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2022-09-30-accounts

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Swansea Harriers Athletics Club Annual Report 2022

Foreword

This year, the 60[th] in the club’s history, has been one in which the club has been making every effort to return to normality after the disruptions of Covid. Our membership numbers are gradually returning to somewhere close to what they were after dropping by over two hundred. Unfortunately, many of our volunteers, coaches and officials have decided to call it a day causing problems in staffing coaching sessions and providing officials at matches. So, we have to strive to replace them as soon as possible. Whilst most U.K. and Area Leagues returned there was no Welsh Senior League competition and an effort to have a Welsh Junior League with a Multi Event approach failed to get off the ground. Worryingly, as yet there is no news of any Senior or Junior Welsh Leagues being organised for 2023.

The club had many outstanding team and individual performances during the year. Joe Brier, Hannah Brier, Jonathan Hopkins and Dewi Griffiths took part in The Commonwealth Games. Joe also took part in Europe and World Championships. Josh Griffiths was also a competitor at The World Championships. The club had some outstanding team results in The Welsh Cross Country and Road Relay Championships winning many medals at Senior and various Age Groups. On the track as well as winning many individual Welsh Championship Medals at all ages our Senior Team finished in 10[th] Place retaining their status In the National Athletics League Premier Division. Our Under20/17 Team reached The Area Final of The Youth Development League. It was good to be able to celebrate our successes with the staging once more of an Awards Evening where some awards for 2021 and 2022 were presented. 12 Club Records were broken in the year which ended on 31[st] December and will be recognised at a future event with the presentation of framed prints. Other ways in which the club encourages members is by the presentation to Junior Athletes of Gold Awards for those who reach a standard between AAA Grade 1 and 2, Certificates for those attaining Grades 1, 2, 3 or 4, Boxed Medals for Juniors who represent the club in 75% or more League matches as well as Trophies for best individual athletes in different age groups. A new club Competition for Senior Distance athletes has been introduced this year and has made a good start.

There are major plans for the development of the facilities at the University Playing Fields and the club has been consulted about their ideas. We look forward to seeing the future plans.

We have been fortunate in having such an excellent University Staff and we are most grateful for their help and excellent care of the grounds and buildings.

Our grateful thanks are due to the many people who have helped our club which is the largest Athletics Club in Wales and one of the largest in The U.K. Our Trustees or as they were known Committee, Coaches, Team Managers, Officials, Café Staff and the various individuals responsible for sections of the club such as The Membership Secretary and Fund Raisers. We are grateful to ex club athlete Paul Evans for sponsoring the club during the year and continuing again in 2023 in memory of his parents Gwilym and Pat Evans who were outstanding servants of Swansea Harriers and Welsh Athletics in so many ways and over

many years and are greatly missed. My very best wishes to all athletes and the volunteers who help in so many ways for an enjoyable and successful 2023.

Barrie Owen

Club President

OBITUARY

We were sad to learn in December of the death of Owen Hedges who was one of our long serving and dedicated Senior Sprint Coaches. Owen was a dedicated coach turning up to all sprint training sessions always outdoors no matter what the weather. He had his own unique sense of humour which endeared him to the many athletes he coached and watched perform at many venues over the years. He was given a Meritorious Award by Welsh Athletics for his 37 years’ service. Our deepest sympathy and thoughts are with his daughter Diann and family at this sad time.

Secretary’s Report 2022

As Club Secretary I am in the very fortunate position of being able to read all the other contributions to this Annual Report prior to penning my own thoughts for the year – thus giving me an opportunity to capture some of the key themes that have emerged in 2022. Firstly, the club is emerging from the impact of covid in relatively good health. The number of athlete members is growing month on month. Despite losing some significant coaches and officials, we are maintaining a coaching structure which enables our junior athletes to develop a broad-based skill and technical knowledge prior to joining the specialist sessions which are available across all athlete disciplines.

