Our Seniors Showed True Grit at Stevenage.

Although we could not repeat our National League East win achieved at home five weeks back our third place in the fixture at Stevenage of third place keeps CAC in the chase to contest the promotion meeting in August. The meeting in two weeks’ time at Bromley will decide this. The latest result finished with Blackheath on 527 points just two ahead of Herts. Phoenix 525. Our 461 was followed by Havering 422, Belgrave 401 and Herne Hill 351. The league table is now very tight as Herts Phoenix and Chelmsford each have 10 league points with the former having scored 1075 match points for the two meetings compared to our 1068. Blackheath are also in contention with nine league points and 1045 match points but with the advantage of that home meeting be considered as favourites for the title - promises to be an enthralling last fixture.

A total of nine personal bests were achieved during the day although it was the women's hammer at the start of the meeting which gave CAC a great result with maximum points coming from Helene Ingvaldsen (57.34m) and Charlotte Graham (44.37m). Helene went on to win the shot putt (10.74m) whilst Charlotte placing second in the discus event recorded a pb with 38.96m. Staying with the women the steeplechase brought maximum points with Hannah Bolton coming out with a pb 5m 17.72s whilst Molly Drane, who also contested the 800 and 1500 events, won the `B` string.  There was a first appearance of the season from Megan Harris, and she came up with a great run in the 5000 metres winning with a pb of 17m 09.61s. Hannah Bolton after the exertions of the steeplechase did well to place second in the `B` string,   A busy day for Georgia Tombs contesting the 100m in which a pb of13.03s was achieved, the 200 and 400 plus both relays at the end of the day. Another of our student’s home from university Lily Parris came up with a pb in the 400m with 60.94s.

From the men`s 800 metres full points came with Paul Grange winning the first race in 1m 55.16s and this was followed by Gregory Martin taking the `B`string with a pb of 1m 57.28s. Such was the standard in the 1500 metres that even two pb`s, by Finn Rattray (4m 02.58s) and Thomas Woodward (4m 12.05s), found them having to take second spots. Over 3000m Joseph Grange placed third with Tom Wood in the `B`result second. Kristian Brown placed second in the 400m and the 110m hurdles, and in this event Bradley Reed won the second string race. Jacob Alexander in the first track event, the 400m hurdles, took second place and followed this by picking up points in the 400m and steeplechase before finally doing a further 400 in the relay.  In the throws Samson Brichier-Colombi with a pb of 56.11m took second place with the javelin with Kevin Wilson (40.94m) winning the second string. Kevin followed this with second place in the discus with Oliver Graham taking the `B` string. In the shot putt there were two second places via Oliver and Yasha Bobash who also finished second in the hammer event whilst in this there was a win in the `B` string for newcomer Noel Wooding with 41.06m. There was one blot, or in fact six, for we were unable to field competitors in three men's events (high jump, triple jump and pole vault)  the women also passed on three (100 hurdles, high jump and pole vault) With a maximum of 22 points available for each of these and a minimum of 5 for just one entrant, one can see that the slender advantage of just seven points could easily been overturned.

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Report written by Roy Meadowcroft

Medal Success at a Sweltering Southern Championships.

It's congratulations to four of our members in coming up with gold winning performances in the South of England championships staged at the Melbourne Park Stadium.

Over 800 metres Jacob Hurrell took the under 20 men title with a time of 1m 51.68s thus confirming his Essex win gained in May. For Edward Hughes in the 400m hurdles this was his first championship race of the season, and his success came with a clocking of 54.71s - just outside his best of 54.54s from a Birmingham University meeting

At under 15 level Erin Kelly came up with a run some 23 seconds faster than when placing third in the Essex 3000 metres and now with 10m 14.34s there was the reward of first place. Away from the track and Alastair Brown keeps coming up with winning performances in championship events in the shot putt having already taken the South and England indoor titles. This time an effort of 17.04m was only marginally outside his best of 17.08m.

