On 4th February, Brooke broke the Lee Valley Athletic Centre all time 200m track record when she won the Southern Individual Championships with a championship best performance time of 23.58 sec. 

Brooke followed this up a fortnight later with Bronze in the 200m in the MIcroplus UK Athletics Indoor Championships at the NIA in Birmingham.  

Brooke, who is studying at Bournemouth University, continued her tour of the country, and the following weekend was in good form going into British Universities and Colleges Sports (BUCS) Championships, held in Sheffield on 25th February. She took Bronze in the 60m sprint in a time of 7.48 seconds and followed this up with Gold in the 200m in a championship best performance and new indoor best performance time of 23.37 seconds.  

Brooke, who is coached by Zac Kerin,  ends the winter indoor season ranked 6th best Under 23 on all-time list. She is currently ranked 3rd in the Europe 200m Indoor list.

January 8th, 2023 – RNAS Merryfield, Somerset

Junior athletes stomped their way to success last Sunday, 8th January at the South West Cross Country Championships held once more at RNAS Merryfield, Somerset.

The testing course was probably the most  “traditional” cross-country of this season so far, no manicured park land, this was rough grassland, mud, woodland, hills and a bit more mud in less than perfect weather conditions.

The tough going didn’t prevent some excellent performances on the day, kicked off by Isla May in the U11 Girls who made easy going of the conditions to BAC’s highest placing athlete of the day in 3rd place; a fantastic achievement for a young athlete in such challenging conditions. 

In the U11 Boys Bournemouth’s sole representative Edward King ran hard and placed a very respectable 25th against strong competition from all across the region.  

In the U13 Girls, raced over of 3750m of quagmire and undulating hills, ever improving duo Seni Purnell and Albha O’Brien crossed the line 30 seconds apart in 5th & 15th respectively, closely followed by their teammates Constance King 23rd, and Clodagh O’Brien 24th. 

Seni Purnell ran most of the U13G race in second place

Albha O’Brien U13G

Constance King U13G

Clodagh O’Brien U13G

Constance & Clodagh did battle royale, pushing one another all the way to the finish line. The girls’ great team placings have been rewarded with a silver team medal and only missed out on winning a bronze for Dorset County by 5 points. BAC scored 67 points, 13 points behind Wells City Harriers and 50 points ahead of Cornwall AC. 

Clodagh O’Brien Finishing strong

Constance and Clodagh battling for the finish line

U13G Second Team pacing and a silver medal

U13G second placed team

Nathan “Mr.Consistent” Mearns, was our only representative in the U17 Boys race, with many of his team mates sick at present. Nathan is an ever present figure throughout the cross country season, working hard on the second lap to finish strongly in 36th and 3rd Dorset athlete across the line.

Nathan Mearns U17B

Emily Coltman and Mariah Marshall, lined up against recent 4th place finisher in the European Cross Country Championships, Innes Fitzgerald (Exeter / Devon) to run in the ever deteriorating conditions. Emily ran hard finishing 27th and 5th Dorset finisher and Mariah came home in 42nd position. Dorset was the fourth county out of six.

In the Senior Ladies Kirsty Drewett was a lone star, battling the wind & rain to place 62nd.

The final race of the day, Senior & U20 mens, was held in rainbows and sunshine! 

Simon Hearn (M50) and Geoff Newton (M60) wading through the mud to finish in 128th and 134th. 

Oliver James, back from Durham Uni for the holidays, romped home 5th in the U20 Mens (27th overall). Olly wasn’t happy, the Christmas sickness bug had gotten to him, but it was an equivalent placing on the same course as 2022 when he was over the moon! 

A great event and some very strong performances which will be taken into account by the Dorset team selectors for the Inter-Counties Cross Country Championship in a few weeks’ time. 

This coming week is the Dorset Schools Cross-Country Championships at Kings Park this coming Thursday, 19th January.

The Club’s Executive Committee met recently to agree the fees for 2023 against the backdrop of increasing costs being experienced already including travel to matches, track hire and energy costs e.g. floodlights at the track.

In 2021, the club not only froze prices at the same level as 2020, it also extended all memberships that had been paid in 2020 to the end of 2021 in view of the lack of training and competition opportunities caused by lockdown and the track refurbishment. In 2022, the club agreed small increases to counter the loss of revenue over the two year period of 2020 and 2021.

Looking at the club budget for 2023, it is clear that we face a significant increase in costs and to avoid a substantial shortfall during the year, the club has had to make some further increases to the membership, season tickets and training fees. These increases have been calculated to ensure that the club covers that predicted shortfall only. 

