England Athletics 2009 Award Winners "Junior Club of the Year" - Horwich RMI Harriers & AC

YAHOOO!!!

Last night our Club received a highly prestigious award from England Athletics at the Hall of Fame Awards in Birmingham in front of many famous Athletes and Coaches.

We were awarded "Junior Club of the Year" for 2009 - putting this into context, as I am sure it was said last night, there are 1,300 athletic clubs in England! So this some achievement.

Photos for EA Awards Night 2009

Name Dropping!

Famous people present at the awards included : David Hemery, Steve Backley, Darren Campbell, Christian Malcolm, Jonathan Edwards, Noel Thatcher, George Bunner, Dorothy Tyler and even the daughter of the legendary Harold Abrahams! The chiefs of Engand Athletics and UKA Athletics were there too!

There were too many names to mention.

You can see a report on the website www.englandathletics.org

OUR THANKS TO VOLUNTEERS

We would not have received this prestigious award if it had not been for the fantastic support we receive from our "volunteers", i.e. coaches, officials, administrators, helpers and even "butty-makers" and our own committee.

We must not forget the help and support that is provided by the Horwich and District Primary & Secondary Schools and Bolton Arena for their services. Also, Horwich Rotary, as we must not forget they donated £ 4,000 4 years ago to buy the indoor sportshall equipment (and continue to support us every year!).

If I have forgotten anyone, please forgive me as I am still in shock at our Club receiving such an award.

One thing I must say is that we have the most fantastic young athletes, none better, who continue to amaze us with their enthusiasm for training and great spirit for the sport of athletics. We have great sportsmanship and a willingness to help others as has been shown recently by some of the athletes even becoming Coaches too. Everyone wants to do their best and also wants to help each other which is truly amazing.

On behalf of the Club, a BIG thank you once again and if anyone is interested in our club continuing to get better and better, please let me know. In particular, we are now getting to the stage, where we need more coaches to support our young athletes. So if anyone is interested please let me know or any of our coaches.

Please continue your support. Thanks and well done to the whole of the Club!

Kind regards


Mark Dacre
Junior Coach
Horwich RMI Harriers & AC

PS Dont forget Indoor Sportshall starts next Sunday 18/10/2009 at Blackpool.

Horwich Juniors @ Mid Lancs

In near perfect conditions our junior team of only 3 found the pace of the U13’s race faster than last weeks Red Rose. The field was 50 boys strong and 35 girls strong in the same race of u15’s.

First home in 12th with 11:31 was Jo Howe who had a strong race beating some of last weeks competitors and satisfied he couldn’t have done more. Close on his heels and finishing 14th in 11:39 with 2 other runners across the line in same time was Nathan Townsend. After recognising he had beaten all his closest rivals was please with his performance. Another sterling run from Will Townsend brought him in at 32nd in 12:43 again beating some of last weeks runners from Witton Park.

The only cloud for the team is not having 4 runners meant they didn’t have a full team of four. After the team came 2nd Last week due to Jonathan or Cameron not being able to make it meant no results. A second would have been on the cards again if we have had a full squad.

Jo’s brother Zac Howe had a challenging day being our only U17’s runner. The race again was quick and Zac having had a good season on the Fells just couldn’t find the pace today. Nevertheless a respectable 22nd place wasn’t a true picture of what we are looking forward to from Zac this season.

English Schools Fell Champs

On the 27th September at Sedbergh in Cumbria a number of Horwich Juniors represented their schools and pride of place went to Phoebe Howe who won the U/11 Race which consisted of 2miles with 720 foot of ascent, after leading throughout she finished in a remarkable seventh place overall only beaten by six boys and broke the course record by 40 seconds. She was presented with her Gold Medal by Joss Naylor O.B.E. We had two other competitors in this race with Will Townsend 19th after taking a nasty fall and Johnathan Powis 10 seconds behind in 20th. In the U/13 race Joseph Howe ran well for 26th place and in the U/15 race a 3.5 mile race Zach Howe did well and finished 15th. All the children deserve credit for racing these tough courses considering this year is their first on the Fells.

Tony Hesketh

Another Award Win

Following on from winning the North West award for Junior Club of the Year, the club has had more success with Mike Houghton, Rebecca Keating, Rachel Pearson, Jack Thomas and Tiffany Dacre winning the North West award for Young Volunteers (U 23) of the Year.

Mike, Rebecca, Rachel, Jack and Tiffany won for all their work in Coaching across a range of ages and events and in developing the Track and Field section.

Well done to them all

Link.

Young Horwich RMI Harriers strike “Gold” at Wigan

Congratulations to Gabrielle Whittle, Isobel Dean, Nathan Townsend, Jonah Saunders & Callum Gordon of Horwich RMI Harriers, who all won Gold Medals in the Arnold Seddon Memorial Track and Field Athletics Meeting which took place on 19th September 2009 held at Wigan.

This was the penultimate outdoor meeting for the 2009 season for Under 15 athletes. Over 200 children from all over the country took part & Horwich RMI Harriers turned out 26 athletes on the day. To win medals in a major event like this is a tremendous achievement. On the day we recorded many Personal Bests and won a record 22 Medals in total!

A fantastic achievement for all MEDAL WINNERS and well done to our other competitors, who all performed magnificently on the day.

Results.

Report for Telford Games and Blackpool Open meetings

A number of Horwich RMI Harriers were out at the weekend making the most if the weather in some end of season competitions.

Natassia Dacre travelled down to the Midlands to compete in the prestigious Telford Games and was rewarded with a new club record in the Javelin. Natassia, competing in the U 13 age group came up against the Welsh number 1 yet threw further than she had done before to pick up the silver medal and move to 16th on the UK rankings. For good measure Natassia then also finished 3rd in the Discus.




A few Horwich RMI Harriers competed at the Blackpool Medal Meeting. Callum Gordon had a good day winning both the 80m and 600m races for the U 9 boys smashing the clubs records in the process. Laura Taylor picked a silver and bronze in the hurdles and Long Jump and Laura’s brother Adam earned a silver in the Hammer. Gabrielle Whittle completed the medal haul with a bronze in the Hurdles.

Full results.

English Junior Fell race Darwen Gala.

Tony Hesketh has some junior fell runners under him as a coach and at weekend his team did rather well.

In a field of 33 finishers we had 4 runners. In a 2 mile race the pace at the front was fast and hard and the top 9 places were all from different clubs.

Conditions were great and support for the runners was clear as many voices shouted for Horwich all the way around.

First Horwich runner home AND first Lancashire person was Nathan Townsend in 6th place having a storming finish beating 2 of his local rivals on his way down. This gave Nathan the Lancs Gold medal for the boys. His time of 16.33 was a respectable time as he and the RMI junior team never had run this course before.

Next was Phoebe Howe in 10th with a time of 16.57 giving her the silver after just being beat by her local rival.

Will Townsend and Jonathan Powis came home 15th & 16th respectfully excellent runs from both boys who stuck and encouraged each other all the way around.

Albeit these are very respectable time this team will still qualify next year for U12 category as they have all only just turned 11.

There was no team prize but if there had been Horwich would have won first 3 and first 4 home, all in all a great day for the juniors.

Not to be outdone, Jo Howe had a super run in the U14s come in a respectable 15th being our only representative and being the 4th Lancs runner home, marginally missed out on a bronze medal.

This is a show of fine work Tony is doing with the Junior team .



Andy Townsend.