This year TAC had 3 representing the WMids area - Aidan, Sophie Worrall(Long Jump- 5.15m ) and Hayley Butler (Pole Vault - 3m)

The Telford track star began his cascade of medal-winning runs with a bronze medal in the 400m. Rubenis was previously a 100m sprinter but has moved up to 400m this year. In July he broke the British Masters Championship record for 400m with 49.87 seconds, coming away with the gold.

Representing Great Britain at the World Championships, he won his quarter- and semi-final rounds comfortably in 50.99 and 50.07.

The Final
“I was very nervous but when the gun went I just focused on what I needed to do”, said Rubenis after the race. “I knew I had a chance of a medal but I also knew I would probably have to run quicker than I had previously done this year. I can’t remember a lot from the final, apart from coming into the home straight I was battling for the silver medal, but with 30 metres to go I just lost touch of second and crossed the line in third place in a time of 49.43 seconds.

“I was so tired as I had given everything but I was over the moon as I knew I had became World bronze medallist. I was so happy to stand on the podium with a world medal around my neck.”

Gold for Great Britain
Telford Athletic Club had three top-class athletes at the World Championships, and in the 4x100m relay Rubenis teamed up with fellow Telford athlete Jim Tipper, a member of the 4x100m relay team which set the Masters world record in 2007. Being from a 100m background, Rubenis found himself at home on the sprint relay team and ran last leg for the British squad, who were hoping for a bronze medal. Rubenis got the baton in second place, but quickly overtook the leaders and was leading almost straight after taking the baton. During his leg the veteran sprinter raced ahead of the opposition to finish almost an entire second in front of the runners-up, in a time of 43.60.

Unlike in the 4x100m, in the 4x400m Great Britain was favourite for gold. It was a close race between the British and the Italian teams, but the Great Britain squad kept its composure and in the end just pulled ahead of Italy for the second gold relay medal. Their winning time, 3 minutes 22.71 seconds, broke the British Record by a massive 8 seconds.

2 August saw the final meeting of the 2009 Midland Senior League, hosting by Birmingham Rowheath. The other clubs in the League are Halesowen, Wolverhampton & Bilston, Yate & District, and Tipton Harriers. On points, the men’s team came first and the women’s team fifth, with Telford AC coming third in the overall points.

Beth Partridge (TAC)

Ben Simons, Telford’s fastest new sprinter, faced the English School’s 110m hurdles bronze medallist Alex Nwenwu from Wolverhampton and Midland under-20 200m champion David Lima in the 100m. Ben won in a time of 10.8 seconds, behind Lima (10.9) and Nwenwu (11.0). Santino Dummett, the Welsh Junior bronze-medallist, won the b-string for Telford in a time of 11.1 seconds.

The other two double-wins were in the throws. Ian Taylor won the a-string shot putt with a distance of 12.00m, and Jamie Wilkinson won the b-string with 11.45m. The next furthest throw in both strings was 10.63, showing Telford’s dominance in the event. The other double-win was in the javelin, where James Hopley, with a throw of 61.23m, and Jamie Wilkinson with a throw of 50.02, easily beat the other club’s competitors. The next furthest throw was 44.09m, far behind the distance thrown by Telford athletes.

Ian Taylor and Jamie Wilkinson both put in tremendous effort over the day- Jamie went in four events, coming first in the shot putt and javelin, second in the discus with 27.89, and third in the hammer with 18.93. Ian Taylor, one of Telford’s star athletes, won all three of the a-string events he competed in- the shot putt, the discus with a throw of 43.57, and the hammer with a throw of 38.17. In each event, he won by a huge margin over the rival athletes.

Two athletes put in just as much effort for the club. Helen Ferguson came out of retirement to compete in the women’s hurdles races. In the 100m hurdles b-string she came fourth with a time of 20.9, and in the 400m hurdles a-string she came sixth in 89.1 seconds. Malcolm Dawes Jnr. was asked to do the 110m hurdles at the last moment and won the b-string race in a time of 19.2. Malcolm also won the 400m hurdles b-string with a time of 61.1 and came third in the a-string high jump with a jump of 1.70.

Telford also asked several of its young athletes to compete for them. Bethan Partridge, a member of the England Senior squad and ranked a clear first in the UK for her under-20’s age group, won the high jump effortlessly with a 1.75m clearance. Laura Gibbons achieved an impressive PB of 13.1 seconds while coming third in the b-string 100m and looked very impressive during the 4x100m relay on third leg, and Sophie Worrall won the 400m b-string in 62.4 seconds. Hayley Rubery came joint-first in the a-string pole vault with 2.80m and came third in the a-string discus with 31.87. Sophie, Laura and Hayley are each in the under-17’s age group.

