AVR celebrate a successful year
There was no running gear in sight on Saturday evening as AVR members celebrated their successful year at the annual awards dinner at the Picture House in Seaton. There was a ‘black and white’ dress code for the event which saw the awards presented by Chair, Haydn Boehm and club captains, Rob Collier and Carol Austin.
The top performance awards went to Debbie Whiston, best female runner and Matt Hewer, best male runner. Both have won a significant number of local races and achieved excellent marathon times in London; 3:07 and 2:47 respectively. Matt also achieved PBs at every distance from parkrun to the marathon and both won their category at the Club Challenge.
Most improved runners of the year went to Helen Boehm and Jacqui Stokes for the women with Lee Brooker and David Long taking the male equivalent. All four have shown considerable and consistent improvement throughout the year.
The Founders Trophy recognises determination and effort to achieve a significant goal or overcoming significant challenges, such as injury or illness. This year it was awarded jointly to Sarah Shepley and Kevin Feeney who received one of the biggest cheers of the evening. They have each overcome major injury or illness while at the same time being the absolute driving forces to establishing Stop Line Way junior parkrun so successfully as well as contributing to the Club through Grizzly work, run leading and helping with numerous club events.
The Chair’s award, is chosen by the chair rather than voted on by members, and this year Haydn Boehm has selected Liz Thomas who has acted as the Club Treasurer since 2013. A stalwart of the spreadsheet Liz has kept the finances on track and brought many of the systems into the modern age, working tirelessly behind the scenes on both Club and Grizzly business.
Matt Clist was awarded the President’s Shield, chosen for a specific performance related achievement. This year Matt targeted the Club Challenge in which the maximum points any runner can achieve during the year is 800 and Matt finished the year on the magic 800 points, winning the M40 category by 15 points from Rich Hardy, who also finished on an extremely creditable 785 points.
The other category winners were as follows:
Female: senior – Adrianne Mullins 291 points; F40 Jacqui Stokes 476; F45 Debbie Whiston 706; F50 Karen Eyre 634; F55 Ann Coston 254; F60 Adele Girdwood 320; F65 Eleanor Wood 561; F70 Diana Burn 62.
Male: senior – Joel Seward 770; M40 Matt Clist 800; M45 Matt Hewer 762; M50 Rob Collier 567; M55 Rupert Pady 692; M60 Ian Kinnersley 592; M65 Andy West 476; M70 Ron Seward 414 and M75 Rick Wood 11.
Also awarded on Saturday evening were the prizes for the handicap winners with first place going to Helen Boehm who won an incredible four of the ten monthly prizes accumulating an unstoppable 149 points. Second place went to Anthony Mullins with 107 points with third place going to James Gullar on 99.
Team of the Year for 2024 went to the M45 Masters Relay Team who came a staggering fifth place in the National Road Relays earlier this year. The team consisting of Matt Hewer, Matt Clist, Ryan Snell and Duncan Staddon were up against some serious competition from clubs with much bigger catchment areas.
The final award of the evening went to Club Person of the Year, awarded for a significant contribution to the running of the club above and beyond what is expected. The 2024 award went to Haydn Boehm for taking the Club forward since taking over as Chair and building on the strong foundations set by the previous Chair. In particular making it such an inclusive club with an ever increasing membership; building the brand; developing the coaching; facilitating the juniors section starting up again and encouraging links with both Seaton Cricket and Seaton Football clubs to enable a programme of social events to take place.
All award winners received a mug, especially designed by local potter Gilly Humphreys.
Storm Darragh cancels parkrun
The Amber weather warning from Storm Darragh meant no Seaton parkrun and very few events across the south-west with the Ottery Reindeer Run also falling victim to the weather.
A few AVRs blew over to St Mary’s parkrun in Bridport which did go ahead with Simon Dimmock first finisher. Tom Parsons managed to get to The Great Field in Dorchester and Tony Smith escaped to Reading on Friday to run Dinton Pastures parkrun on Saturday.
