Western Tempo Running Club

⭐️ April marathoners ⭐️
It’s been a fantastic month of marathons for many of our Western Tempo athletes!

Johnny Rea kicked it off in Paris with a huge new PB of 2:56:00 🤩

At Manchester, Steve Linton snuck under the 3-hour barrier with a 2:59:44 ✔️

We had four runners at Newport led by Dan King, home in 2:52:27. Matt Walford (3:02:16) and Fee Maycock (3:07:35) followed, and Darren Broady completed in 3:16:48 on his first try at the distance 👏

Western Tempo were out in force at London: Jacob Pickering 2:34:29, Sam Butler 2:35:55, Dan Moody 2:41:02, Inca Padfield 2:42:28, Ryan Knight 2:46:18, Dave Johnson 2:52:56, Josh Hand 2:54:28, Jackie Rockliffe 2:59:05, and Chris Cleary, who was the lucky recipient of our club place, finished in 3:19:36 🧡

Finally, Gwynant Jones had a brilliant start to his marathon career, debuting in 2:36:38 at the Shakespeare marathon, taking 🥈

Congratulations everyone 🤩

It was fantastic to see athletes from across the club competing at Bristol Track Club 5k this weekend. On a sunny day that gradually got breezier as the races went on, everyone ran hard on fast the 3 and a bit lap course at Odd Down Cycle Track.

In Wave 1, U18 Zach Browne led the charge and took another huge chunk off his PB set at Sutton Park just a few weeks ago, running 17:56. He was followed by Naomi Eaton (18:27), Bonnie Collins (20:40), and Phil Harding (23:28).

We had three runners in Wave 2, with Meg Marchant running a strong race to finish in 16:30. Myles Preston snuck under 17 minutes with a 16:58, and Josh Hand held on to 18:17 despite some tricky race dynamics.

The final race saw three runners under 15 minutes. Dom James secured some prize money in fourth place, after an impressive sprint finish (14:18), Dylan Gillett was next in 14:43, and Max Kelly finally broke the 15-minute barrier with 14:55. Charlie Worsfold (15:25), Tom Radley (16:05), and U20 Jake Parker (16:14) completed the Western Tempo showing.

Thanks for great races!

It was gold for the 3rd year in a row for our Western Tempo women at the 6-stage road relay. All competing over 5.4km now that the longer leg has been removed. Led out by Abbie Milnes (19:09) forming an early group with Birchfield Harriers and Leamington Cycling AC, taking 3rd position up the hill putting the team is a great position. Charlotte Brown (20:05) took on leg two, closing the gap almost immediately gaining a 30 second lead. Megan Marchant picked up leg 3 and ran the fastest leg of the day in 18:49, “I just wanted to extend the lead as much as possible”, handing over to Tayana Ozoux (20:23) with now a 2+ minute lead in front of Birchfield. Emma Powell (19:19) powered on in leg 5 giving the girls a 4 min + lead by which point it was Amber Watson’s (20:52) turn to bring it home breaking the tape in 1:58:37.

This puts the girls undefeated over both 4 and 6-stage for 3 years. Not bad for a club only 6 years young!

Our B team also packed in a pretty impressive performance. Roxanne Jones led out on leg 1 (23:31), followed by Amber Bullingham (21:23), Dana Machackova (24:12), Bonnie Collins (23:22) and Gina Burridge (21:18). Jade Ocean was on the anchor leg and swept up a final 5 positions to bring the B team home in 10th overall and fastest B team, showcasing the depth of the Western Tempo ladies squad.

WT men’s team took victory at the Midland 12 Stage Road Relay Championship as the club’s three men’s teams enjoyed a successful day in Sutton Coldfield.

Henry James (17:09) got the team off to a good start, coming home ninth on the opening lap of the hilly 5.4km course. Luke Carroll (16:58) then moved the team up into fifth position, before Charlie Jones (15:49) gained a place on leg 3. With a quarter of the race complete, defending champions Bristol were clear at the front, with the Western Tempo team 69 seconds behind.

Leg 4 saw Charlie Hartmink (17:09) move WT up into third, with the gap to the leaders unchanged. Charlie Wright (17:12) then reduced the deficit to Bristol to 38 seconds as he handed over in third place to Dylan Gillett. It was leg 6 that proved to be pivotal with Gillett (16:31) not only taking WT into the lead but also establishing a 53 second cushion over Bristol in second.

The places of the top two then remained unchanged as the WT team dominated the second half. Max Kelly (16:51), Dom James (16:07), Gwynant Jones (17:00) and Pete Molloy (16:33) all extended the lead on their respective legs with an advantage of 2 minutes 55 seconds established after 10 legs. Stephen Derrett (16:46) and Ben Robinson (16:43) completed the victory as WT regained the title they won in 2024, with silver medallists Bristol 2:27 in arrears and third placed Swindon 4:49 adrift.

Further WT success came with the B team placing 7th overall and the first B team by over 8 minutes, whilst the WT C team finished 34th and leading C team.

All 📸 from

Congratulations to our Gloucestershire Amateur Athletics Association 2025 award winners. They competed in a series of county road races from January to November to bring home a fair few medals and shields for the club!

