STRATFORD AC retained the Warwick Vase for the sixth year in a row as more than 90 of the club’s athletes competed at the Warwickshire County Championships at Pingles Stadium in Nuneaton.
The club amassed 577 points over the course of the weekend to secure a comprehensive victory ahead of Birchfield (489 points).
Stratford won a highly-impressive total of 49 medals (19 gold, 12 silver and 18 bronze) with points earned by athletes who qualified for a final and eight points awarded for a win, seven for second and six for third.
WCAA Meeting organiser Ray Morgan said: “The Warwick Vase is awarded to the WCAA club which scores the most points over the two days of the County Championships.
“Stratford-upon-Avon AC won it for the first time in 2016 and have retained it since then, well done to all of the Stratford athletes and their coaches.”
Warwickshire Schools athletics supremo, Gwil Price added: “From my position near the medal podium,
wherever I looked there were bodies in yellow Stratford vests competing.
“All weekend I heard the medal announcer say ‘and from Stratford’.”
Stratford’s medallists were spread across the different age groups and were involved in every track and field event except for pole vault and the steeplechase.
And the club’s junior athletes impressed from the off in Nuneaton as Scarlett Dawson won gold in the under-13 girls’ 100m in 13.78 seconds and 200m in 28.12 secs.
Scarlett was also awarded the under-13’s age group award by Warwickshire County AA for her impressive run in the 200m.
And Alex Wood repeated the feat for Stratford in the under-13 boys’ 100m and 200m as he won gold in 13.26 secs and 27.31 secs respectively.
Alex completed his individual medal haul with silver in the long jump after he jumped 4.50m whilst fellow Stratford athlete Elfric McKenzie won bronze with a jump of 4.48m.
Stratford’s under-13 athlete William Hovell won gold in the shot put, at his first championships, and also went home with a bronze in the 200m and 75m hurdles.
And fellow under-13 athlete Marijke Tear-Verweij produced one of the performances of the weekend as she dominated the 1500m race to win gold in a time of 5:32.80 and was followed home by Lois
Ford in the bronze medal position in 5:41.41.
Bronze medals were won by Martha Silvers in the under-13 70m hurdles in 13.93 secs and Seb Hillard in the under-15 80m hurdles in 12.84 secs.
Elsewhere, under-20 athlete Catherine Reynolds convincingly won gold in the 400m in a new personal best of 57.38 secs having earlier won bronze in the 100m in which Caitlin Buckley took silver.
And Freddie Clemons won gold in his first outing in the 110m hurdles in 15.52 secs whilst Stratford also enjoyed success in the senior women’s 200m as Imogen Sheppard claimed silver in 26.79 secs.
In the under-13 boys’ 1500m Aran Cooper win silver in a time of 5:07.32 whilst Niamh Hillard won silver in the under-17 girls’ race in 5:02.42.
There was also a silver for Will Mayes in the under-15 race in 4:41.00 and bronze for Taylor Stubbins in the under-20 race in 4:11.95.
Stratford’s Martha Peters led from start to finish in the 800m to take gold in a time of 2:25.70 in the under-15 race whilst Sam Plumb won under-13 bronze and James Day won under-15 bronze.
Vicky Sharpe won gold in the senior ladies 3000m (12.36.32) whilst under-17 Henry Wheeler won bronze in his first 3000m race in a time of 10:39.9.
Paul Hawkins won silver in the 3000m walk in 21:50.9 and was followed home in her first championships by Gemma Smith who also won silver in 22:04.7
The high jump remained a strong event for the club as Emily Madden Forman won gold in the senior women’s event with a jump of 1.65m with under-20 athlete George Fox also taking gold with a new PB of 1.91m.
Caitlin Boyle jumped 1.50m to improve her PB and take silver in the under-17 event whilst debutant Milo Cullimore also set a new PB of 1.60m.
There were also medals for under-15 Luca De Freitas Pires won bronze with a jump of 1.40m and under-17 Zach McKenzie who won bronze with a 1.50m jump.
In the triple jump, both Millie Leighton under-20 (11.02m) and McKenzie under-17 (10.26m) won gold whilst the latter also won long jump gold with a new PB of 5.96m despite nursing an ankle injury.
Further medals in the pit went to Will Marriot who won bronze in the under-15 triple jump (9.24 PB) and Ruby Edwards who won silver in the under-15 girls’ long jump (4.69m).
Stratford had three gold medallists in the javelin as Nikola Wodzisz (under-15) won with a 25.59m throw whilst Louie Newton took silver with 32.85m.
And Acelin Smith (under-20) 48.68m and Holly Newton (under-17) 28.17m were also on top of the podium whilst Lois Ford 16.97m and Holly Clifford 13.88m won silver and bronze respectively in the under-13’s.
Lois also won gold in the discus with a winning throw of 15.88m.
And medal machine Paula Williams won gold in the senior shot put with a throw of 10.76m and then broke her own Warwickshire County masters record in winning the javelin with 34.81m throw.
Lastly, also on the top of the podium in the shot put was Ethan Winning (under-15) with a PB of 8.12m whilst Issy Newton (under-17) won bronze with a throw of 8.65m.
