Buxton Athletic Club Juniors held their annual Presentations and Mile Race this week. The last year has been an outstanding one for the club having been voted High Peak Club of the Year and England Athletics Regional and then National Club of the Year! The Juniors in particular have had a great one being voted High Peak and Derbyshire Junior Team Of The Year!
This annual event honoured some of the juniors shining stars. The event opened with the juniors taking part in the mile run around Buxton Community School Sports field in which 34 of the juniors took part, ages ranging from 4 to 17 years! The race was won by Sam Soles in an amazing time of 5.03mins. First girl was Lucy Bednall in a similarly impressive time of 5.57 mins. The youngest runner was 4 year old Georgia Cudahy who finished the mile in 11.31!
Awards were then presented to a number of Buxton’s finest athletes. The first prize winner crowned “Most Improved Female” was Ellie Wilson. Ellie has made some excellent improvements over the last year. She consistently works hard, takes on board all the advise she gets and has a great attitude to training. She won a Silver medal at the County XC, a bronze in the County Track and Field Championships, ran for Derbyshire in the Fell Inter-counties and represented Derbyshire in the Schools Track & Field and XC.
The award for “Most Improved Male” went to Ryan Rawlinson who has made outstanding progress on the track. Over the mini-league he consistently improved his personal best – attended and won at Open meets and become the North of England 100m Championship. Most recently he represented Derbyshire at the Inter-Counties Track and Field and finished 2nd in both 100m and 200m – both in PB times!
The next award for “Outstanding Achievement – female” went to Lucy Bednall whose talents seem to be never ending! She has qualified represented Staffordshire in the schools Track and Field Champs – Silver medal 1500m and Bronze for long Jump, and the National Schools Cross Country Champs. She has represented Buxton AC and won many local fell races, course record at Lyme Park, Dream Mile record as well as the overall female winner Staff Moorlands Summer Series, and top 5 position in English Junior Fell Champs. Where she finds the time for Cyclo-cross, eventing and triathlon as well we have no idea!
The RH Walker Trophy for “Outstanding Achievement – male” went to Sam Soles. Sam had a great cross country season leading his team to the National Schools XC Championships, qualified to run for Derbyshire in the Track & Field Championships gaining Silver medal in the 1500m, 3rd in North Staffordshire XC League, has taken part and won many local and national fell races, 5th U17 in the English Junior Fell Championships, Derbyshire vest for Inter-Counties cross country and fells, and narrowly missed out on an England vest for Junior Home Internationals this year when he was young in his category but we’ll see next year!
The Jim Bradley Award was donated by our own legendary lifetime president and is awarded for positively representing the Club and was awarded to Amy Whelan. Amy has consistently turned out to represent the club in both cross country leagues, in countless local fell races as well as some of the most iconic fell races all around the country. She is an absolute joy to coach, hard working, great attitude and a real team player. At only 14 years old she is also on her way to the coveted 100 Parkrun target having completed 77 senior park runs and 26 junior park runs!
We have had many outstanding new arrivals come to Buxton AC this year and all of them have been amazing! This award could have had at least 5 different winners and I am pretty sure that many of those youngsters will be receiving awards next year. However, the person that won the Best Newcomer Award was Will Longden. Will also travelled up to Marl Pitts this weekend to receive a Silver Medal in the English Junior Fell Championships which is a pretty awesome achievement considering this is his first season on the Fells!
The Under 11 awards went to Jake O’Donnell, Lucy Whelan and Rachel Cudahy. All three have consistently worked hard this year with Jake getting outstanding results in his chosen sport of Orienteering as well as winning his age category in the Staffordshire Moorlands Summer Series while Lucy and Rachel have joined the Buxton team throughout the cross country season, working hard and putting in great performances. They have also taken part in the English Junior Fell Champs and look to become outstanding runners of the future.
Buxton Juniors would like to thank all the coaches – Wendy Higginbottom, Terry Fowler, Mark Quince and Rachel Dowle; the fabulous Assistant Coaches Dan Latham, Radim Poledne, Joanne Cudahy and David Fryer-Winder and also all the parents who support the juniors tirelessly. But more than anything they would like to thank the young people who make up the juniors and for whom all these volunteers are more than happy to give up their time to work with. After all that sense of family and community is why Buxton AC are the best Club in the country!!