes.

Brendan Moen (37:14) placed fifth in the M45 - his last race in the age group - while Nigel Roberts (38:11) soon joined him across the line to claim sixth in the M45 section, and sixth overall.

Laurence Scott (41:34) earned seventh in the M50 - enough to finish the series in seventh overall position - while club president Terry Egan (42:02) completed the veteran team with a second-place finish in the M55 category.

The overall standings led the Athletics Club to their best combined results for six years, with all four competing teams finishing in the top three.

R&N’s success continued on Saturday with second place in the British Athletics League Division 4, to move a step closer to winning promotion.

The penultimate competition of the series at Bracknell was dominated by Doug Stark, who notched 59 of the team’s 235 points on the day.

Stark won the high jump (1.85m), discus (39.91) and shot put (14.13m) events, added third in the pole vault (3.8m) and javelin (49.49m), and also secured fourth in the long jump (6.02m).

On the back of making the finals in the Great British Championships last weekend, sprinter Kyle Ennis set a new club record of 10.56 seconds en route to 100m success.

Clinton Osoba George (22.74) and Adam Wright (49.62) were victorious in the 200m and 400m races respectively, while Andrew Reeves (1.70m) won in the high jump.

Luke Townsend finished the 110m (15.73) and 440m (57.37) hurdles in second, and Connor Aldridge (56.11) completed the 400m hurdles double, winning the B-string race. Townsend (12.06m) also went on to achieve third in the triple jump.

Chris Morgan (5.67m) was runner-up in the long jump while Jonjo Fanning’s 36.62m hammer throw was enough for third.

Silson Joggers youngsters claim third in Chairman’s Cup

Silson Joggers Juniors are celebrating after they claimed a third place finish in the Chairman’s Cup.

On what seemed like the hottest afternoon of the year so far, the Silson Juniors’ U11 and U13 teams competed at the Kettering Town Harriers’ annual Chairman’s Cup event.

There were lots of incredible Silson performances with lots of them resulting in new PBs. At the time of writing, the individual results have not yet been published but the overall result saw the Silson Juniors team claiming third place at this event for the second year running.

This truly tremendous result is an accumulation of magnificent coaching and hardworking young athletes.

A powerful outcome from a small town club who competed against and beat some of the larger town clubs from around Northamptonshire.

The other event which takes place every year at the Chairman’s Cup, is the County Mile.

This event is for U15’s upwards and Silson had three runners who took part.

They all put on outstanding performances with Stewart Shears winning a silver medal and a new PB in the men’s Veteran category, and Gemma Hinton winning a gold medal in the ladies’ senior category.

James Spencer claimed a bronze medal for the sterling job he did in the men’s U17 category.

A total of eight junior Silson Joggers, all Under-13 and above, competed at the Oxford City Athletics Club’s open meeting last week.

They competed in their chosen events covering the 100m, 200m, 800m and 1500m.

Alfie Long, Archie Tattersall, Cara Mannix, Emma King, Heidi Biltcliffe-Gray, Katy Mannix, Lucy King and Luke Harris, all represented the club gallantly and had a good time and achieved some amazing results in doing so.

The final round of the EMGP, the Milton Keynes 10k, took place on Tuesday.

A total of 12 Silson Joggers raced this event, setting a few new personal bests and strong age group finishes along the way.

The results were as follows: Simon Woodward 37:36 (3rd in M40), Adrian Jelley 41:49, Jim Darcy 42:08, David Coates 42:54 (4 th in 55), Sue Torrance 45:52 (3 rd in F50), Matt Laws 46:06, Jo Japp 47:30 (new PB), David Jarrett 47:32, Dave Morley 51:04, Madeleine Moutrie 51:31, Stephanie Spencer 56:44 (new PB) and Amy Jelley 58:01 (3 rd in F20).

Paul Rose choose a special event to take his Marathon total to 80 on Friday.

He completed the Battle of the Somme centenary Marathon in a fantastic time of 4.38, although he said that he felt that time didn’t seem to matter on this day.

Friday saw Silson’s Seniors and Juniors host and compete in their annual friendly athletics event against Wellingborough District Athletics Club and Buckingham & Stowe Running Club.

The weather was kind and a lovely evening of friendly yet competitive and fun athletics was had by all, at Stowe’s beautiful athletics track.

Stephanie Spencer gained her second PB of the week, third of this month, at this Saturday’s Buckingham parkrun.

Spencer ran her first Marathon (the London Marathon) this year, and she has gone from strength to strength, over a multitude of distances, ever since.

Matt Spenceley also earned himself a shiny new PB when he managed to cut 10 seconds off his previous PB time at this event.

Silson’s Andy Pacey was on amazing form, along with men’s team captain, Simon Woodward, when they were the sixth and eighth runners home, and Silson ladies Sue Torrance and Lorna Spenceley were the fourth and fifth ladies home (43rd and 46th overall).

On Sunday at the Junior Buckingham parkrun, Jake Morris gained a new PB in the process of being the first runner home in 8.17.

Father and daughter duo, Paul and Chelsey Rose, pounded out the miles on Sunday whilst taking part in the 27-mile ‘From Here To There & Back’ event.

This now takes Paul’s Marathon total to 81 and Chelsey’s to two!