| Chairman’s Update I’d like to start by congratulating the winners of our track and field awards, from Quadkids to Seniors – a full list appears elsewhere in this newsletter. All of them performed outstandingly well in the summer, and their awards are a rich reward for their efforts. The evening was great fun, the sun shone on us, the hot dogs sizzled and the athletes got to thank their coaches too, which was nice to see. Also want to congratulate former member, Jade O’Dowda (Gosford Hill School and Oxford City AC) for her 8th place finish in the Heptathlon at the World Championships in Tokyo. We are working on getting Jade to visit us this autumn, if her training schedule allows, and perhaps share some of her experience and knowledge with our juniors. This month sees the start of the Cross Country season – speak to John Kentish if you wish to race as a junior, or Sarah Davies and Duncan Lawrence if you want to race as a senior. We already have 6 new parents signed up to race in the Oxfordshire Cross Country League, but if you would like to have a go, ask John for details. The club is close to finalising new policies on the use of social media and on photography – watch this space. John Conway has started work on renovating the infield, the new throws circles will go in shortly, and our new floodlights will be working by the end of November if all goes to plan. Finally, our AGM is coming up at the end of November. If you would like to get more involved in helping run the club, come along. And if you feel you would like to join our management committee, please put your name forward – a new committee for 2025-26 will be elected at the November AGM. Enjoy winter training. Richard ———————————— England Athletics Volunteer Award Congratulations to Marie Fleming for being awarded the runner-up trophy in the England Athletics Volunteer Awards for the South East Region. Volunteering drives the success of the club, and it is great to see this recognition for Marie who does so much. Every minute of volunteer time is gold dust. Thank you Marie!  The winner of the South East prize was Annalise Dobson who many of you will know does lots of great work. ———————————— End of Season Awards A great end to the season at Horspath celebrating the many top performances from all age groups. Thanks to the team for organising, presenting and feeding everyone. Here is a list of everyone that recieved an award. Well done to all! U9 Boys – Track Athlete: Leon Nowakowski (600m 2:10.7) U9 Boys – Field Athlete:Theseus Tuncer (Vortex 26.23m) U11 Boys Track Athlete: Xavier Flood (75m 11.89, 600m 2:00.8) U11 Boys Field Athlete: Elliott Tosti (Vortex 32.33m) U11 Boys Team Athlete: Joshua Rak U13 Boys Track Athlete: Eric Ocan U13 Boys Field Athlete: Zac Chamberlain (Jav level 7) U13 Boys Team Athlete: Kamil Abubakar U13 Boys Most Improved Athlete: William Wright U15 Boys Track Athlete Michael Emmanuel (off the scale) U15 Boys Field Athlete George Coyle (Pentathlon level 4) U15 Boys Team Athlete Evan Timbs U15 Boys Most improved Athlete Sean Pillar U17 Men Track Athlete: Bertie Lee (100mH level 9) U17 Men Field Athlete: Michael Wenda (LJ level 7) U17 Men Team Athlete: Oli Thurston U17 Men Most Improved Athlete: Tommy Swietlik U20/Senior/Vet Men Duncan Track Athlete – Jonathan Davies U20/Senior/Vet Men Field Athlete – Sam Cunningham U9 Girls Track Athlete: Freya Kavanagh (600m 2:14.9) U9 Girls Field Athlete: Vika Hardy (LJ 2.64m) U11 Girls Track Athlete: Alice Mumme-Young (600m 2:04.8) U11 Girls Field Athlete: Ola Krzysztofik X (LJ 3.38, Vortex 20.52) U11 Girls Team Athlete: Ariana Davis U11 Girls Most Improved Athlete: Jesca Storey U13 Girls Track Athlete: Bella Crowther (100m Level 7) U13 Girls Field Athlete: Evie Barrett U13 Girls Team Athlete: Sameera Abubakar U13 Girls Most Improved Athlete: Lorna Breuker U15 Girls Track Athlete Eva Bryant X (100m Level 7) U15 Girls Field Athlete Lucy White X (LJ Level 6) U15 Girls Team Athlete Hester Pinnell U15 Girls Most improved Athlete Tacita Kentish U17 Women Track Athlete Ruby Rogers (100m 12.01) U17 Women Field Athlete Joyce Ligeti-Pretorius X (Hammer level 9) U17 Women Team Athlete Jess Tosti U17 Women Most improved Athlete Sylvie Kentish U20/Senior/Vet Women Track Athlete Sarah Davies & Izzie Haines-Gray U20/Senior/Vet Women Field Athlete – Annie Sutcliffe Richard Harrington Award – Marie Fleming John Parsons – Myles Fleming Richard Cookson Trophy – Ruby Rogers Coach of the Year – Elton Jones ———————————— HYROX event on October 25th Get excited. OCAC and TAC are joining forces to bring you our first Hyrox club throw down. We’re encouraging all of our training squads and members to get involved. You can compete as an, 1. Individual completing the workout solo 2. Pairs, must run together but stations can be split as you wish 3. Relay of four, each team