Craig Carr won a silver and bronze medal at the British Masters Championships at Lee Valley.

In the M45 200m, Craig ran 24.54 for the 200m to finish 3rd and, in the 400m, he came 2nd with a time of 53.45.

Vici Browning just missed out on a medal in W50 800m, finishing 4th in 2:38.17 and C&S 2nd claim athlete, Lynne Callaghan, won bronze in the W50 400m in 74.50 and silver in the 1500m in 5:26.42.

Congratulations to Ben Allen on a superb silver medal at the National Cross Country Championships at Sedgefield.

Ben was in the leading group of the U17 race from the start and put himself in a great position for a medal as one of three athletes that moved away from the pack as the race progressed. The lead continually changed between Ben and Rory Barclay-Watt from Exeter Harriers but the Exeter athlete moved into the lead in the last 40m and held on to win.

In the same race, Jack Hadley also had a great run, finishing 86th of the 209 finishers whilst in the U15 event, Brandan Smart came a fantastic 30th out of 281 finishers.

Works begin on the new entrance to Rowley Park next Monday (23rd February). The top car park will be out of action which will mean there will be few, if any, available car parking spots on site.

Freedom will be leaving all pedestrian gates around the site open until 9pm and are encouraging anyone using the park to walk in.

Please be mindful of local residents if street parking.

The works are planned to take five weeks.

Katie Burney and Matilda Perry competed in the BUCS Indoor Championships in Sheffield last weekend.

Katie came 5th in her 3000m heat in a time of 10:27.38, just missing out on a place in the final as the top 4 qualified.

In the long jump, Tilly reached the final with a 5.64m jump in her qualifying pool and then jumped 5.79m in the final to finish 5th.

On Saturday, Callum came second in his heat in 1:58.24 to qualify for Sunday's final where he came fifth in 1:59.88.

Sophie also ran in the U20W 200m heats on Sunday, finishing third in 25.99.

Twelve Cannock & Stafford AC athletes have gained selection for the Staffordshire Schools team to compete at the English Schools Championships following their performances at the County School Championships at Betley.

Lila Pearce won the Junior Girls race and Finlay Stanton won the Junior Boys. Henry Orton finished fifth in the same race to also qualify.

In the Intermediate Girls, both Isla Unitt and Katherine Grainger finished in the top eight to secure their places and in the Inter Boys, Charlie Cresswell finished 3rd and Brandan Smart 4th.

Imogen Keay and Elodie Pilsbury qualified in the Senior Girls. Olivia Stamp finished in the qualifying positions but wasn't available for selection. In the Senior Boys, Jack Hadley came second and Luke Cresswell fourth. George Millinchip also gained selection in this age group.

Outside of the selection races, Oliver Roser had an excellent run to win the Year 7 Boys race.

Our Presentation Evening took place at Stafford Rangers FC on Saturday (10th)

During the evening, acknowledgement was given to the following, with apologies for any achievements that may have been missed.

We had a very large number of medal winners at County and Area Championships last season – too many to mention individually but congratulations to everyone who won a medal in those events.

Cross Country and Road

Our Senior Men gained promotion to Division One of the Birmingham and District Cross Country League.

In the North Staffs League which was completed just before Christmas, Lila Pearce won individual gold in the U13 age group and Katherine Grainger finished 3^rd overall in the U15G. Dan Gambrill came 1st in the M35 and our SW just missed out on promotion by finishing third in Division 2.

Eight of our athletes represented Staffordshire at the English Schools Cross Country Championships, Ben Allen, Jack Hadley, Zach Bent, Brandan Smart, Charlie Cresswell, Finlay Stanton, Beth Beeson and Katherine Grainger with Brandan, Charlie and Fin being part of the Staffs JB team who won team gold. The same three athletes also won team gold for Cannock & Stafford in the Midland Road Relay Championships and Fin won an individual silver medal at the Midland Cross Country Championships

In the Masters age groups, Malcolm Eustace was selected to represent England in the British & Irish Masters Cross Country International (as well as a 5k International) and Nina Skilton competed for England in a Representative trail race

Track and Field

In track and field, this year, we had six athletes who represented Staffordshire at the English Schools Track & Field Championships:- Callum Pearson, Ben Allen, Brandan Smart, Finlay Stanton, Sophie Hulse and Joyella Jeffries.

We had six new individual club records in the younger age groups in 2025. Joyella Jeffries in the U17W 300 and 400m, Ben Allen in the U17M 3000m and three for Lila Pearce in the U13G 800, 1200 and 1500m.

We also had four women’s relay teams invited to compete at the National Relay Championships at Alexander Stadium with our U17W 4x300m, U20W and SW 4x100 our SW 4x400 teams taking part and our U17W team of Joyella Jeffries, Larna Watkins, Ella Haycock and Sophie Hulse winning gold and becoming National Champions.

Our veteran athletes had a lot of individual success. Craig Carr, Malcolm Eustace, Darrell Wilde, Vici Browning, Heather Bates and Keri Lees all won medals at British Masters Championships and Craig and Malcolm both won medals at the European Masters Championships in Madeira.

There was also a large number of club records broken in the veteran age groups including four for Craig Carr in the M45 category and three for Graham Maddox at 86 years old!

Prior to presenting the awards to the athletes, our Chairman, Shaun Ainge, thanked the following.

The club's coaches, officials, committee and other volunteers were all thanked for their work and commitment. Shaun reminded everyone that all of these individuals are unpaid and give up their time so that the athletes can train and enjoy their athletics. He thanked Alyson Ainge, Julie Jeffries and Jayne Wilde who have all taken over roles on the committee.

He also thanked Sandi Thompson and Allee Rigby for organising the evening.

A presentation was made to Steve and Carole Jones who retired in September after running the Development Group for a number of years as well as Steve coaching long jump and Carole being Treasurer and Chief Welfare Officer.

The following awards were then presented:

Men's Veteran's League Winners Trophy - Collected by Rob Law

Veterans Male Athlete of the Year - Malcolm Eustace

Women's Veteran's League Winners Trophy - Collected by Heather Bates

Young Athletes Lower Age Group, Leading Male Point Scorer - Charlie Morrall

Presidents Cup – This trophy is awarded to a person, or persons, who the President feels has provided great service to the club over the past Our current President, Bob Hughes selected joint winners of this award - Cheryl Clarke and Mandy Hopkins..

David Sunderland Memorial Award

Dave Sunderland was one of our coaches who coached a number of international athletes. He was also a great supporter of schools athletics. When he died in 2014 we were given a trophy to present each year in his memory.

For the second year in succession, this year, the award was shared. Both athletes won medals at the Mason Trophy and then went on to reach the finals of their events at English Schools, running PBs in the process. The winners were Sophie Hulse and Joyella Jeffries

Call Matt up to present his two trophies for U13 and younger athletes

Most Improved Young Athlete of the Year – This award is voted for by the club’s coaches and is presented to the athlete who, in the coaches’ opinion, has improved the most over the year. Sixteen coaches voted this year.

The winner was Brandan Smart. Brandan knocked 14 seconds off his 800m time moving from 434th in the rankings to 27th. He also knocked 17 seconds off his 1500m time.

Brandan Smart needs a top 2 finish in the final meeting of the season at Aldersley next month to guarantee winning the U15B title in the WMYACCL following a 6th place finish at the race at Nuneaton on Sunday (11th).

Charlie Cresswell came 4th in the same race to lie 4th overall whilst Finlay Stanton came 8th (currently 5th overall) and Fraser Stamp 21st.

In the U17M event, Jack Hadley came 7th and Luke Cresswell 25th and in the U17W, Olivia Stamp finished 34th.