The decline in official numbers and expertise is a UK wide issue and challenge, and although we have similar challenges, when you attend junior and senior matches we deliver on our

quota of required officials, and you feel we are particularly blessed with a dedicated and expert group of officials which many other clubs do not have.

Our senior athlete track and field team continues to compete at the highest level in the UK, with a very good balance of home-grown athletes and others drawn to the club because of our premiership status or having moved to the area to study or work. It is really pleasing to see some of our recent junior athletes, such as Bronwen and Megan Stratton Thomas, and older juniors such as Joe Beresford and Tiffany Rees making such a significant contribution to the success of the senior team.

The overall volunteer base of the club, so essential to its success, remains strong as is our determination to attract more helpers across the range of activities to sustain our development.

Hopefully as a club we are also aware of our challenges and future development needs to sustain our position as the largest and most diverse club (in terms of age range and activity) in Wales.

Other contributors to the annual report have highlighted the many successes achieved by our athletes this year across all age groups. A dedicated masters report is a welcome addition to this year’s report.

As always, we must pay tribute to all our athletes and thank the many club members who volunteer is such a wide range of ways to sustain our success. It is always a privilege to be associated with Swansea Harriers and I know everyone is determined to ensure 2023 is further evidence that the club is fully recovering from the effects of the pandemic.

Tony Clements Club Secretary

Senior Men’s Track & Field 2022

In 2022 we saw the inaugural season of the National Athletics League proper, organised on a “National” basis, albeit the fixtures were heavily biased in favour of the Southern clubs. The Premiership consisted of 16 clubs, and we were allocated to a sub-group of 4 which included Woodford Green, Cardiff, and Southampton. The first 3 fixtures were organised on a roundrobin basis with each of the other 3 groups, with the grand finals in Bedford.

The first match was in Cardiff where we finished 5[th] overall which was a reasonable performance considering the high standard of competition. There were some excellent performances. In the Shot, Pat Swan won the A event with a Pb of 17m60 to beat the UK No 2, Youcef Zatat, who threw 17m49. Dan Cork won the B event with a throw of 15m62. In the Pole Vault, Tom Walley cleared 5m10 to finish 2[nd] . Dewi Griffiths made a welcome return to the track to finish 2[nd] in the 5000m with a time of 14.34.62. The only disappointing feature was that we failed to cover all events in both A & B, which was not surprising given that we had not had full League competition for several years. The net result was that we finished a few points behind Cardiff on the day – this was to prove costly later in the season.

The overall quality in the 2[nd] match at Eton was slightly lower but the Southern team certainly benefited from “home” advantage to fill the top three positions. We were missing athletes through injury and international commitments and as result could only finish 6[th] for the combined team. Mitchell Lawrence put in an excellent individual performance in the Long Jump to jump 7m14 – this was his first time over 7m. There was a controversial decision to not award us the full amount of officials’ points. This was despite having the required number of officials but unfortunately no designated timekeeper. This was a harsh decision and effectively lost us a place on the day……. and subsequently a place in the A final!

The third match was in Woodford and for me it was a return to where I started my athletics career many, many years before. I thought we put up an excellent combined team performance despite missing many athletes through illness. Overall, we finished 4[th] on the day maybe because there were only 2 Southern teams in the match. Tom Walley leapt to a lifetime best of 5m21 to win the Pole Vault ably advised by veteran, Glyn Price who was also in the competition. Kris Jones flew in from the World Orienteering Championships to win the 5000m with Guy Smith winning the B. Pat Swan once again won the Shot competition with his brother, Connor, winning the B Javelin with a throw of 52m10.

So, after three matches we were tied on 12 League points with Trafford who qualified for the A final because of having more match points. As a result, the Plate final was a bit of an anti-climax, although relegation to the Championship was still a possibility. In the final at Bedford, we once again put up a good, combined team performance to finish 4[th] on the day and as a result 10[th] in the final table to secure a place in the Premiership for another season. Individually there were some excellent performances. Osaze Aghedo won the triple jump with a leap of 14m15, and young Charlie Brown won the B 110mH in what was his first

season over the Senior hurdles. The Shot putters (Pat Swan and Dan Cork) once again came up with the goods to win their competitions.

