BAAC Cross Country Championship - Sunday 17th March Results #

For a March Sunday morning the weather wasn’t too bad when sheltered from the wind.

There were 9 competitors, 2 ladies and 7 gentlemen, all from BAAC.   

There were 2 fallen trees/large branches across the course in the woods and a puddle big enough to warrant a minor diversion at the side of the field.

Mark Taylor won despite having what looked a fairly serious Achilles problem for the final 200 meters or so. Not sure what happened to Gary who came up the finishing ‘straight’ at a reduced pace with his grandson. Graham got off to a slow/steady start (he was last after 1 lap) after a 3 hour run the previous day!!

Paul Brandon

Thanks to Tom Rowley, Steve Hillier, Gary Rushmer, Paul Brandon, Ann Coffey, Harry Wild, Steve Newell, John Williams and Barry for set-up, race operation, results and/or close-down.

# BAAC Club Points

We are already half way through March and the club points table for this year is taking shape. There have already been eleven points scoring events the latest being the BAAC XC Championships. With four points for organising, two points for marshalling (only) and one point for running there are the familiar names of myself and Steve Newell towards the top with 11 and 9 points respectively and then in third place Steve Hillier with seven points from seven events and then Gary Rushmer. Other participants are yet to show their full potential but it is still early days. There are already 53 people listed on the table.

The next points scoring event is the Five Mile Handicap on 27th March, then in April we will have the "Watersplash" 10k replacement on 10th April {Steve Newell has worked out a new traffic light course for this from the Bedfont Club - and will be doing an exact measurement for it shortly}, a club featured parkrun at Brooklands on the 13th and the London Marathon on the 28th.

Roderick Hoffman

Dream Mile Results for March

In conditions that were even windier than the previous month four of us had another stab at getting pws, three succeeding. The event winner was clearly Paul Prescott doing his first run and setting a time he should be able to easily beat next time he has the opportunity to run. Chris' time was approximate but he was blown back to Amadeus House in a time that Mo Farrah would have been proud of.

The next event will be on Thursday 4th April with, hopefully, no wind.

Roderick Hoffman

The British Airways Athletics Club Annual Awards for 2018 (part 2)

Ladies’ Track and Field Grand Prix: 2018 saw a big revival in the club’s Track & Field fortunes.  Numbers were up, performances improved, and we competed well in both the Veteran’s and Rosenheim Leagues. For her all-round performances, and particularly her outstanding discus and hammer throws, our Ladies’ Track & Field Award winner is Janet Smith…and for being the new world record holder for hammer decathlon.

Men’s Track and Field Grand Prix: The winner of the men’s Track & Field Award is Steve Hillier for well representing BA in the heavy throws in the Rosenheim and Veterans league matches. Steve contributed throughout the year at our own events, the Veteran's League matches and at the Rosenheim League matches, including significantly lowering the average age of our 4x200m relay team.

Men’s Cross Country Trophy (season 2017/18): We had good turnouts this year with 24 runners competed in at least one race of the four Surrey League events, the extremely hilly Sandhurst event and the somewhat flatter Cranford Park race.  Everyone put in a big effort in tough conditions, with great consistency shown by Barry Walters and Chris Kelly.  Paul Knechtl led the team home most often, with three wins. The winner of the men’s cross-country trophy, having run in every BA event, never being out of the top five BA runners, and taking a fine second place at Roundshaw Downs was Gary Rushmer.

Male Athlete of the Year: This year’s stand-out candidate for the male athlete of the year is Chris Kelly. Running at many club events throughout the year Chris was the only club runner to break the four-hour barrier in the hottest London Marathon in years. He then masterminded our team at the Green Belt Relay as well as running his two sections. 
With those two “warm up” events under his belt, he then set of to South Africa to run the Comrades Marathon for the second time.  In 2018 the race was run downhill - over the 56 mile run, competitors descend 7000 feet, but also climb 5000 feet.  Chris finished in under ten-and-a-half hours, to win the coveted “back to back” medal. 
Chris chose to “warm down” the year with a steady 3:16 in the Chicago Marathon.

To be continued.

Wednesday 20th March NOW run at Brooklands near Weybridge from 12:00

Concorde flew for the first time fifty years ago this month.  We will celebrate that at this week's NOW event.

Reminder...

• Park at Brooklands Community Park, KT13 0YU.
• At 12:00 meet at the Brooklands Community Park car park (details below),
• Five km run - probably one slow lap of the two lap parkrun course and then a mixed speed ad hoc run to checkout some of the other paths and surfaces,
• Photo Opportunity at the Concorde Gate Guardian,
• Visit to Brooklands Museum starting with...
• Brooklands Museum Cafe,
• Visit the Aviation and/or Motor Racing and/or Bus Museum exhibits.

If you have a BA retired or former employee pass then bring it because we should get a discount off the entry at Brooklands Museum.

Let us know to look out for you - or just turn up: Roderick Hoffman