Sidmouth Running Club: The junior members of Sidmouth Running Club made their way to the 3rd South West Athletics League meet of the season, which took place at Braunton in North Devon.

Sidmouth Running Club: The junior members of Sidmouth Running Club made their way to the 3rd South West Athletics League meet of the season, which took place at Braunton in North Devon.

Strong winds and rain battered the coach as we made our way north, but glad in the knowledge that we had our stout club tent to protect us from the elements once we arrived at the track. Unfortunately, the person (who shall remain nameless for now!) forgot to bring the tent poles! Instead athletes, parents, coaches and officials made for the rather small stand to keep out of the wind.

However, the weather failed to detract from the quality of performance, and none more so than that of Stephen Moss, who was competing in the green vest for the first time and had a cracking 1500ms, finishing third in 5.25. Iain Harwood finished second in his heat in a time of 5.30. Zak Francis' time of 6.52 was helped by wearing running shoes, which he chose to do without in the 200m, in Zola Budd fashion. Jade Hawkins was wearing bright new shiny spikes and these did her no harm in a fine performance in the 200ms of 29.40.

Jade's brother, Jake, also ran strongly in the 200m, recording a time of 32.60.

The Under-13 boys were competing in the javelin and Grey Grierson had a tremendous throw of 20.82m and finished second. Auguste Oldham threw 13.09m.

In the long jump, Alex Salmon achieved a PB with a leap of 3.14m. Coach Jane Hemsworth also tried out the long jump and hadn't competed in this event since her school days, but still managed a creditable 2.74m to finish in third place.

The club's 4x100m relay teams all managed to get their batons round safely, and score points for the team. The under-13 girls - Myshka Hall, Kelsey Bernard, Emily Maskill and Alex Salmon - competed well in a strong field. The boys - Grey Grierson, Auguste Oldham, Nick Smith and Jake Hawkins - also performed well and finished first in their age group.

It was another great day out with some fine performances once again from our junior athletes and thanks are due to Di Puzey, Colin Flood and John tent-pole Perratt for officiating at the event. The next meet is at Yeovil on September 7.

Sidmouth also had a good day out at the Otter Valley River and Rail Run with a 1-2-3 finish. Graham Hill repeated his win of the previous year, Milan Goc came second whilst Malcolm Bayer completed the whitewash of the opposition.

Not content with that, Nicole Madeley was the third lady home and Emma Craigie took the prize for the first local runner.

The Fun Run had no recorded times but provided a challenging 2.5 mile route for young and old alike. Times and positions for the strong contingent of our club in the 10k are shown below, although it should be mentioned that the course, although muddier, was in fact shorter than last year.

1 Graham Hill 37.20; 2 Milan Goc 38.45; 3 Malcolm Bayer 39.24; 8 John Perratt 47.23; 9 Mark Keast 48.01; 10 Adrian Organ; 13 Colin Flood 48.55; 15 Bill Valentine 49.56; 16 Nicole Madeley 50.13; 17 Neil Rutter 51.27; 18 Philip Welsford 51.33; 22 Rob Cann 51.52; 27 Karen Cann 52.13; 28 Jane Hemsworth 52.14; 34 Wendy Weir-Jones 53.26; 36 Emma Craigie 54.26; 37 Shaun Tipton 54.46; 39 John Chesters 55.12; 41 Becky Robson 56.20; 43 Rachel Burrow; 47 Kerry Gibbons 58.04; 60 Alan Hemswort 1.02.07; 61 Miranda Hansford 1.02.10; 81 Neville Humphries 1.05.32; 84 Ruth Chesters 1.07.31; 94 Sue Cunningham 1.10.36; 108 Sarah Pearman 1.20.35.

By Malcolm Bayer

Sidmouth Running Club