It was in the field events seeing three silver medals being won, Oliver Graham in the hammer throw for senior men reached 57.64m whilst in the women's event Helene Ingvaldsen also placed second with 58.41m. This later event also gave Charlotte Graham achieving a pb. With an effort of 42.26m

To the high jump and here another pb as Charlie Pyner (U20) cleared 1.95m. On the track Bradley Reed came away with second spot from the senior 110m hurdles whilst in the under 20`s 1500 metres Gregory Martin placed second in 3m56.71s with Harry Wright with a pb of 3m 58.13s finished in fifth place. Finally, there were two bronze medals - Sam Wright in the under 20 long jump with 6.94 metres and veteran Paul Grange third in the senior 800m in 1m 55.40s where he headed Luke Oliver and Jacob Alexander also going under the two minute time. Not all good performances come up in the top three places for Fred Ferman in the under 15`s 3000m brought his pb down to 9m 36.38s when placing fifth,  Hetty Harrison fourth in the under 17`s steeple-chase improved her time to 5m 30.43s and Charlotte Oliver who we mention above reached 38.65m with the discus notched up her second pb. Another to achieve two personal bests was Abigail Mcelroy with fourth place in the under 20`s 200 metres in 26.01s and then to the triple jump reaching 10.92 metres. Other athletes carrying our colours here saw Lily Frost 4th in the discus, under 20`s with 28.71s, Sienna Shipton 5th over 800m in 2m 18.98s and James Becker going through heats, semi-finals in both sprints. For the under 17`s 3000 metres Austin Kelly in seventh place with 9m 17.61s headed our Max Chivers, Daniel Pollard and Jacob Parrott.

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Report written by Roy Meadowcroft

CAC Turn Things Around for a Win at Match 2 of the SAL.

For our second Southern League fixture of the campaign, we were able to enjoy a home meeting and with an improved turn out it brought about a change of fortune compared to match one at Basingstoke. Here we gained a good win with 288 points to head Harrow on 276, Medway 234, Brighton 220, Bracknell 173 and Reading 153 - a result which shoots CAC up to eighth place in the table.

From the sprints we saw a fine double success for James Becker winning the 100m with a season’s best of 10.9s and later taking the 200m with a personal best of 23.00s.  However, it was to the middle distance that we saw very nearly complete domination. Over the 800m veteran Paul Grange finished in second spot with 1m 56.3s following which Thomas Woodward won the `B` string in 1m 58.4s. For the increase in distance to 1500m and now maximum points were claimed via Joseph Grange, 4m 00.4s and William Nuttall, 4m 01.3s, whilst Finn Rattray as a non-scorer was hard on their heels with 4m 06.2s. In the 3000m there was a rare performance of THREE pb`s with Finn Rattray clocking 8m 37.7s, William Nuttall 8m 37.9s and Sam Plummer 8m 44.2s. Of course, this had brought full points whilst a further three runners were out there as back up`s. Another event bringing pb`s was the 400m hurdles via Marcus Fazackerley and William Nuttall. To the field events and in the pole vault Jack Hughes cleared a pb of 4.20m for second place and Stephen Adesina won the `B` with 3.25m the throws brought many points with a full house from the shot putt via Alastair Brown (14.75m) and Oliver Graham (12.00m). Oliver was also second in the hammer (57.06m) with Yasha Bobash winning the`B` with 48.58. It was good to see several younger members competing at this level for the first time and they can feel very pleased with their performances. Matilda Hewitt placed second in both shot and discus with efforts of 11.55m and 37.86m - both pb`s. Senior Helene Ingravelsen won the `B`string shot with 11.49m whilst winning the hammer with 58.90m and it was full points here with the support of Charlotte Graham on 39.95m Under 17 Amelie Scott took first place in the long jump whilst it was pleasing to see the return of Lily Parris in her first appearance on a UK track since 2023 although many races in the USA show good performance as she competed for her Princeton University and here she came up with a win in the 400 metre hurdles. Although not aware of the make-up of the team the 4 x 400 relay squad found success in 3m 53.9s. There were other solid performances by our young athletes including Lucy Nuttall and Katie Cox who each set pb`s in the 15000 metres but let`s go to other end of the spectrum with veteran Rebecca Quinlan winning the 3000 metres with over 50 Anna Nuttall taking second place in the `B` string. At long last we were seen to be competing in the women's pole vault AND within the 60 year age category. Well done Clare St.John-Coleman. Under 17 year old Alicja Yalaju covered three events and with Erin Minton-Branfoot four events they gleaned many points to bolster our score. Pity was we could this time find no 100m hurdlers and only one triple jumper.

Report written by Roy Meadowcroft