Week Ending - 2022/07/31

GOLDEN GRAHAM

Badgers star Martin Graham enjoyed a terrific weekend of running at the British Transplant Games in Leeds, taking not one but three gold medals as well as a silver. The uncle of GB star Ellis Cross and of course, a transplantee, 47-year-old Graham ran a superb new personal best time of 20:54 in the 5000 metres to take the gold. Teammates have seen the work he has put into his running over recent months with these games being a big goal for him. The improvement in his performances has been noticeable and it came as no surprise that he ran so superbly. He tackled both middle distance races on the track, the 800m and the 1500m and scooped two more golds and as if this wasn’t enough, he took on the 5K race walk event, a discipline often attempted in his younger pre-transplant days and bagged a silver medal in a PB time of 31:35.

The Abbott Trail event took place at Hopwas on Sunday with Badgers dominating the field with a huge turnout, much to the delight of race director and Badger Justin Haywood and his team of volunteers from the Simon’s Heroes charity. Some £2,600 was estimated to have been raised to help children in need and with two races to choose from there was no shortage of running action along the canal and up into the woods. In the blue riband event, the 5K, Dave Hill added his name to a list of previous winners that boasts some of the top athletes in Midlands distance running over the last five years. The Polesworth flyer was selflessly paced through the tricky opening 700m by teammate Chris Horton who once again watched on from afar as his younger counterpart shot off into the distance, taking the tape with plenty of gas in the tank in readiness for an audacious double as he attempted the 10K less than an hour later. Horton coasted home in second spot with fellow key man Glyn Broadhurst tempo-ing round to make it a Badgers 1-2-3 in the main event. Rob Crow took a quality 8^th place with Jimmy Dewis, Merv Jones and Clare Whetton all going well. Former winner Nicki Bowman finished a hugely creditable 4^th female with teammates Jo Davies, Leesa Dennis and Gemma Spencer all getting home in good time.

The 10K race attracted yet more Badgers, and with a fast 5K already in his legs, speedster Hill had to settle for a gallant third, a wonderful effort not too dissimilar to swimmer Duncan Scott in the Commonwealth Games the night before with a gold and a bronze from races an hour apart. Men’s Captain Carl Savage took 8^th position while Rachael Shelton took 8^th female, while Suzy Farrell, Glyn Broadhurst, Tim Gould and Ashley Taylor all gave strong top 20 showings. Matt Green, Adi Payne, Neil Thorne and Ian Orton all ran well as did husband and wife combos Adrian and Judy Parkes, and John and Anne Devenney.

Also in action taking on the notorious concrete hill not just once but twice during the course of the race were Colin Lees, Andy Altoft, Steve Perry, Hannah Coogan and Russell Lomas, Stephanie White and Charlotte Oliver jogged round together while Sharon Jackson, Lil Souter, Matt Smith, Paul Restall and Stephanie Attenborough all completed the course. Badgers weren’t done there however as big cheers came in for Fiona Hutton, Pete Mann, Fiona Reidy and Juliette Trollope who wrapped up proceedings in fine style.

Prior to this event, there was the small matter of the Castle Summer Festival 5K which saw Glyn Broadhurst finish first in lieu of what would have been his 200^th parkrun. Dave Hill took second place and Nicki Bowman a gutsy third female.

Also running 5K was David Craig who turned in a season’s best 21:41 at Mallory Park to achieve his 2022 club standard times with an excellent performance midweek. Also with him was Birchfield Harriers star and second claim Badger Matt Scarsbrook who ran a scintillating 15:22 over the same distance to finish 5^th in in the Midlands 5K championships, a personal best for the Baddesley man who just seems to go quicker and quicker.

Parkrun saw a plethora of action on Saturday morning with Sam Starkey’s first place finish at Beacon parkrun the highlight, particularly with his time of 17:40, his fastest for several years. There were strong displays from the likes of big Dave Jackson, fourth at Kingsbury, Megan Griffiths, sixth in the same event; while aunty and nephew combo Jo Hardy (7^th) and Cameron Barnes (3^rd) also made the top ten, albeit at different locations, specifically Rendlesham Forest and Babbs Mill.

This week sees the return of league racing with the Huncote-based Joy Cann 5 attracting a huge number of Badgers on Wednesday evening. Traditionally the race is a fast one but course changes may force a rethink in strategy for some. A whopping 70 Badgers are expected to make the start line, with big performances likely from the likes of Ann-Marie Currier who has been altitude training in her bid to consolidate her position in the top ten of V40 females in the league this season, a solid operation from someone well versed in dealing with solids on the run.