Many congratulations to Pat Robbins, who has been selected to form part of the GB mens’ team for the IAU European Championships in Albi, France on 22-23 October 2016. This will be the second year running Pat has represented his country, having competed in the World 24 Hour Championships (when Pat carried the Union Flag at the opening ceremony) in Italy last year, part of a GB team which won both European and World gold medals. We wish Pat every success in the training for and at the Championships.

Well done to Gary Woolnough, 195th of 6923 finishers in the Brighton Marathon on 17 April in 3.06.43.

The League Track and Field season commenced this weekend, firstly with the Southern Athletics League meeting at Ashdown on Saturday 16 April.  BAC is in Division 3SW in this League, and competed on Saturday against Reading AC, Team Dorset and Poole Runners.  It’s perhaps ironic that by far the strongest team at this fixture wasn’t any of the local teams, with Reading AC comfortably winning  with 190 points, followed by Team Dorset (164), BAC (128) and Poole Runners (77).  After the first fixture, BAC are 12th of 16 teams, with Team Dorset some way ahead in 7th position.  Well done to all the BAC athletes who competed, but there were many B string points going begging with only one BAC athlete in many events and, particularly in the mens’ competition, many events with no BAC athlete – some of those who will be competing later in the BAL were present, but, with no restrictions now applying, where were the rest of the BAL squad at what would surely have been an ideal ‘warm-up’ work-out for them?  Indeed, some were present as spectators!  Well done to Danielle Broom, who had a particularly successful afternoon, with three wins, including a Discus Throw which elevated her to Number 1 Ranking U17 in the UK, and a Hammer Throw which created a new club record! Danielle deservedly won the ‘Woman of the Match’ title.  Well done also to BAC‘s other winners, Patrick Sylla, Alex Paul-Ajuwape, Andrew Sheerin for the men, and Izzy Wedderburn, Sarah Kearsey, Angel Kerin, Madeleine Smith and Amelia Dobson for the ladies, but that is not to take away from each and every athlete who competed, earning valuable points.  However, specific  mention should be made of Mark Annis, years ago one of BAC‘s most talented athletes before illness struck, and, forget his times, Mark‘s performances were probably the most determined and courageous of the whole afternoon.  Mark last competed in what was the Southern Mens League 25 years ago, and has a 800m PB of 1.57.51.  Results (BAC): Men 100m A String 2. Patrick Sylla 11.9;  100m B 3. Ryan Markham 12.6;  200m A 1. Patrick Sylla 22.5;  200m B 4. Mark Annis 50.4;  400m A 2. Alex Paul-Ajuwape 59.3;  800m A 4. Mark Annis 4.24.8;  5000m A 2. David Long 15.24.0;  High Jump A 3. Jamie Williamson 1.75;  High Jump B 1. Alex Paul-Ajuwape 1.65;  Long Jump A 1. Patrick Sylla 7.09;  Triple Jump A 3. Alex Paul-Ajuwape 11.39;  4 x 100m 4. BAC 49.8.  Women 100m A 3. Izzy Wedderburn 14.1;  100m B 3. Charlotte Sidaway 14.2;  200m A 1. Izzy Wedderburn 26.7;  200m B 4. Jemma Bates 32.3;  400m A 2. Sarah Kearsey 62.1;  800m A 2. Joy Wright 2.40.0;  1500m A 3. Joy Wright 5.34.6;  400mH A 1. Sarah Kearsey 67.7;  High Jump A 3. Madeleine Smith 1.35;  High Jump B 3. Amelia Dobson 1.25;  Long Jump A 1. Angel Kerin 5.07;  Long Jump B 1. Izzy Wedderburn 5.07;  Triple Jump A 1. Madeleine Smith 10.38;  Triple Jump B 1. Amelia Dobson 10.21;  Shot Putt A 1. Danielle Broom 10.23;  Shot Putt B 3. Paolo King 4.97;  Discus A 1. Danielle Broom 42.54;  Discus B 3. Paolo King 14.71;  Hammer A 1. Danielle Broom 47.08;  Hammer B 3. Paolo King 15.17;  Javelin A 4. Sarah Kearsey 16.00;  Javelin B 3. Madeleine Smith 4.45;  4 x 100m 2. BAC 52.6;  4×400 3. BAC 4.41.6.

