Cannock & Stafford AC gained promotion to the top division of Midlands Athletics by virtue of winning the final meeting of the season at Stoke on Saturday (13th).

Martin Roberts threw a season’s best 32.63 in the hammer to finish second with Shaun Ainge finishing second in the ‘B’.

Natalie Griffiths won all three of her individual track events including earning 5 bonus points as she finished the 400m hurdles in 64.8. 35 minutes later she won the 800m in a season’s best 2:18.4 and she later won the 100m hurdles in 17.0. Issey Kelly won the ‘B’ 400m hurdles in 71.2 and also gained pbs in the long jump (5.07m) and triple jump (9.80m) to come second in both.

Syd Davies achieved a sprint double winning the 100m by equalling her pb of 12.8 and the 200m in 26.4 and she also threw a pb of 23.17m to finish second in the javelin. Charis Farmer won the ‘B’ 100m in a pb of 13.0.

Hannah Malpass came second in the 400m (60.2) and won the ‘B’ 100m hurdles in 19.6 and Charlotte Hall won the 400m ‘B’ in 62.2 and came second in the ‘B’ javelin.

Despite having been unable to train for four weeks, Mia Wainwright won the ‘B’ long jump with 5.06m and came second in the ‘B’ 200m and Cara Brown won the pole vault with a 2.30m clearance in her first outing of the season.

John Kirby smashed his pb to win the 400m and dip below 50 seconds for the first time 49.8 and Calum Haycock made his debut for our senior team, winning the 400m ‘B’ in 53.7. His brother Kyle, competing as a guest, finished close behind in 54.0.

Ryan Ashforth finished first in the ‘B’ 3000m steeplechase and third in the 800m (2:04.5) and James Russell won the ‘B’ 400m hurdles, came second in the ‘B’ 110 hurdles

Allee Rigby ran 59.5 to finish second in the 400m hurdles, 17.2 for third in the 110m hurdles and cleared 1.75m for second place in the high jump. Maddy Batchelor cleared 1.35m for a pb in her high jump and also ran a pb of 29.3 as a guest in the 200m.

Tunde Adeyemo came third in the ‘B’ 200m, Darrell Wilde third in the ‘B’ 800m and, in the extremely hot conditions, Katie Burney (21:33.7), Tom Eustace (16:49.4 pb) and Jon Biddle (17:20.2 pb), in his first track outing for the club for eleven years, all finished third in their respective 5000m races.

Henry Heathcote, Ross Goode and Ben Powers all competed in the 100m and 200m with Henry finishing 4th in the ‘A’ 200m, Craig Pearson, and Natasha Lee both ran 1500m with Natasha finishing 4th in her race and Craig 4th in the men’s ‘B’.

The girls 4×100m relay team of Charlotte, Issey, Syd and Charis produced some slick handovers to win in 51.1 and the 4×400m quartet of Charlotte, Syd, Issey and Nat won by over 30 seconds with a time of 4:13.3.

Henry, John, Allee and Tunde came third in the men’s 4×100m (46.6) but the 4×400m team of Henry, Ben, Calum and John emulated the women’s achievement by winning in 3:36.3.

Well done to all the athletes who turned up when selected for each of the meetings, many of whom competed in multiple events to score us the points to enable the team to finish in second place in the division. The support given to each other throughout the season was brilliant to see.

Thanks too to everyone else who contributed during the season including Alyson Ainge for managing the team on match days, the officials and people who helped officiate, without whom there wouldn’t be any competition and everyone who travelled and supported the team.