Tamworth Athletic Club competed in the last of the Midlands League Division 2 fixtures at Cheltenham on Saturday 6th August. They came into the match pushing for promotion to the top flight as runner up, but with some great performances from Tamworth’s athletes they went and won the league.

For the third season in a row Tamworth have won promotion due to their hard work and commitment on and off the track. Next season they will be up against the biggest clubs in the Midlands, including Birchfield Harriers, Rugby & Northampton, Nottingham, Cannock & Stafford and Bristol West & Yate.

One of Tamworth’s outstanding athletes over the season has been Tom Ainsworth. Tom is a 400mtr specialist, but has run all distances for Tamworth from 100mtrs to 1500mtrs this season. On Saturday, Tom started with the 800mtrs where he tore the field apart with a new personal best time of 1min 57.8seconds. He followed this up with 2nd place in the 200mtrs in 22.8seconds. It was towards the end of the day that we next saw Tom on the track as part of the 4 x 100mtr relay along with Kane Densley, Kai Evans and Myles Richardson. The Tamworth 4 beat the rest of the field to take first place in 44.3seconds. The 4 x 400mtr relay saw Tamworth’s team of Tom Ainsworth, Bikram Singh, Anthony Parkes and Myles Richardson also take first place in 3min 31.4seconds.

Myles also competed in the individual sprints, finishing 2nd in the 100mtrs in 10.8sec, 3rd in the 200mtrs in 22.2sec and winning his 110mtr hurdles in 20.1sec.

Kane Densley who has been struggling with injuries all season, ran his first 100mtrs for Tamworth’s A team and finished in first place in 11.2sec. Kane also competed in the shot putt and heaved it out to a distance of 8.89mtrs. Owen Sheriff took 2nd spot in his 400mtr hurdles in 60.6sec and 6th place in the 400mtr flat in 57.8seconds. Kai Evans filled in the 400mtrs and finished 4th with a good time of 57.7seconds, he leapt out to 10.06mtrs in the triple jump and cleared a height of 1.60mtrs to take 3rd place in the high jump.

Doug Stark, Tamworth’s decathlete, did his usual batch of events. Doug took 2nd place in the 110mtr hurdles in 16.2sec, 3rd place in the long jump with 6.42mtrs, 1st place in the high jump with a great leap of 1.90mtrs, he heaved the shot putt out to 13.95mtrs to take first place, over a meter further than anyone else. He also took 1st place in the discus with a throw of 41.65mtrs, and 2nd in the javelin with 50.65mtrs.

Elliott Jones, Back from university ran a gutsy 400mtr hurdles to take 4th place in 72.8secs, he triple jumped into 4th with 10.04mtrs and pushed the shot out to a distance of 10.30mtrs. Bikram Singh took 1st place in the 800mtrs in 2min 0.9sec, with Anthony Parkes running 4min 25.2seconds for the 1500mtrs with Dale Langley just behind him in 5min 6.4seconds. Scott Hudspith improves every time he races, and ran a new p.b. of 9min 20.1 sec for the 3000mtrs. Dave Williams ran the distance double. First of all it was the 3000mtrs steeple chase where he finished with a time of 12min 7.4sec, this was followed by the 3000mtrs flat in a time of 11min 16.6seconds.

James Woolley took third spot with his long jump of 5.49mtrs. Gavin Showell once again produced a great performance in the pole vault to take 2nd place with a vault of 3.50mtrs, he followed this up with another 2nd in the hammer with a throw of 20.47mtrs.

Alex Berrows once again blitzed the opposition, winning the hammer throw by almost 20mtrs with a heave of 49.90mtrs, he also took first place in his shot with a new personal best of 12.66mtrs, and for his hat trick he took first place in the discus with 30.15mtrs. Ricky

Hallam leapt a seasons best in the pole vault for 2nd place with 2.90mtrs. Greg Richards has started now to hit a bit of form taking 2nd place in the javelin with 35.65mtrs.

With holidays and injuries really affecting Tamworth’s ladies team, it was all hands on deck to get the team through the final match.

Tamworth were lucky enough to have Catherine Smith back from Texas, where she won the world power lifting championships. She competed in 7 events on the day. Cat finished the 100mtrs in 13.3sec, the 100mtr hurdles in 20.6 seconds, leapt 4.14mtrs in the long jump, 8.74mtrs in the triple jump and 6.08mtrs in the hammer. Cat was part of the 4 x 100mtr relay team with Charlotte Vincent, Isabelle Neville and Olivia Woolley that took 4th place. Also a part of the 4 x 400mtr relay team with Iona Crameri, Isabelle Neville and Olivia Woodward who took 2nd place.

Iona Crameri also ran the 100mtrs and finished with a time of 15.7seconds, leapt out to 7.68mtrs in the triple jump and achieved a new personal best in the pole vault with 1.90mtrs. Omolola Ogunnowo took 2nd place in her 200mtrs in 25.7seconds, but then had to retire from any other events due to a hamstring problem. As well as being part of the relay teams, Isabelle Neville took 2nd place in the 400mtr hurdles with a new pb and club record of 66.2seconds, this was followed up with another 2nd in the 200mtrs in 26.8 seconds.

Olivia Woodward took first spot in her 400mtrs with 59.6seconds, 1st place in her high jump with 1.45mtrs, 4th in the shot with 8.92mtrs and 2nd in the javelin with 25.28mtrs. Charlotte Vincent ran 70.3seconds in her 400mtrs, leapt 3.86mtrs for 4th place in the long jump and won the high jump with a height of 1.50mtrs. Olivia Woolley took 3 second places, in the 100mtr hurdles in 21.6sec, the 400mmtr hurdles in 94.7sec and the discus with a throw of 12.42mtrs. Sophie Allen did the 3 throws for the ladies team again taking 2nd place in the hammer with a throw of 30.21mtrs, 4th in the shot with 6.10mtrs and a distance of 16.02mtrs in the discus. Isobel Spencer took first place in the javelin with a distance of 23.41mtrs.

Tamworth Athletic Club are now looking forward to next season and anyone interested in athletics either experienced or a novice can contact Tamworth at the track at Marlborough Way, or via their website or facebook.