The next day the first Wessex Young Athletes League fixture took place at Winchester.  BAC finished the day 5th of 6 teams.   Congratulations to those athletes who competed – there were some excellent performances, and many instances of our youngsters taking part in the maximum permitted number of events.  The result was highly creditable considering BAC fielded only 4 U13 girls, 5 U15 girls, 7 U17 women, 3 U13 boys, 4 U15 boys and one solitary U17 man.  Simply filling in the gaps would push the team way up the table, so hopefully we will be able to put out stronger teams at subsequent fixtures.  Results (BAC): Girls/Women U13: 100m A String 3. Tamika Douch 14.70; 200m A 3. Tamika Douch 30.80; 200m B 3. Ruby Bowden 32.80; 800m A Ruby Bowden 2.55.70; 70mH A Hannah Saunders 15.90; 4x100m relay 3. BAC (Ruby Bowden, Hannah Saunders, Tamika Douch, Isabelle Franklin) 60.70; Long Jump A Tamika Douch 4.09; Long Jump B Isabelle Franklin 3.80; Shot Putt A 1. Hannah Saunders 6.43; Shot Putt B Isabelle Franklin 5.22; Discus Throw A 4. Hannah Saunders 14.56; Javelin Throw A Isabelle Franklin 11.12: U15: 100m A 3. Rebecca Hannibal 14.00; 100m B 3. Lauren Sheerin; 200m A 3. Rebecca Hannibal 28.90; 200m B 2. Katie Fry 29.80; 75mH A 3. Polly Yule 13.40; 4x100m 2. BAC (Rebecca Hannibal, Millie Lynk, Lauren Sheerin, Polly Yule) 57.00; Long Jump A 1. Millie Lynk 4.70; Long Jump B 3. Lauren Sheerin 3.87; High Jump A 3. Polly Yule 1.45; High Jump B 3. Millie Lynk 1.25; Shot Putt A 2. Polly Yule 7.52; Shot Putt B 2. Rebecca Hannibal 5.69; Javelin Throw A 2. Katie Fry 16.55; U17: 100m B? 1.Charlie Sidaway 13.40; 200m A 3. Charlie Sidaway; 200m B Holly Lowther 29.80; 80mH A Iona Sheerin 12.30; 80mH B Charlie Sidaway 12.50; High Jump A Gemma Kennard 1.50; Javelin Throw A 3. Iona Sheerin 17.71: Boys/Men U13: 100m A 4. Oliver Hassan 14.70; 100m B 4. Samuel Rappoport 14.70; 200m A 5. Samuel Rappoport 32.00; 75mH 2. Chandler Rees 15.90; Long Jump A 4. Chandler Rees 3.38; Long Jump B 2. Samuel Rappoport 3.23; U15: 100m A 1. George Galpin 13.20; 800mH A 4. Jim Dence 16.40; Long Jump A 1. Joe Haywood 4.87; Long Jump B 1. Jim Dence 4.01; High Jump A 4. Jim Dence 1.40; Shot Putt A 2. Fraser Spall 7.60; Discus Throw A 2. Fraser Spall 19.53; Javelin Throw A 4. Fraser Spall 28.47; U17: 100m A 4. Adam Hassan 13.20.  The results of the QuadKids competition have not yet been published.

There were unusually large turn-outs at some of the local Parkruns on Saturday 16 April – a response to a certain (not local) Council’s proposal to charge Parkrunners??!  A record 761 ran at Poole, which was won by Steve Way, and 434 (possibly a record?) ran at Bournemouth, where four BAC athletes featured in the top 20, Alex Goulding, a useful new signing (3rd), Rob McTaggart (7th), Ross Blakemore (13th) and Tom Farwell (18th).  Jez Bragg was second of the 142 runners who competed at Blandford.