Many Medals for our Multi Eventers.

What surely should have been the last weekend of the summer season CAC had members involved with two Combined Events meetings - the English Schools Competition held at Stoke and the Eastern Counties Championship staged at Peterborough.

In the schools meeting Essex were to win both the junior and intermediate competitions and in these Jeremy Andersen placing ninth in the junior event helped Essex to a margin of 106 points over Kent. In the intermediate age group Daniel Brown was first of the Essex team with 8th place and Arseni Handzil completed the trio being 22nd and with a combined points total of 13079 clear of Cheshire by 406 points. Best individual placing by an Essex athlete came from the senior boys Decathlon with Sam Wright placing fourth. Unfortunate for Sam the high jump event in which he has a superior best of the season over his opponents resulting no doubt to the loss of a podium placing.

 In the junior girls the Essex team consisted of three Chelmsford members, Lily Hartman recently joining from Basildon placed 9th with Chelsea Clarke 12th and Alicija Yalaju 15th and their combined points tally fell just 63 short of Yorkshire who took the title. In the intermediate girls class Milana Thorpe in 8th place was leading Essex competitor with the team third behind Hampshire and Greater Manchester.

At Peterborough three medals were won. Harry Lee was the pick with gold in the under 17 men whilst Saya Saunders having personal bests at 75 metre hurdles and 800 metres was to pick up the silver medal in the under 15 girls event. At under 13`s Shindra Ayo-Adeyemo put in a pb with her shot putt and this aided to another personal best with a combined score of 2149 points and third place here AND a ranking of 13th in the UK.

Report written by Roy Meadowceoft

A Very Successful September for CAC.

With the Olympic Games dominating the  fixtures the Southern Inter-Counties Championships this year have taken a much later date with the events being /staged at Oxford. Although the number of Chelmsford athletes numbered only five in the under 20 year age group there proved to be five medals gained. Maegan Hopkins topped the chart with two `gold's` winning both the shot putt and discus whilst Gregory Martin and William Nuttall took the 1500 metres and  3000m steeplechase titles. Completing the medallists Archie Simms finished second in the 400m hurdles event in a close finish. Rosie Townley completed our competitors with sixth in the long jump.

With the unfortunate clash with the Eastern Young Athletes League Final and Chelmsford seeking to retain the trophy this was treated as the priority hence only four athletes from the under 15 and 17 age groups contested these championships. Sophie  Catchpole was to win the under 17 year 300m hurdles whilst at the same age level Harry Dove finished ninth in the long jump. At under 15 level Francesca  Phillips ran a personal best of 4m 53.48s for the 1500 metres whilst Lily Hartman after winning her heat in the 300m placed fifth in the final.

I cannot finish this report without giving congratulations to Didi Okoh on first her selection for the Great Britain Paralympics Team  and then on her performance in the 100 metres which contributed to that medal haul of 124 from the team… Now fast forward four years let’s look to upgrading that medal to `gold` in Los Angeles.      

Report written by Roy Meadowcroft                                                                               

CAC Athletes Bossing it at the National XC Championships.

TWO - YES TWO NATIONAL TEAM TITLES PLUS BRONZE MEDALS FOR A THIRD TEAM AND AN INDIVIDUAL SECOND. Quite an achievement in the National cross country championships staged in Weston Park, Shropshire - and perhaps worthy of a football type celebration with an open bus tour through the city centre !!!

These were in fact championships in respect of the season 2023 - 24 as the Park could not be used due to the saturation of the ground hence athletes competing at one age level in the EYAL final six days earlier back, for one competition only to the younger age group.

Our under 13 girls team had already claimed one National title when they won the road relay early in the season and now they were to pick up another set of `gold` medals. With Erin Kelly 10th, Ava King 11th, Lily Sanford 28th and Frankie Phillips 36th there total of 85 points put them well clear of the Warriors Club from Merseyside's 105 and Windsor Slough and Eton`s 153.  From the field of 267 finishers  Isla Kehoe placed 89th and Emma Pickering 106th.

To the under 13 boys, here we had two athletes on the start line Fred Ferman put in a sterling run to finish 26th unfortunately Oscar Stollery did not finish.

The under 15 girls race saw newcomer Jorjia March having a great run to finish 5th and there was sound packing from Ezrah Harrold 14th, Lottie Wilkin 17th and Daisy Stollery 22nd for a score of 58 points. To show the need for that solid packing Aldershot`s second place score was 68 with Eastbourne third with 101. Our other competitors were Hetty Harrison 62nd,Harriet Matthews 74th and Katie Cox 126th.

Our under 15 boys all put in fine performances with a third place in such a high standard meeting behind Tonbridge and Trafford. Our scoring quartet were Jacob Parrott 23rd, Austin Kelly 32nd, Joshua Eida 39th and Joseph Delaney 57th with Thomas Carter 78th and Ben Smith 148th completing the Chelmsford turnout.

Our under 17 men`s team had looked set for more team medals as Sam Plummer had put in a tremendous performance to take the individual silver medal and with Joseph Grainger 8th and Gregory Martin 23rd they were in a strong position but sadly there was no fourth member.

It was the same story with the under 17 women as Sienna Shipton placed 19th, Lucy Nuttall 32nd and Emma Cox 52nd.

To the Junior men and  William Nuttall placed a very creditable 13th with Joseph Perry 28th whilst veteran Lee Martin was sole member out  placing 221st in the senior men`s race.

For the full photo gallery click here.

Report written by Roy Meadowcroft