Special thanks to Tom Walley, Glyn Price, Jack Houghton, Joe Beresford, and Pat Swan who competed in all 4 League matches. Looking forward to the 2023 season, the number of fixtures has been reduced from 4 to 3 due to a clash with Charles’ coronation! As a result, it

will be a straight 3 matches with no Finals weekend.

David Jones

NAL Men’s Team Manager Senior Women’s Track and Field 2022

2022 was my first season as team manager for the senior women’s team. It was also the first season since 2019 that we were able to return to a nationally structured National Athletics League. We competed as part of the Premiership League, which consisted of sixteen clubs organised on a round robin basis for the first three matches and then a grand final in Bedford in August. Our first three matches took us to Cardiff, Eton and Woodford. Cardiff

The first match in Cardiff was very successful, considering the high standard of competition on the day from some of the London clubs. Practically all events were covered, and the team consisted of a very healthy mix of “home-grown” athletes who have come through the age groups with us, newer members, including Swansea University students and higher claim athletes. The sprints events were covered by Hannah Brier, Millie Fakande, Olivia Caesar, Sian Vico and Cerys Vico and the hurdles were very successfully covered by Caryl Granville (captain), Lauryn Davey and Stefani Karekla. The middle distance and longer events were covered by Bronwen Stratton Thomas, Carys Jones, Sophia Harrison, Sioned Howells and Llinos Jones. Our jumpers were Danielle Hopkins, Ellie Rose Isaac, Charlotte Campion, Caryl Granville, Carys Jones and Millie Carter and our throwers were Lauryn Davy, Danielle Hopkins, Catherine Collins, Zoe Dakin, and Chloe Jones. It was a truly excellent combined team effort on the day from the men and the women, with the women’s team finishing in fourth place. Athlete of the match went to Caryl Granville for dusting off her jumping spikes and putting up a very competitive effort – great commitment and determination from our captain!

Eton

Eton was a slightly more challenging match for us as we were missing some of our athletes due to international commitments elsewhere and a few injuries. However, once again we

saw a truly committed group of female athletes pulling it together to keep us out of danger of relegation. The Southern clubs were very strong as expected and took full advantage of the match being held on their doorstep. For this match we were pleased to add the following athletes to the team, and they made an excellent contribution – Kate Roberts, Caitlyn Mapps, Tiffany Rees, Emily Collins, Macey Morris, Jemima Antoniazzi, Emily Thomas, and Emily Jenkinson. Once again, the females finished fourth overall and the way that they pulled together, covering events, fighting for the line and getting those throws and jumps in was truly inspirational. Athlete of the match was awarded to Emily Collins for covering so many events that she was unfamiliar with and being such a fantastic club athlete on the day.

Woodford

The third match at Woodford turned out to be a bit a nightmare for the senior women. There was a clash with the Welsh Schools Championships, which took out many of our Under 20 athletes, and we were also struck by Covid, injuries and other illnesses, which wiped out a lot of the team and me as team manager. However, we were very well represented by the “Magnificent Seven,” who kept us afloat, namely Millie Fakande, Stefanie Karekla, Lili Church, Tiffany Rees, Beca Roberts, Zoe Dakin and Cerys Thomas. What a team they were on the day, covering as much as they physically could between them. We finished fourth overall, thanks to the men team, who obviously saved the day with a much stronger and larger team. Thankfully, the other clubs were also significantly weaker on the day. Athlete of the match was awarded to Millie Fakande for competing in five events and still managing to achieve two personal best performances.

Bedford

We went into the final at Bedford in a fairly strong position, but the danger of relegation still loomed over us. However, an excellent combined effort between the men’s and women’s teams saw us finish fourth overall in the Plate Final and tenth overall, out of the top sixteen clubs in Britain, hence securing our place in the Premiership for 2023. Additions to the team for this match included Megan Carter Davies, Darcie Bass, Megan Stratton Thomas. Athlete of the match went to Sophia Harrison who volunteered herself for practically anything and everything to get those precious points for the team. She also came away with a few personal best performances as a reward for her efforts.

