Reading Athletes to compete at Olympic Stadium

Five Reading AC relay squads have again been selected to compete at the prestigious Club:Connect relays at the Olympic Stadium on Sunday 22 July 2018.  The squads selected are U13 Boys, U13 Girls, U15 Boys, U15 Girls and U17 Men and they are all busy practising their baton handovers.  The relays immediately precede the Mueller Anniversary Games which is a Diamond League fixture.

If you are interested in coming along and supporting the squads, the link below takes you to the main event website.

The links below with take you to the British Athletics TV YouTube Channel of last year's relays.

Reading Athletes Through to National Schools Pentathlon Final

Three Reading U15 Boys were in the quartet which won the regional schools pentathlon competition in Ashford, Kent on 23 June 2018.

Reading's Sammy Ball, Reuben Henry-Daire and Matthew Kirk were joined by their Team Kennet colleague Harry Booker and led the competition from start to finish against Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, London, Middlesex and Hertfordshire.

Attaining 2,803 points and finishing in second place, Sammy Ball managed to surpass the previous club record by 175 points in his first ever full pentathlon in the U15 age group.  Reuben finished in fourth place in his first ever pentathlon with 2,486 points and Matthew Kirk came thirteenth out of twenty-eight with 2,323 points.

The team now progress as of right to the national finals in Bedford in mid-September.

Over 100 volunteer hours from our Game Changers!

Our wonderful group of young volunteers have now recorded over 100 hours of volunteering as officials, coaches and team managers.  Thank you all!

Alton Sports spike sale

Alton Sports will be coming to training on 26th June with lots of bargain spikes!  Up to 40% off on the night, cash and card payment accepted.  If you have any special kit requests, let them know and they can bring other items on the night.

www.altonsports.co.uk

Match Reports & Photos

Any match reports written by team managers and any photos of the event are posted in the event page itself.  These can be accessed by the "Competition" tab on the top line of the web page.  Then navigate to the "Fixtures/Results List" to find the event.  Links to the Power of Ten website results are also provided where possible.

Don't Forget Venue Change AVL Boys 6 May

6 May, AVL Boys Now at Eton

Please remember that he venue for the Alder Valley League for Boys on Sun 6 May has now been changed to Eton.

Reading AC Athletes Feature at Berkshire Schools Combined Events Champs

A number of Reading AC athletes competed for their schools at the Berkshire Schools Combined Events Championships on Friday 27 April 2018 at Palmer Park.

Each age group will take four athletes to the Regional Schools Championships at the end of June and a further two athletes in reserve.

Despite a rained-off high jump in the junior boys competition, Reading AC athletes secured first, third fourth and sixth places.

In the junior girls competition Reading AC athletes managed to secure third, fifth, sixth and seventh places.

Full results are on power of 10 and can be viewed by clicking the results button below.

Reading V45 Women Finish Sixth in British Masters Road Relay Champs

Reading Athletic Club fielded a ladies team in the 45–54 age category of the British Masters Road Relay Championships on a cold and wet day at Sutton Park, Birmingham, finishing in an excellent 6th place out of 20 teams. The three-stage relay took place on a challenging undulating 5K course and, with two long hills to climb, sensible pacing was key. With more teams entered this year, it was always going to be a tough job to beat the 4th place finish they achieved in 2017.

The team was led off on stage 1 by Sue Francis, who ran strongly and raced well against those around her to clock a pleasing 21:13 to hand over in 8th position. But such was the strength of the field, that the leading three teams had already opened a large gap on the chasing teams. Sarah Urwin-Mann made a welcome return to the team after a long recovery from injury, to take on stage 2. This was her first race for 6 months, but she clearly relished the return to competition and showed great form, gaining three places and recording 20:33 to hand over to Julie Rayfield for the final stage. Julie set a strong and consistent pace, holding her place well and setting a lap time of 21:58, to bring the team home in 6th place, in a total time of 1:03:44. The individual lap times of Reading’s three ladies were all within the fastest 20 of the 60 runners on the day.

The race was won by Winchester & District AC (1:00:28) ahead of Tonbridge AC (1:00:35). Reading’s ladies can be very proud of their performance in such a strong and competitive field.

Forty-Four Year 4x100m Relay Record Broken

Reading ACs Ellie Gilder, Liani Springer-Thompson, Fatou Gaye and Kirsty Treglown ran a superlative 50.25 secs in the U15 Girls 4x100m on 21 April 2018 at the Bracknell athletics track.

By five one-hundredths of a second, the relay team managed to break the record set in 1974 by Sonia Pearson, Beverly Rollison, Sarah Hayes and Kathy Smallwood.

They were competing in the season's first Youth Development League meeting for the lower age groups (U15 and U17).  Together with their colleagues from the girls and boys team they helped secure a victory for the team as a whole.

The victory was all the more pleasing as this was the team's first meeting since being promoted back into the Southern Premier 1 League.

The lower age group league is made up of:  Reading AC, Bracknell, AC, Blackeath and Bromley AC, Southampton AC, Havering AC and Tonbridge AC.

Reading AC Athletes Represent Berkshire at UK Sportshall Finals

Six Reading Athletic Club athletes represented Berkshire at the UK Sportshall finals in Manchester on 14 April 2018.  A fuller report to follow.  The Reading AC contingent secured a number of individual and relay gold, silver and bronze medals with the girls team finishing in overall joint second position and the boys team finishing third.  Well done team Berkshire.

For more photos and results, go to the event page in the fixtures / results list in the competition area of the website.