Member of the month
November
Linton Taylor has shown considerable improvement since the start of the winter season, culminating in fine 5th place in the U15s in the North Midlands XC at Corby on 14th Nov, followed by a close 2nd in the Mini XC League at the Grove on 21st. The Committee only came to this decision after careful consideration of a number of other young athletes who were nominated, following a very successful month for the club's junior members especially:
- Luke Willers broke the U11 County Sportshall League record on 1st Nov with 7.50m for the chest push and followed this up on the 15th with a win in the regional "Fun in Athletics" event at Grantham, as well as helping Notts to 2nd place in the obstacle relay.
- Molly and Charlotte Ripley had the honour of being selected to represent both Notts and Lincs in the "Fun in Athletics" competition. They chose Lincs, with Charlotte gaining 3rd place in the vertical jump and Molly 4th in the chest push.
- Keating Walters won the U11 Standing Long Jump and came 2nd in the Vertical Jump as well as being in the winning team for the over and under relay in the sportshall league on 1st. Competing for Notts on 15th, she gained 3rd place in the Long Jump and helped the team to 2nd place in the over and under relay.
- Olivia Mathias comfortably won the 2nd Notts Mini XC U11 race on 21st (having fallen down a hole when leading the first race!), and also represented Notts in the Fun in Athletics event.
- Oli Carrington, as a 15 year old, came an excellent 8th in the 2nd East Midlands XC event at Trent Meadows on 29th Nov, convincingly beating all his senior team mates. Previously he finished in 10th place in the N Mids U17 XC race at Corby.
June
- Trish Hill wa nominated mainly for her successes at the Midlands Masters Championships, where she won the O65 100m, 200m and 80m hurdles and gained 2nd places in discus and hammer. In addition, Trish's continued work with the younger members of the club in coaching field events and hurdles on Tuesdays and Thursdays was recognised.
- At the other end of the age spectrum, 10 year old Olivia Mathias capped her unbeaten run in MD events in the Notts Mini and Lincolnshire Leagues this season by setting a new Mini League record in the 600, with 2:00.9 on 6th June.
- After 12 months of serious illness and injury, 15 year old Ollie Carrington has bounced back setting PBs from the start of the summer season. He surpassed himself in June by gaining 2 first and 1 second places in his 3 runs in the Gordon Whelbourn Week and lowered his PBs for 800m and 1500m to 2:12 and 4:40 - the latter gaining him selection for Lioncolnshire Schools in the Eastern Schools Inter-Counties.
- Finally, our May MotM, Rachel McCuaig, continued her fine form, finishing a tremendous 6th lady in the Mansfield Half Marathon in 1:27.46 - a PB and the fastest time by a Newark female athlete for several years.
And the winner was...Olivia - many congratulations to our youngest winner so far - this means that our female athletes have taken the first 3 awards, so come on you men and boys!
May
Two athletes were nominated for breaking club records:
- Simon Langley threw the hammer 35.21 metres at the first North of England T&F Meeting at Hull on 2nd May;
- Rachel McCuaig knocked 26 seconds off Kate Else's marathon record, which had stood since London 1990, with a time of 3:15.03 in the Edinburgh Marathon on 31st May. Rachel also came an excellent 4th in the Summer Road Race at Holme Pierrepont a couple of weeks before the marathon.
- Also nominated for her perormance on the road was Simone Mathias, who made a return to competition (and regular training) after some time out to help an understrength team at the HPP Summer Road race and was our 2nd finisher in an excellent 17th place.
Good performances at the County T&F Championships contributed to the nomination of 4 members:
- John Jessop beat his previous personal best for the 800 metres twice on the same day, finishing with 2.27.63 and also achieved a PB of 4.30 for the Long Jump.
- Nicky Lynch achieved a PB when coming second in the U17 200m, with 24.30; this followed some excellent early seaon performances by Nicky, including coming 3rd in the 100m on his North of England debut at the beginning of May, just 0.1 seconds behind the winner.
- Another U17, Ollie Carringtion, continued his impressive start to the season with successive PBs in 800m, finishing with 2:14.15 in the County Chamnpionships.
The Championships were also a special occasion for Amy Fendley, who achieved her 17th consecutive County Long Jump title, despite being injured and only managing one jump. This is certainly a Notts record and could also be a national best for a female! Amy also won the javelin title again.
The Committee decided that Rachel should be the member for May, as this was her forst marathon and the record time was achieved in increasingly difficult conditions.
April
Our first ever winner, Holly Ward was one of 3 excellent nominations:
- Alexander Combie, who continued his impressive form on the road after breaking through the magic 40 minutes barrier for 10k in March.
- Frank van Alderwegen, who successfully completed the London Marathon in memory of his wife, Wendy, and is well on his way to raising his target of £2,000 for Nottingham University Hospitals Charity.
- Holly was chosen because of some amazing results in April. In the first summer road race at Epperstone, she was almost 41/2 minutes faster than previously, while on the track she contested 10 events in both Lincolnshire League Meetings, scoring 105 points in the second, the 3rd highest ever. Knowing that Amy Fendley was unable to compete through injury and Ann Kitchen was restricted to only a few events for the same reason, Holly set out to make up as much as possible. This meant competing in totally new events, including the steeplechase at the second meeting: in this she demonstrated a new technique for clearing the barriers, which it is believed top coaches are now carefully studying.