In total, 35 individual female athletes competed for the club in the National Athletes League in 2022. Whether they managed one match or all four matches, every point counted, and the club are extremely grateful to each and every one of them. Just imagine what we would be capable of achieving if we got them all out together.

Special thanks go to Dave Jones (men’s team manager) for supporting me in my first season, all the coaches who supported me and helped to put my teams together, most notably Kevin Tobin and Phil War, (Cardiff Archers), who has always pointed higher claim athletes in our direction and the athletes themselves and their supporters.

Best wishes to all as we look forward to 2023 with three straight matches and no final in Bedford. Our captain will be Caryl Granville once again, now known as Caryl Moore and our vice captains will be Olivia Caesar and Millie Fakande.

Lynne Brier NAL Senior Women’s Team Manager

2022 - 2023 Cross-Country Report

The Welsh Cross-country championships were held in Pembrey Country Park last February (2022). The club had some notable successes. Our senior women won the team title at a canter with 5 in the first 10 and Caryl Edwards coming second. Our senior men were well beaten into second place with Dewi Griffiths, recovering from injury, our top placed runner.

Our junior athletes, as always, represented the club by winning individual gold medals for Ella Drew (U11G), Libby Hale (U13G). Our U17M team won team gold as did the U13G In last month’s (Nov 22) Welsh Inter-regional championships in Brecon there were wins for Ella Davies ((U20W) and Andrew Cleverly (VM35).

In March the club hosted the last fixture of the 2021/22 winter season in Singleton Park following much last-minute negotiation with the local council. Thanks to Nigel Jones for his invaluable help and all the many helpers who marshalled and set-up the course. Overall, our Gwent League teams finished: - U11B 5th. U11G 2[nd] . U13B 19[th] . U13G 3[rd] . U15B 12[th] . U15G 4[th] . U17M 2[nd] . U17W 6[th] . SM 9[th] . SW 9[th] .

The 2022/23 cross-country season began with the combined John H Collins Gwent League and UKA Cross-challenge in Cardiff on the 15[th] of October 2022. There have been two more Gwent League fixtures this winter, namely Bristol 12[th] of November and Pembrey on the 3[rd ] of December. The Pembrey fixture was a combined West Wales Championship event where our senior women finished 1[st ] (Sioned Howells), 2[nd] . (Gemma Tutton) and 3[rd] (Sofia Harrison) The U15 Girls also won all the medals with Chloe Hartley-Green, Ava Davies and Mollie Peirce, this in spite of Libby Hale not competing.

Libby had another record-breaking season winning the Welsh title, Inter-regional and the Cardiff Cross title. Chasing higher level competition Libby has continued appearing at UKA Cross Challenge events recently finishing fourth in Liverpool. Remarkable, considering she has only just moved up to the U15G age group. Our current team positions in the Gwent League after three fixtures are: - U11B 4[th] U11G 17[th] U13B 9[th ] U13G 4[th] U15B 28[th] U15G 1[st] U17M 8[th] . U17W 6[th] U20 6[th] . U20W 7 SM 9[th] SW 6[th]

The fourth Gwent League fixture in Margam Park on the 11[th.] February 2023 is being hosted by Swansea Harriers. The usual team of club volunteers will be needed

The only West Glamorgan League race taken place this winter was in Gnoll Park where we had senior women and senior men winners, (Sioned Howells and Matt Harvey). The second event hosted by Tri Hard Harriers in Singleton Park was again cancelled by the council. An alternative fixture has yet to be re-arranged.

Thanks as always go to our team managers and helpers without whom we would not be able to field teams in all the age groups. Many of our team managers look after several teams and, also compete themselves.