The fees for 2023 will be as follows:-

England Athletics has just announced that the EA fee for their year commencing 1st April 2023 will be increased from £16 to £17

These increases were discussed at great length by the Club’s Executive Committee as we are aware of the pressures on households with the current ‘Cost of Living Crisis’. Nevertheless, the committee believes that the increases still give good value for money to our members.

Robin James Ian White Dave Parsons

Chair Treasurer Membership Secretary

27th September 2022

Janet Dickinson, the BAC Club President, made the presentations on Thursday 27th January following the club night training.  Six trophies were presented to the following…

The Dawn Johnson Trophy for the best track performance by a BAC athlete in the Autumn Open was presented to Will Launder, U13 at the time, for his Grade 1 performances of 12.8s 100m (ranking him 1st in the South West of England and 20th overall in the UK) and for his 200m time of 26.4s.  Will also Long Jumped 5.49m ranking him 1st in UK for his age in 2021, just 1cm shy of the U13 Boys Club Record.

Will Launder

The Mick Willis Trophy for best High Jump of the Season was presented to Jaz Cooke who jumped a PB of 1.72m last year as an U20 Women.

Jaz Cooke

The Mayor’s Marathon Trophy was awarded to Rob Spencer who was 30th in London Marathon in 2021 clocking a time of 2:25:56 making him the fastest man in the South West of England.

Rob Spencer

The Cooper Dean Trophy for an outstanding Junior Athlete was awarded to Ollie James.  He represented Wales at the Manchester International during 2021 in the 3000m Steeplechase, in his first year of embarking on that event.  Ollie, an U20 Man, also became Welsh Junior Champion for 2000m Steeplechase that year.

Ollie James

The Portman Eagle for the most outstanding Athlete of the season was awarded to  Amelia Verney.  She was a 100m semi-finalist at the British Championships in Manchester in the summer of 2021 and also won a gold medal in the U20 200m at the English Schools Championships in Manchester in July.  Amelia also achieved her England vest at Manchester International where she also contributed to a Gold medal 4x100m Relay performance.

Amelia Verney

The President’s Trophy was awarded to Tim Hughes in recognition of his contribution to the club.  Tim is a long-standing member of BAC, as an athlete, coach, team manager and committee member. He has made an exceptional commitment to team management taking the British Athletics League men’s team through a number of promotions from a time when the team was experiencing many challenges through to being a top 16 club in the UK. He then played his part in successfully integrating the new mixed-team National Athletics League starting in 2021. 

Tim undertakes much work behind the scenes related to the NAL but also as the club deputy chairperson. With the track re-development this has required much liaison with the council.  Tim is also still training and is planning to compete as a master in coming years.

Tim Hughes

A brief update about the National Athletics League (NAL) as things stand heading to 2021.  The NAL is the national level track and field competition for Senior and U20 men and women and Bournemouth AC are in the 2nd Tier of this known as the “Championship” division.

The NAL committee is planning both for a Plan A (where things can go ahead as normal in 2021) and a Plan B, where things are more restrictive still and thus would involve a competition structure with less travelling.  We all hope for Plan A and I can let you have some details of that now…

The NAL Committee has listened to the wishes of the clubs and athletes and most fixtures now are on Saturdays.  The fixtures for Bournemouth AC are PROVISIONALLY as follows…

Sat 15-May SportCity, Manchester

Sat 5-Jun King’s Park, Bournemouth

Sat 3-Jul Chelmsford

Sun 8-Aug Bedford

The overall structure along with the teams at each match is here…

I shall once again be taking the lead in managing the NAL in 2021 along with Amy Spencer who will help particularly on the ladies side.  We have an opportunity to once again look to boost the team as we head into 2021 and work is progressing on that ☺.  With a year’s gap from league competition and some club athletes now progressing well and moving up into the U20 age group, we hope to see some fresh faces in the team in 2021.  I’m sure that Bournemouth AC will continue to show that it’s an extremely enthusiastic team.

Regards,

Tim Hughes.

BAC boys U11 team that represented Dorset at the South West Regional Final:

1. Stanley Peters

2. Ollie Thomson

3. Ewan Brown

4. William Launder

5. Emmanuel Boot

6. James Davie

Girls BAC U13 team:

1. Ida Waring
2. Mia Armstrong

Boys U13 Team:

1. Nathanial Boot
2. Daniel Armstrong
3. Adam Gulliver