Telford were favourite to win both men’s relays, but sadly didn’t quite pull off victories in either. Telford won the 100m a- and b-strings, and had two other experienced sprinters completing its 4x100m team. Pete Whitehouse ran a fast first leg to hand it to Telford’s star sprinter Ben Simons. Telford were leading the race until the start of the final bend, where there was confusion on the ‘go’ signal and the changeover to Santino Dummett was ruined, allowing other teams to pass. Santino ran the bend, overtaking some teams that had overtaken and handed it over to Ben Riekstins, an English School’s 200m finalist, who ran the anchor leg. Telford finished fourth due to a mistimed hand-off on the final changeover, which cost the team more valuable time.

In the 4x400m relay, Telford again looked to produce another exciting last-second victory, having won most of its 4x400m relays this year. Mike Dickens, Telford’s second-ranked senior 200m runner this year, ran a solid first leg before handing it off to Pete Arnold near the front of a high-standard field. Pete worked hard to stay in second place and handed the baton to Ben Riekstins. Ben went off fast and pulled into first and continued to increase the gap, but fatigue set in coming off the final bend and the experienced Tipton, Yate and Halesowen athletes slipped past, putting Telford in fourth. Ben handed over to Toby Birtwhistle, Shropshire’s best junior 400m runner, who couldn’t quite make up the ground on the Halesowen athlete, crossing the line fourth.

For most athletes, this would be the last event before the Telford Games. Overall, the men came first and the women fifth, giving a combined placing of third. Telford were relegated after this final league meeting, but with just seven more points it would have been Yate & District that would be relegated.

Telford AC Results

Overall- Men’s 1st, 191; Women’s 5th, 141.5; Combined 3rd, 347.5.

By Tino Dummett

The rival teams for Telford were Wolverhampton & Bilston, Tamworth, Derby, City of Stoke and Team Arrows.

Many Telford athletes won their competitions, and others obtained new lifetime bests. Chloe Murphy, asked to run for Telford almost every week, achieved a PB in the 800m b-string and the 3000m, winning both. She ran 2 minutes 33.8 for the 800m and 11’51.6 in the 3000m. She was also in the javelin, in which we threw 24.91m for third place.

The other successful female athletes included Bethan Partridge, Telford’s best female athlete, who won the high jump and triple jump by large margins. She cleared 1.74m in the high jump and jumped for 11.29m in the triple. Hayley Rubery, who is in the under-17’s age group, won the women’s pole vault with a height of 2.90 as well as coming third in the discus with 29.94 and second in the javelin b-string with 23.16.

Amelia Reynolds won the b-string competition in 2 of her 3 events. In her first ever 3000m race, she won the b-string in 12’07.9. She won the discus b-string with a throw of 25.74, and came second in the shot-putt b-string with 8.95m.

In the men’s competition, two athletes won their a-string events. Malcolm Dawes won the 400m hurdles by more than 4 seconds, with a time of 65.0. Santino Dummett won the 200m in 22.9 seconds, and also came second in the 100m with a time of 11.3. The times were very slow because there was a strong headwind at the track.
In the 200m b-string, Ben Riekstins won comfortably with a time of 23.9, which was potentially much faster were it not for the headwind at the track. Ben also won the b-string 400m in a time of 54.0. Toby Birtwhistle came second in the a-string 400m with a time of 52.1, and also won the b-string 100m with a time of 12.3.

Other athletes that did well are Cerian Lancaster, who came second in the 800m with a time of 2’31.6. Malcolm Dawes, the winner of the 400m hurdles, also came second in the high jump with 1.75 and third in the 110m hurdles with 18.0. Danny Baeriswyl came third in the javelin with 39.38, and fourth in the hammer with 22.50.

Telford AC’s MVP Pete Arnold traveled to London to watch Bolt in action...

“TAC club members Peter Arnold and Phil Shotton attended the recent Norwich Union Grand Prix at Crystal Palace accompanied by Wolves and Bilston 2007 Midlands silver Medalist Ross Edgely.
The race officals never approached Pete or Phil to run (lucky for Tyson gay and Usain Bolt who were in attendance, they shivered when they heard Telford's finest were in the stadium). So the boys had to make do with spectating.
The obvious attraction was Usain Bolt who ran 9.8 for the 100m and Tyson Gay's 20.0 in the 200. Other stand out performers included Dwight Philips in the Long jump, Martyn Rooney and Michael Bingham lined up against Angelo Taylor in the 400m .... Not to mentions Pete's favourite athlete Alyson Felix who stepped down from the 200 to compete in the 100m.

In true Telford AC style our boys ventured into to crystal place to sample the nightlife and what other attractions were on offer, apart from the star studded track line up.... Pete and Phil highly recommend the Black Sheep bar for a good beer and show what dance combinations you have.

