Westbury celebrates its running successes

Last night saw the club's annual Awards evening, with runners young and old (or very old in Colin Johnson's case) rewarded for their efforts over the past year. It was also the time to present medals from the Gwent League, where the Girls U.11s finished 2nd team, U.13s were champions and U.17s were champions. Additionally the Senior Ladies were the overall champions!

Now onto the specific club awards. First off we had the newcomer awards. For the ladies, the award went to Zoe Dixon - who over the course of the season improved dramatically, culminating in 16th place in the final Gwent League event. For the men, it went to Robin Phillips who over the last 12 months also displayed some great form for the club. He lowered his marathon time by nearly 30 minutes, in recording his first sub 3 hr marathon at Dublin and was always willing to turn out for the club at the Gwent League and other club events.

Most improved runner. For the girls it went to Emma Taylor who ran excellently all winter and for the boys the award winner was Adam Wilson, who attained representative honours with Avon Schools. For the ladies, Hayley Johnson (no doubt taking advice from her husband Mike), improved over all distances, particular the HM and 10k. For the men, Dan Studley was rewarded for his excellent 31st at the Inter counties and 9th position in the Gwent League.

Now we move onto the Individual awards:

Novice Girls: Jenna Kelley - 2nd in the Gwent League
Novice Boys: Joseph Leather - following in his sister's footsteps!
U13 Girls: Emma Jones - 5th in the Gwent League
U13 Boys: Jake Bevan - Gloucs League champion and 3rd in Gwent League
U15 Girls: Abi Hall - 13th in the Gwent
U15 Boys: James Skelton - Gloucs League champion and 31st in the English Schools XC
U17 Girls: Kelly Leat - prolific on the country in all events
U17 Boys: Felix McGrath - British U16 Mountain running champion, and 16th in the Midlands XC
U23 Girls: Kelly Winstone - solid performances in all competitions!
U23 Boys: Dan Studley - that 31st in the Intercounties helped!!
Senior Ladies: Emma D'Alton - outstanding at all distances; particularly HM where she improved her PB to 77.49.
Senior Men: Gregg Ward - showed solid improvement, following marathon training!
Vet Ladies: Robyn Golding - impossible to believe she is old enough, but sure enough her PBs at Bideford and solid performances in the Midlands XC and road relays secured her the prize.
Vet Men: Colin Johnson - great efforts for the club whenever requested, and a sub 3hr marathon at Dublin.

Then finally the athletes of the year:

Female: Debbie Marsden - Avon champion over 10k, Fastest in the relays and the Midlands XC, twice called up to run terrortorially.
Male: Matt Ellis - won pretty much everything he entered (except for Berlin and London marathons) although he has a chance to correct that in two weeks. He will be looking to duck under one club record time in the Marathon - the ladies which is 2.28.52 held by Marian Sutton!

Well done to all of you!!!