Stratford AC enjoy excellent start to Midland League campaign
AFTER a disappointing 2015 season in the Midland Track League, Stratford AC were hoping for a good start in their opening fixture at Tipton.
Although there were absences due to injury and illness, there were some of Stratford’s best athletes competing successfully for the club and the club enjoyed a number of wins, particularly in the women’s jumps.
Emily Madden Forman won the long jump with a jump of 5.18m with Issy Cain Daley claiming third place in the B competition. In Madden Forman’s specialist event, the triple jump, she again won with a mark of 10.95m while Cain Daley was second in the B competition with 10.17m.
Moving onto the high jump it was Cain Daley’s turn to jump in her main event and she cleared 1.65m to comfortably win the competition, narrowly failing at 1.69m which would have been a league record for the division.
Although not her favourite event, Paula Williams jumped well to finish second B athlete.
To complete their successes, Madden Forman and Cain Daley respectively won the B races for 100m and 200m. In the women’s sprints A races, Dani Horton made her debut for the team, running well against tough opposition to claim fifth and third place.
Zoe Chandler made her comeback on the track with two tremendous victories.
In the 3,000m, she led all the way to eventually win by a three-second margin and then less than 30 minutes later ran in the 1500m and won by an enormous 16 seconds. Another success was in the shot put.
Leicester’s international, Eden Francis, was dominating the throws but Paula Williams achieved a PB of 9.91 to come second while Paivi McMillan, making her debut for the club, won the B competition. McMillan also won the B javelin and looks to be a strong addition to the team.
In the men’s throws, James Chamberlain returned to action after a three-year break and gained valuable points, particularly in the javelin where he was third but looks likely to improve with more competition.
There was also a strong third place from Graham Black in the hammer. In the distance events, the highlights were Oscar Barbour racing his first 5,000m and coming third, the same position as Kieran Tursner in the steeplechase.
Because of injuries to some of the sprinters, it showed the great team spirit in the club to see the middle distance runners, Fergus Allison and Matt Bayliss, covering some shorter events than they are used to.