Posts from — April 2019

On Saturday 20th April, 100 Hillingdon Athletics Club volunteers came together in a massive show of teamwork and hosted the inaugural Athleticsforce day in partnership with England Athletics.

In hot and sunny conditions teams of athletes, parents and coaches worked together to clean sandpits, throwing cages and seating, organise storage spaces and cut back overgrown foliage.

England Athletics expressed how impressed they were with the efforts:

“I was so happy with how the day went and want to thank you and everyone involved for making the day such a success. From the moment we first discussed Athleticsforce, right through to 4pm on Saturday, the partnership between, the club, fusion and EA has worked so well. This is a great template for me to take forward to see if we can launch this nationally.” John Harris – Club Support Manager (Herts, Essex, Berks and North London)

Writing for “This is Local London” U17 athlete Emily Colyer writes:

“The day was a great chance for athletes to give back to the track they know and love, as well as a chance for families to get involved. Now, with an almost sparkling track, HAC is ready to welcome in the new athletics season: months of competing after a winter of hard training, and we all hope for a successful turnout.”

A huge thank you to all who gave their time to volunteer, Courtney Clarke for organising the event and Andy Wilcock and team for keeping us fed and watered all day.

England Athletics are looking for feedback so if you have any comments please pass these onto Courtney.

Saturday 13 April saw the first Southern Athletics League fixture at Walton Athletics Track. Hillingdon AC scored a total of 164 points, finishing 4th. Well done to all who competed.

The next fixtures are Sunday 19 May, Saturday 15 June, Saturday 13 July and Saturday 17 August. Please make yourselves available for these fixtures.

Just a quick reminder that we have the senior Winter Presentation Evening and Marathon celebrations on Sunday evening from 7.30pm Marathoners please don’t forget your medals!

We will be ordering pizzas for those who wish to eat.

Calling all Vets! These are the dates for the forthcoming evening SCVAC (track & field):

MONDAY 13TH MAY Battersea

MONDAY 10TH JUNE Hillingdon

MONDAY 24TH JUNE Battersea

WEDNESDAY 1OTH JULY Perivale

Come and join us. Great fun & comaraderie, all welcome, don’t be shy! Lifts available for the Battersea fixtures. For more information contact the team managers:

Mens team – Jason Steel – jsteel7@hotmail.com
Womens team – Maria Hernandez-Humm- hacmhh@outlook.com

Following a request to publish the dates of HAC Management Committee Meetings at the AGM the next meeting will be held on Monday 29th April. In addition to the usual standing items, including Treasurer and Secretary reports and feedback from the various sub committees, we will also review the recent Hillingdon 20 and discuss the clubhouse refurbishment.

Well done to all who competed in the Wilkie Mile on Thursday 18th April. Results are as follows:

Watchless Guess Your Time

Many thanks to the officials Gavin Collett, Phil Welch, Anna Talbot and Phil Warburton.

The results for the first 5k training race of 2019 are as follows:

Many thanks to Officials Andy Torrance, Gavin Collett and Phil Welch.

Thanks also extended to Freya Hollingsworth and Dan Thompson for feeding over 50 hungry runners and to Paul Cuddihy for hosting the quiz.

The next 5k training race is Thursday 9th May.

The next club fixture is the Wilkie Mile on Thursday 18th April at Kings College Track, further details can be found earlier on this website or on the clubhouse noticeboards. Following the race there will be a bring and share buffet at the clubhouse.

A fantastic team performance at the National 12 Stage Road Relays saw Hillingdon AC record their highest finish in this event for at least 20 years (this is also as far back as I can search on the internet) as the team finished 31st out of 65 complete teams from a restricted entry of 75 teams that qualified for this event via their regional championships, reports Team Manager Paul Leppard.

With a number of very strong runs from various members of the team this was an excellent way to finish the 2018/2019 road and cross country season although disappointingly, I believe our actual finishing position should have been recorded even higher at 29th as the finishing positions of the 12th leg runners for Leeds City B team and Victoria Park Harriers did not tally with the positions observed on the road. I did query the provisional results on this basis but was told that the officials and judges recording sheets had been checked and that they were satisfied that the results are correct and so unless I can find video or photographic evidence, 31st it is.

Regardless of any potential recording error, to finish so high up in a National final is still an excellent result and so congratulations to all involved.

Full results of this event may be found here: https://www.race-results.co.uk/results/2019/nat1219.htm

Met League XC proposals for equal distances.

I have to say I made a mistake in not putting my proposal to the league for short and long mixed races as these are the options on the agenda listed below.

With the league admin throwing her weight behind a proposal to equalise race distances, I’m sure one of these proposals will pass. If more than 1 passes then it’ll get even more interesting.
I have created an online form for any HAC members to complete to give their opinion on the following…
https://fs21.formsite.com/mbatemanhillingdonac…/…/index.html

Spring has arrived and next Thursday 11th April, will be the first 5k training race of the year.

There will be food available and a quiz after the race. This month Paul Cuddihy will be setting the quiz and the meal will be prepared by Freya and Dan, which will be a chilli.

The cost for the meal will be £5 and there will be veg and non veg options. If you would like food, please sign up either on Facebook or at the Clubhouse. They need final numbers by next Tuesday as Freya and Dan will need time to prepare the meal.

Please support your club events.