Telford AC men’s team came second in The British Athletic League (BAL) Cup Semi-final, held in Tamworth on 18th July, with the women’s team coming third.

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.

Telford AC results:
Malcolm Dawes, 400m hurdles, 2nd, 61.4
Dale Wilkinson, 800m, 4th, 2’09.5
Richard Rubenis, 400m, 1st, 50.1
Ben Riekstins, 200m, 2nd, 23.8
Santino Dummett, 100m, 1st, 10.8
Chris Carter, 800m, 1st, 4’08.6
Men’s Medley Relay Team: Pete Arnold, Michael Dickens, Ben Riekstins, Santino Dummett, 2nd, 2’31.7
Chloe Murphy, 800m, 4th, 2’40.3
Cerian Lancaster, 400m, 3rd, 63.3
Naomi Farquharson, 200m, 29.7
Helen Martin, 100m, 3rd, 13.1
Chloe Murphy, 1500m, 4th, 5’38.9
Women’s Medley Relay Team: Naomi Farquharson, Cerian Lancaster, Helen Martin, Sophie Worrall, 3rd, 3’05.7
Ian Taylor, Discus, 1st, 44.81
Ben Cocker, Long Jump, 2nd, 6.03
Jamie Wilkinson, Shot Put, 4th, 11.16
Sophie Worrall, Long Jump, 1st, 5.60
Becca Fagan, Shot Put, 2nd, 9.87
Naomi Farquharson, High Jump, 4th, 1.20
Jade Fletcher, Discus, 2nd 19.48