Saturday night saw another fabulous evening for Hinckley Running Club as they celebrated their annual presentation evening at Green Towers. Awards galore, a quiz, buffet and dancing were all on the agenda!
The evening began with the club’s previous Chairman, John Padbury, awarding the Chairman’s Award to, Odette Foxall, for an outstanding year of running. Her positivity, enthusiasm and commitment to the club are such an asset.
Graham Cross collected the Beginner of the Year shield from beginners coach, Leanne Byard, after progressing through the ‘All Sorts’ beginners and intermediates group, training hard and going from strength to strength.
Mens captains, Richard Guest and Nick Moore, and Ladies captains, Jenny Green and Celine Guery, presented the standard awards. Runners can gain a Bronze, Silver, Gold or Diamond award by completing 5 different race distances within the times set by the standards. A distinction can be achieved by completing 9 distances, which must include a marathon and a 20 mile race.
Bronze Awards were presented to Greg Pollard, Jacqui Campbell, Faye Hudson, Harry Langham, Nick Moore, Jonathan Strong, Ben Masser, Charlotte May Sinclair and Julie Hudson.
Diane Wildbur, Amanda Knight, Elizabeth Aspden-Mansfield and Leanne Byard achieved Bronze Distinction Awards.
Club president, Geoff Oliver, then went on to present the President’s Shield Awards. The awards are based on a points system for individual performance in the Leicestershire Road Racing League (LRRL). The ladies shield was awarded to Sarah Garford for first place. Celine Guery came in second and third place was awarded to Bethan Padbury. Nick Moore scooped the men’s shield for first place, Joe Langham was awarded second place with third place going to Chris Langham.
LRRL Rep, Sarah Garford, presented the following LRRL trophies to club members: Bethan Padbury, Rebecca Gould, Kate Perkins, Celine Guery, Matthew Johnson, Chris Limmer, Matthew Knight, Chris Langham, Nick Moore, Joe Langham, David Limmer and Simon Birch. This is based on the runners who scored the most points during the Winter League and Summer League races.
100% attendance in the league was awarded to, Gordon Landsburgh, Sarah Garford, Nick Moore, Céline Guéry, Julia Waite and Joe Langham.
Silver Awards were presented to Elizabeth Lees, Jude McSharry, Diane Wildbur, Leanne Byard, Amanda Knight, Sally Henderson, Rebecca Gould, Erica Fisher, Joe Langham, Stephen Penney, Matthew Johnson, Ian Sylvester and Rob Pratt.
Silver Distinctions were presented to, Jenny Green, Celine Guery, Rolf Hoelmer and Matthew Knight.
Assistant Coach, Jenny Green, presented the very well deserved Coaches Award to, Erica Fisher.
Gold Awards were presented by the club captains to, Kate Perkins, Bethan Padbury, Anne Ashton, Chris Langham, Simon Earley, Chris Limmer and Paul Clayton.
The extremely prestigious Gold Distinction awards were presented to, Michelle Fowler and Penny Masser.
The final awards of the evening to be presented were the 2016 Runner of the Year trophies.
Charlotte May Sinclair scooped the Ladies Runner of the Year presented by last year’s winner, Celine Guery. The award is voted for by fellow club members who were inspired by Charlotte after her outstanding progress since joining the club, which includes 2 marathons.
Last year’s Male Runner of the Year, Paul Clayton, presented, Rolf Hoelmer, with this year’s trophy. Rolf amazingly completed 87 races covering a variety of distances from 5k to marathon and is a true inspiration to all at the club.