Female open 🥈 overall - Amber Bullingham
LV35 🏆- Amber Bullingham
LV55 🏆- Fee Maycock

MV45 🥈- Gareth Edwards
MV50 🏆- Anthony Bailey
MV55 🏆- Jeremy Mower

Ladies overall team 🏆 was collected by Amber and Fee but earned over the series by scores by 11 separate athletes 🤩

There were Midland Women’s XC League bronze medals for the WT ladies with a strong team performance at the final fixture of the season at Ipsley Meadow in Redditch.

New club members Charlotte Brown, Gina Burridge and Tayana Ozoux started positively on their league debuts, with Burridge passing Brown as she moved through the field to finish in an impressive 11th place. Brown ran well to cross the line in 16th, with Ozoux just holding off Naomi Eaton as they closed the scoring team in 20th and 21st respectively.

Finishing third on the day behind the university teams of Birmingham and Loughborough, the WT ladies also finished third in the final league standings behind the same two teams.

Club stalwarts Amber Watson (23rd) and Abbie Milnes (25th) quickly followed before Ona Patxot (41st), Jaquie Rockliffe (43rd) and Dana Machakova (77th) completed a pleasing day as the WT squad showed its depth.

WT men’s team claimed Birmingham XC League silver medals with another second place finish at the final race of the season at Ipsley Meadow in Redditch.

Dom James led the team home in fourth place to secure the individual league title, with Phil Wylie the leading master with an excellent seventh place. Dylan Gillet finished in 11th, with new signing Ben Robinson following in 19th and Charlie Jones running well for 22nd.

The battle to complete the scoring six man A team was an intriguing contest, with Alex Lygo charging through the field to close the gap on Gwynant Jones. However, the determined Jones used his strength to hold off the challenge as the pair crossed the line in 30th and 32nd respectively.

With a team score of 93, the WT team were 16 points adrift of winners Birmingham University and 17 ahead of third placed Birchfield. The three teams also finished in the same positions in the final league standings.

Lygo led the Tempo B team to an on the day win that also saw them top the final B team league standings thanks to the efforts of Doug Wight (63rd), Marc Fallows (69th), Tom Radley (78th), Dave Aubrey (85th) and Joby Hobbs (107th). Gavin McCaugherty (151st) provided vital backup on the mud bath of a course. There was also a win on the day for the WT masters team.

📷 1-3 perfectly capturing how challenging the conditions were!

Midland County Cross County Championships✨

It was Peter Molly who was the star of the show at Mallory Park for the Midland County Cross County Championships. Recently moved to the county, he ruffled some feathers showing pure dominance in the field. Rather than on the the famous motor circuit, the race took place over the mud and bog (all 12km of it!) that presented itself after all the wet weather. Molloy went out with the lead group made up of Jack Grey and Joshua Lay only to push on in the final lap and storm to victory by a significant margin!

Megan Marchant raced in the senior women category working hard through the tough conditions and grateful to stay upright! It was 6th for Meg, after being passed by Julie Emerson from Coventry in the closing yards.

Both Pete and Meg will be at the London Cross Challenge at Parliament Hill next! Pete will be representing Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 and Meg the Midlands county💚

Well done both your selections, at least you had some good prep in the mud for what awaits you at Parliament Hill!

📸

Exmouth TNUL 5k

While the wind and rain subsided, there was still slippery sand and 3 dead-turns to contend with at the Exmouth TNUL 5k; 🥈 for Kit Evans Lombe,🥉 and a PB for Alex Lygo, with Charlie Wright, Rupert Ferguson, and Ben Stockill all sub-16! Leading the ladies home was Charlotte Brown, Tayana Ozoux with a PB, and a great 5k debut from Gina Burridge🔥 bring on BUCS!

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Linda Franks 5 Mile

15 Western Tempo athletes participated in the 32nd edition of the Linda Franks 5 Mile race held in Cheltenham

Although surprisingly not mentioned as a pre-race favourite, Alex Lee went hard from the gun and lead out a pack of Stewart Merry (Cheltenham) and Rob Barnett (CLC) and went on to take the victory by 2 seconds in an impressive time of 25:32 and reclaim the title he last won in 2018. Coincidentally, I think this is the last time we saw Alex Lee turn up to training!

Doug Wight in his first race in over a year showed his class with a 5th place finish in 26:38 (please race more Doug!) before David Johnson, who was referenced as “one to watch” by the local press in the pre-race build up finished in 10th place (27:31) to complete the winning Western Tempo team.

The battle to be the 4th Western Tempo athlete home was always going to be in interesting affair after the 4 teammates of Anthony Bailey, Mark James, Gareth Edwards and Gavin McCaugherty formed an early pack together. Remarkably, after being together for most of the race, the honours were decided by a sprint finish in the final 200m with Gavin McCaugherty coming out on top in 28:35 for 16th place closely followed by Anthony Bailey in 28:37 (17th), Gareth Edwards in 28:38 (18th) and Mark James in 28:43 (20th). Great racing from the Masters athletes.

Josh Hand ran well in 29:33 (32nd), as did Jody Allen in 29:47 (35th) and Amber Watson in 29:54 (37th and 7th lady) to all record pleasing sub 30 times.

Matt Lambourne was next up in 30:31 (41st) with Charlie Marshall and Darren Broady not far in behind in 31:38 (55th) and 32:00 (64th) respectively. Completing a top day out for the Western Tempo team were Steven Rowley in 32:44 for 71st place and Izzy Broady in 37:04 for 128th.

📷 by Tony Stanton
Swipe to see 🎥 of how close it was going into the final straight (and hear the WT cheer crew! 🧡)