2022/23 Team Managers

Jenny McAdie, Penny Gruffydd, Julie Hartley-Green, Kay Fox, Tony Clements, Brian Fox

Brian Fox

Cross Country Secretary

Road Running Report 2022

While we were unable to get our strongest team together for a variety of reasons, the Harriers finished a very respectable 7[th] of the 62 competing teams in the UK road relay championships at Sutton Park in April. Dewi Griffiths, still feeling his way back after injury, was our fastest long leg runner and Morgan Davies our quickest over the short leg, just a second quicker than teenager Finley Hines, who made a most impressive debut. Sadly, despite everybody’s best efforts, we were unable to get a women’s six-stage team together because of illness and injury, which was a great disappointment for the four who were very keen to go.

The Welsh road relays brought further success for the senior men and women. The men were comfortable winners ahead of Pontypridd Roadents thanks to the efforts of Marc Hobbs, Dan Rothwell, Dewi Griffiths and Jon Butler, with Dewi easily fastest of the day. There was an excellent 4[th] place for the B team, which featured a welcome return from America by Jac Hopkins. Matt Harvey, Guy Smith, and Jack Turner were the other team members

Our team of Sioned Howells, Kate Roberts, Ella Davies and Sophia Harrison also had an excellent win in the senior women’s race. Unfortunately, the Welsh Athletics timing system failed to function accurately in this event, but the likelihood is that Kate and Sioned were third and fourth fastest of the day.

We also had success in the age-group events. There was a second place for the under-13 girls (Hannah Hartley-Green, Taylor Shelmerdine, Georgie Davies, and Ella Drew) with Taylor third fastest of the day and Georgie fourth fastest. The Under-15 girls went one better winning gold medals thanks to Millie Pierce, Libby Hale, and Ava Davies. Libby, despite being right at the bottom end in age terms was second fastest and Millie third fastest overall.

In the older age groups, the women’s over-35 team took third place and there was an excellent win in the over-45s with a team comprising Diane Brownhill, Helen-Marie Davies and Rachel Allcock. Helen-Marie was comfortably fastest with Diane third fastest. There were medals also for the over-55 men’s team of Ifan Lloyd, Paul Flynn and Paul Llewellyn, who finished second with Ifan, very much at the top of the age group, running second fastest time.

George Edwards

Swansea Harriers Masters 2022

Just as with all other aspects of athletics in Wales, it was difficult, if not impossible, to organise events for Masters until the lockdown restrictions were lifted. For many, a trip to England was necessary to begin competitions for the year.

In February, this included Simon Brewer, who ran for Wales in the Inter Area Cross Country at Wallsend, Tyne & Wear, finishing 7[th] M50.

Paul Flynn and Peter Roberts went quite a bit further – to Braga in Portugal for the European Masters Indoor and Winter Throws Championships. Paul ran the 3000, and Peter just missed a medal, finishing 4[th] in the M50 Discus.

March brought the British Masters Indoor Championships at Lee Valley. David Marginson and Chris Pruski returned with gold medals, Peter Roberts with silver.

The greatest efforts in March, though, were surely those of Ifan Lloyd. On the twelfth he went to Tonbridge in Kent to win the M60 title at the British Masters Cross Country Championships. The following day he turned up at Lee Valley to run the 1500 in the Inter Area match, finishing third. Your reporter would rather draw a veil over the M60 200 at that meeting but will admit to enjoying the anchor leg of the 4x200 relay!

In June, the British Masters Championships were held in Derby. Chris Pruski picked up a silver in the M65 javelin, breaking the Welsh Masters record in the process.

The following month saw the World Masters Championships in Tampere, Finland, where Glyn Price won the silver medal in the M55 pole vault.

On 20[th] July, Welsh Masters managed to overcome the difficulties of the lockdown-induced late start, which affected the availability of tracks and officials, what turned out to be the sole Masters League of the year was hosted at the Swansea track. Swansea Harriers who won on the night included Mike Gleeson, Matthew Gilbert, Peter Roberts, Robert Denzil Jones, and Daphne Marler.