member completes 2 runs and 2 stations  Now open to all age groups, QKs through to seniors! This event will be open to all comers, so please share with mums and dads, brothers and sisters and anyone else who may like to take part. We will be raising money to go towards the upkeep of our facilities so please get involved. To sign up please email, bryan.walker@oxfordcityac.com ———————————— OCAC AcademyWinter training – 101 The basic concept of winter training is pretty simple, the competitive track and fieldseason is over, one way or another we are happy, or not, with our performances butits back to the drawing board. That said, ss you might expect, this basic concept ismuch more complex than that. To make it even more challenging, some of oursummer athletes will become competitive cross-country runners. All that said, what is winter training. Winter training is the foundation phase of a track and field athlete’s annual plan. Forme it helps to put things in context of the science (insert rubbing of hands togetherand excited voice here). It makes sense to use the UKA developmental framework tothink about winter training, who in turn use the framework of an ex-soviet sportsscientist, Dr. Anatoly Bondarchuk. Taking place during the off-season, your wintertraining will focus on building general fitness, strength, and technical consistency toprepare for the next competitive season.  The exercise hierarchy above, shows the base as General Preparatory exercises.This is the foundation or building blocks of all that is yet to come. Your coach maynow change direction from their usual sessions, the emphasis is on developingendurance, power, and mobility through a combination of conditioning runs, strengthtraining, plyometrics, and technical drills. Middle- and long-distance runners oftenincrease their aerobic base through higher mileage and cross-training, whilesprinters and jumpers focus on acceleration mechanics, strength, and flexibility.Throwers typically prioritise gym-based strength development and refining throwingtechnique under lighter loads. I won’t go into specificity here, but in short, the closerwe get to competition, the more specific the training becomes to your chosen event.We know the weather won’t always be on our side during winter training and whilewe don’t have indoor facilities at OCAC, the Academy squad will be heading off for anumber of indoor comps. If you would like to join, please reach out to Coach Walker. These are great opportunities to maintain event-specific skills, such as, sprintmechanics, hurdle rhythm, or approach consistency for jumpers. Whatever happensthis winter, don’t forget your core! Working on stability, injury prevention exercises,and mobility work are also key components of your winter program.So, when you’re mid-session and you and your squad mates are thinking “what theheck is this guy on about?” There is method to the madness, it’s just the context ofthe training has changed, and our viewpoint is a little further off. Recruitment Winter is a doubly exciting time, not only is our training new and exciting but our clubis readying to take on new recruits. If you have friends, neighbours or family who would like to join OCAC, we are ready to start tasters for newcomers now. Please reach out to our club admin for more details. Also, we are on the hunt for some eager juniors to start their coaching journey. If youlove being on track and you would like to assist with coaching a junior track group,please reach out to Coach Walker, bryan.walker@oxfordcityac.com. Coach Walker will be hosting a camp during half term. if you would like to attend please complete the form below. Our usual evening sessions will also take place during the week. Details and registration are here ———————————— Seniors Thanks to everyone who ran in the road relays on Saturday 20th September, the team really enjoyed the day and it was great to see the club so well represented. With the standard of competition so ludicrously high, there was some excellent running across both teams. The A team finished 40th in 1:59:29 and the B squad in 64th in 2:08:16 (results below) – both were significantly faster than the time of last year’s A team of 2:13:08, so well done. Given the majority of people were running this event for the first time I think there is a good chance of coming back faster next year, so it is very promising. One date for the diary, the next road relay event is on 29th March in Milton Keynes – hope to see you there. ———————————— Veterans/Masters Southern Counties Veterans Track and Field League Final Oxford City AC have been in this league for 35 years, almost since it’s conception, and have always featured prominently, both in the men’s and the women’s events. The league is split into 7 areas (we are in the Western Area league), and at the end of each