It was a great weekend and they boys would highly recommend all to see that man that has changed the face of athletics and get involved in the carnival atmosphere that he generates. If that’s not enough a cold pint in your hand always helps.

Hopefully this trip will have inspired two of TAC's most dedicated athletes to great things over the winter and next season.... Watch this space!”

The meeting, known as the 10 in 100 Cup, holds 10 track and field events in 100 minutes. Other clubs vying for qualification into the finals were Rugby & Northampton AC, Tamworth AC, Shrewsbury AC and D.A.S.H. (Dudley and Stourbridge Harriers).

Of the 10 men’s events, 4 were won by Telford. The most exciting of these was probably the 400m, won by Richard Rubenis, who recently became the UK gold-medallist over 400m in his veteran age-group. He let Jamie Downes of the Rugby & Northampton team lead for the first 300m, before exploding down the home straight to end the race metres clear at the finish line, with a time of 50.1 seconds.
In the 100m, Santino Dummett won convincingly with a new personal best time of 10.8 seconds, far clear of the rest of the field, including some highly-ranked athletes within the Midlands. Chris Carter took a victory with ease in the 1500m, finishing with a time of 4 minutes, 8.6 seconds. In the discus, Telford’s star thrower Ian Taylor threw comfortably further than the nearest competitor, with a distance of 44.81 metres. The Telford women’s team victory came from the young Sophie Worrall, jumping an impressive 5.60 metres despite only being in the under-17’s age group.

In the men’s long jump, Ben Cocker’s furthest jump of 6.03 was wrested from the top place by just three centimetres by D.A.S.H.’s Alistair Gamble. In the 200m, Ben Riekstins led with a promising bend but was piqued at the post, coming in second place less than half a second behind the winner. In the medley relay, consisting of a 200m, 200m, 400m, 400m instead of the normal 4x400m, Telford were trailing after the fast Rugby & Northampton won the first lap, with the two 200m legs. Pete Arnold did all he could to draw the leaders closer before handing it to Ben Riekstins on fourth leg, but the lead would prove to be too much for the Telford team, who finished second in the race.

Telford were 2nd in the men’s points and 3rd in the women’s, with 146 points overall, and were just beaten by Tamworth who had more overall points with 154. Though neither Telford team won and qualified for the BAL Cup final, the men’s team’s second place finishing qualified them to compete in the BAL ‘plate’ match, held on the same date as the Cup final.

The League division sees Telford AC face off against City of Stoke, Derby AC, Wolverhampton & Bilston AC, Tamworth AC and Team Arrows. The Junior League is for athletes in the under-20 age group.

The best performance of the day for Telford was probably that of the 4x400m relay team, consisting of James Wilkins, Phil Shotton, Ben Riekstins and Tobi Birtwhistle. After an excellent first leg run by James Wilkins, Phil Shotton took the lead early on the second leg and ran a very fast 400m. The team continued to pull away from its closest rival, Wolverhampton, after a spectacular run by Ben Riekstins on third leg forging a gap between Telford and the rest that would prove impossible to overcome. The race finished with Shropshire’s best young 400m runner Toby Birtwhistle ultimately finishing streaks ahead of the rival relay teams for the win.

The 100m featured two highly celebrated athletes, Liam Clowes of City of Stoke, and Doniel Dennis of Wolverhampton. Liam Clowes is currently ranked number one in his age group in the UK for 200m, and Doniel Dennis ran in the World Youth Games last year in the 100m. Clowes won the race in 10.9 seconds, followed closely by Judah Simpson of Derby who ran a Lifetime Best of 11.0. Dennis was third with 11.0, with Telford’s fastest sprinter finishing fourth with 11.1. The B-race was won by one of Telford’s brightest young sport stars Mitchell Jenderko of Telford, who achieved his own Lifetime Best of 11.4. The win was even more incredible because Mitchell is just 14 years old, competing against under-20’s.

Telford had a clean sweep in the women’s 800m, with Jessica Bailey winning the A-race by a huge margin, and Chloe Murphy winning the B-race. Their times were 2 minutes 24.8 seconds, and 2 minutes 40.0 seconds respectively. Chloe showed great versatility by also winning the 3000m, and competing in the javelin.
Another clean sweep for Telford was in the men’s Javelin, where Danny Baeriswyl and Rob Miller both threw further than all other competitors. They threw 44.74 and 44.17, both almost 3 metres ahead of the next furthest.

Bethan Partridge of Telford, an English School’s gold medallist, effortlessly won the high jump, jumping 1.73 metres, almost 20cm higher than her closest competitor. Bethan also won the triple jump with a new Lifetime Best of 11.92, again beating her nearest rival by a huge margin.
Congratulations to the many Telford athletes who gained new Personal Bests, and well done to the multitude of athletes who put in tremendous effort for Telford athletic club.