July ended with the Inter Area match at Nuneaton. Glyn Price won the M50 pole vault and was 3[rd] in the high jump. Your reporter was 2[nd] in the M60 long jump. Peter Roberts was 2[nd] in the M50 shot, and David Jones 6[th] in the M70 equivalent. Peter was also 3[rd] in the discus and 5[th] in the hammer.

After an August break, September began with the Welsh Masters Championships at Aberdare. The list of champions from Swansea Harriers was: Wyn Roberts (M35 100), Matthew Gilbert (M40 200), Owen Davies (M45 800 & 1500), Gareth Robbins (M40 800), Diane Brownhill (W50 1500), Robin Wood (M55 long jump & triple jump), your reporter (M65 long jump), Daphne Marler (W75 long jump, triple jump & hammer), Chris Berry (M65 shot & hammer), Renate Prells (W65 weight throw, discus & hammer).

With the track season ended, attention turned to the country, and especially the British & Irish Masters Cross Country International, held in Dublin in November. Llinos Jones, Andrew Cleverly and Simon Lewis ran for Wales.

It’s fair to say that after a slow start the Masters’ year finished strongly. A bit like my 100 at Aberdare.

Rod Davies

Coaching 2022

My sincere thanks and gratitude to all the active volunteer coaches in Swansea Harriers for all their efforts during 2022, successfully getting the club coaching across all running, jumping and throwing disciplines on and off track going again, now that the worst of C19 is very much behind us. I am very proud of what the volunteer coaching team have achieved again this year. I’d like to thank all the club coaches for all their dedication, continued help, teamwork and cooperation and for giving up so much of their free time to come and volunteer at the club on a regular basis, your support is really appreciated and much needed.

After losing the help of a significant number of qualified volunteer coaches over 2020 & 2021, we are now in the process of trying to rebuild the number of active volunteer coaches in the club. We currently have over 60 UK Athletics qualified coaches that are volunteering each week, some once a week and some as many as four times a week as much as their own personal circumstances allow. At time of writing, we have over 550 registered athletes and this is highly likely to gradually keep increasing, therefore we will need to try to continue to recruit more volunteers to become qualified coaches and cater for this vast array of athletes.

It is a major undertaking to be able to offer coaching to excess of 550 members of all abilities and ages in every athletics discipline, with sessions being delivered 7 days a week not just on the main club nights. The club are very, very lucky to still have appropriately UKA qualified, experienced, and dedicated volunteer coaches across all event disciplines. As well as the club

being one of the largest in Wales, it also quite unique in that, the club has athletes across all age groups from U11 to Masters, competing in all running, jumping and throwing disciplines, on and off track, with athletes of all abilities. As mentioned above, our main challenge and objective during 2023 is not only to retain, but to support, develop and upskill our volunteer coaching team so that they can become more independent and have the self-confidence as well as appropriate qualifications to deliver higher quality sessions as the club rebuilds for the future.

It has been pleasing to have 2 coaches pass the UKA Coaching Assistant qualification, however only one of the coaches who were undertaking the Athletics Coach course have completed their training.

With the continued huge interest and increase in numbers of participants in the U11, U13 & U15 age groups it is essential that more parents continue to come forward to volunteer and undertake formal UKA Coaching Assistant Qualifications within the club introductory groups, in an attempt to have as effective coaching ratios as possible. As they progress along the clubs coaching structure and pathway, we can then maintain these introductory group sessions.

The club now has four long established satellite clubs for children in school year 4 and below that are too young to join the club which provide fantastic opportunities and grounding in the fundamentals of running, jumping and throwing aiding a smoother transition into the club. However, each year this has results in well over 100 primary aged children wanting to start with the club each October is what are already oversubscribed sessions.

Another continuing challenge is that there are fewer coaching assistants willing and available to step into senior coaches’ shoes by establishing their own groups. However, the club hopes that more of the newer Coaching Assistants that have started with us in the last few years will have the confidence to go on and establish their own groups away from the junior introductory squads, of which several of them are more than capable of doing so.

Andrew Jenkins Coaching Coordinator

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