year, each of the area league winners go forward to compete in the League Winners’ Final. OCAC proudly won both the Men’s and the Women’s league this year for the second year running and so both went forward to this year’s final which was hosted by us at Horspath on Sunday 31st September. With athletes required for 3 seperate age groups (35-49;50-59 and 60+) for the full range of events (other than hurdles) the teams require the pulling together of a large selection of our numerous excellent veteran athletes. Stiff competition all round led to an exciting match, and impressive performances. Both our teams were very strong across the board, in all 3 age groups, in the sprints, distance, walks, throws and jumps, and both had hopes of team wins; but competition was fierce and at the end of the day, 3rd in the men’s and 3rd in the women’s was highly satisfactory, and the team spirit shown by both our men and women on the day was something to be witnessed.Such was the overall team spirit that it would be unfair to single out individual performances but some mention must be made of the following outstanding contributions: Men Hunter Riach for the strength and number of his performances both on track and field.Steve McCauley for his throws. Women Emma Paton for her sprints.Popsie Wootten for her sprints.Sarah Davies for her distance events.Susan Jones for her throws. Many of our athletes have now jetted off to Madeira for the European Veterans T&F Champs and we wish them all the best for success. ———————————— Cross Country OCAC competes in a two Cross Country leagues and a variety of single event races throughout the winter (October to March). These events are open to senior and junior men and women across all age groups.For the Junior teams, if your athlete would like to run Cross Country this coming season then please join this Spond group where you can find a fixture list and information for newcomers.There were some great performances in the Oxfordshire Schools Cross Country Cup, lots of Oxford City athletes performed brilliantly. Results and more information to follow in the next newsletter. https://esaa.org.uk/cross-country-cup-results-2025/ A total of 39 athletes made the trip to St Albans on 11th October for the first race of the Cross Country season. This was our first outing in division one of the Chiltern League after promotion last season. Thanks to a brilliant turnout and some fantastic individual performances, we finished the day sitting comfortably in 8th place in the division. Congratulations to the following athletes who made their XC debut for the club: Xavi Flood (U11), Finley Omer (U11), Edward Campbell (U11) Feryal Samah (U15), Amber Mackenzie (U17), James Farrell (SEN), Jenny Waller (V35), Catherine Campbell (V45), Brian Mackenzie (V50). Senior Men  Senior Women  ———————————— Oxford Half Marathon A superb event yesterday with lots of Oxford City representation. More pictures and information to come in the next Newsletter and our social media channels. Thousands Take Part in Oxford’s Half Marathon- BBC Site ———————————— Results blast All the results I could find for last week plus some late ones:-4th October – Abingdon Parkrun:- 35th Andy Phelps 22:58 4th age graded, 50th Les Newell 23:32, 53rd Amber Mackenzie (OCAC) 23:54,141st Wendy Millatt 28:10 1st age graded.Banbury Parkrun:- 164th Helen Burton 31:48.Bicester Parkrun:- 48th Trevor Dixon (OCAC) 23:43 3rd age graded, 55th Paul Kent 24:14, 77th Simon Worfolk 25:26, 107th John Charlton (OCAC) 27:23.Harcourt Hill Parkrun:- 2nd Nick Coupe (OCAC) 18:50 2nd age graded, 18th Malcolm Bradbrook 23:06, 94th Philip Booth 31:05.Horspath Parkrun:- 1st Jonny Inwood 19:11 6th age graded, 17th Leon Nowakowski (OCAC) 22:52 3rd age graded, 24th Asghar Ali (OCAC) 23:14 5th age graded, 52nd Tim Bearder 26:07, 57th Neville Baker 26:40, 71st Gwyneth Hueter (OCAC) 27:39 1st age graded.Milton Keynes Parkrun:- 662nd Lai Kwan Lee 36:01.Oxford Parkrun:- 16th James Messer 20:33 10th age graded, 33rd Paul Simpkins 22:07, 36th Bryan Vaughan (OCAC) 22:20 1st age graded, 62nd Tim Enskat (OCAC) 23:17, 98th Leila Waller (OCAC) 24:30, 122nd Steve Cowls 25:35, 149th Edward Williams 26:11, 152nd Kevin Byrne 26:16, 156th John Kentish (OCAC) 26:18, 216th Sylvie Kentish (OCAC) 27:47, 232nd Colin Goodlad 28:24, 248th Elisa Robbins (OCAC) 29:04, 265th Clare Alice Pink (OCAC) 29:34, 293rd Andrew Gleeson 30:25, 333rd David Parsons (OCAC) 31:55, 352nd Susan Walters 32:40, 380th Alexandra Williams 34:13, 381st Denis Williams 34:16, 467th Paul Grimsdale (OCAC) 44:29, 491st Kit Villiers 59:11.Prospect Parkrun:- 32nd Kevin Wheeler 23:35.Victoria Park Parkrun, Newbury:- 3rd Heath Bampton 18:39 2nd age graded, 26th Roger Thetford 22:07 9th age graded.Witney Parkrun:- 30th Rob Webster 23:36 10th age graded.National Road Relays, Sutton Park:- https://www.racetecresults.com/results.aspx?CId=20223&RId=252 U13 Boys – 6th Abingdon AC 42:36, U13 Girls – 52nd Abingdon AC 33:07 (incomplete), U15 Boys – 53rd Abingdon AC 43:32, U15 Girls – 60th Abingdon AC 50:43, U17 Men – 51st Banbury Harriers 39:52, Senior Women – 35th Banbury Harriers 1:29:14, 45th Oxford City AC 1:39:46.Run Through Victoria Park Half Marathon:- 11th Jack Taylor (ALC) 1:20:47.5th October – Cardiff Half Marathon:- 22nd Max Walker (ABN) 1:06:19, 2088th Karan Singh (ABN) 1:31:41, 2333rd Clare Hazell (WHH) 1:38:02, 10523rd Christopher Bray (HNH) 2:03:36, 18360th Simon Callaghan (BIC) 2:42:02, 19541st Nicola Brookes (DID) 2:39:02.Lincoln Half Marathon:- 1659th Peter Wattle (DID) 2:24:27.Sonning Common 10K:- https://www.racetecresults.com/results.aspx?CId=16418&RId=972 6th Giuseppe Morabito (HAR) 37:11 2nd V40, 8th Josh Hatt (RAD) 37:31, 19th Kerry Wilkinson (WHH) 40:19 2nd Female, 21st Kevin Wheeler 40:21, 23rd Thomas Wilson (ABN) 40:31, 24th Neil Hart 40:38, 28th Sean Cooke (ABN) 41:20, 30th Jennifer Tibbenham (HAR) 41:36 3rd Female, 35th Andy Green (WIT) 42:20, 46th Julia Pennington (ABN) 44:151st F50. At last the numbers have begun to go back in the right direction! There was an epic battle in the early version which in the end Richard comfortably won despite his recent illness however we were both well behind Phil returning after a break of some months. In the main event Simon, Antoinette, putting the finishing touches on her Abingdon Marathon training and Kevin all ran well. My vote forr performance of the week has to go to Richard L. This weeks handicap finishing order position and times were:- Paul Grimsdale 14:51 (-39) University Parks Wednesday lunchtime, Richard Langton 14:24 (-26) University Parks Wednesday lunchtime, Richard Grant 8:11 (-24) Suffolk Tuesday morning, Simon Dales 7:51 (-19) University Parks Wednesday lunchtime, Antoinette Kennedy 8:36 (-4) University Parks Wednesday lunchtime, Allison Hirst 8:17 (-3) Blenheim Tuesday morning, Phil Kimber 12:20 (0) University Parks Wednesday lunchtime, Julian Hehir 8:48 (+3) East Challow Wednesday morning, Kevin Wheeler 7:27 (+27) University Parks Wednesday lunchtime, Remember from Thursday morning through to Wednesday afternoon you should run your two lap/miles handicap and then email me your time. If you are in Oxford on Wednesday why not come along to University Parks for the live version starting at 1 o’clock. If you want to know your target time please take a look at the attached file. Good luck wherever you are running over the coming week especially Saturdays first round of the Chiltern XC League in Verulanium Park St.Albans or any of Sundays Buckingham 10K, Ridgeway Run in Tring over 15.5K or you are feeling very flush and have entered The Oxford Half Marathon. Results from Wednesday handicap group And here is the Club Power of 10 Link ———————————— Keeping your Child Safe in Sport Last week the Child Protection in Sport Unit released a campaign entitled “Keeping your child safe in sport”. They have advised that all sports club share the campaign with their members. Our annual campaign Keeping Your Child Safe in Sport will run 6-12 October 2025. The part you play in your child’s sport can have a big impact on how your child feels about sport and physical activities. We want to make it easier for you to talk to your child about what support means to them and how you can help to bring out their best. Whether your child’s goal is to achieve a winning score, a personal best, be a good teammate or to simply enjoy their sport, your positive support can help them achieve their goals. Listen to your child – do they play sport for fun, for friendship or because they enjoy the competition? And how do they want you to support them? Some children love loud cheers of encouragement, while others prefer a quieter show of support like a hand signal or a smile. Keep sport fun – make children feel good by praising effort and progress as well as performance. Help them cope with difficult situations like team selections and competitions with encouragement and constructive feedback. Respect everyone – show what great sportsmanship looks like by cheering on the whole team, and respecting the coach and officials (even if you disagree with their decisions). See something, say something – are adults shouting insults, criticising mistakes or challenging official decisions? Raise any issues with your club’s welfare officer or match day official. What you do and what you say will make a difference to how your child feels, but it also makes a difference to how safe they are in their sport. You can find more useful information on this link. ———————————— Any Other Business If you would like to submit content to the Newsletter or highlight a great performance or contribution please send an email to Toby. |