The new year is just a week old but Gloucester Athletic Club are certainly looking ahead to 2020 with plenty of confidence.

And that confidence is understandable after an outstanding 2019 that saw the club enjoy great success.

In fact, so good were the previous 12 months that chairman Richard Blackwell says that 2019 will go down as the most successful year in the club’s long history, with an array of team and individual achievements across the whole club.

“The year got off to a fantastic start with our senior men winning the Birmingham Cross-Country League Division Three title and our senior women winning promotion from Division Two in the Midland Women’s Cross-Country League in their first appearance for over 10 years,” said Blackwell.

“The successes continued in the summer as the senior track and field team dominated Division Two of the Midlands Track and Field League to win their third divisional title in a row to complete a unique hat-trick of promotions for the club’s senior teams.

“The teams’ achievements in winning those promotions were all down to exceptional teamwork and the athletes’ willingness to put themselves out for their teams and team-mates.

“I lost count of the number of times the track and field athletes would compete in unfamiliar events to fill gaps and earn points for the team.

“The commitment to the cause was similar with the cross-country teams and, at the end of the day, that attitude undoubtedly helped win the titles.”

But Blackwell pointed out that the club’s triumphs during the year were not limited to the teams as there were numerous individual successes over a range of disciplines.

Jo Willoughby started 2019 off well with a silver medal and British record in the triple jump at the World Masters Indoors Championships in Poland. Later in the year, she struck gold in both the triple and long jumps at the European Masters Outdoors Championships in Venice.

Willoughby also coached one of the club’s outstanding younger athletes, Joel Townley, to the English Schools’ Senior Boys’ triple jump title in Birmingham, his second English Schools’ title as he won the Intermediate Boys’ title two years previously.

Townley was among a number of club athletes who qualified for the English Schools’ Championships as Chrissy and Ben Campion, Jessica Hill, Oliver Keitley and Ellie Wheeler-Smith also took their places among the country’s elite juniors to further highlight the outstanding young talent in the club’s ranks.

Charlie Price was again the stand-out performer in the club’s para-athletic group and enjoyed another successful summer that saw her claim the UK Race-Running titles over 400 and 800 metres.

The sport of Cani-Cross – cross-country running with dogs – has grown in recent years and the club proudly boasts the current World and European Champion in Ben Robinson who met with success in Sweden and Belgium during the autumn.

Looking forward to 2020, Blackwell is the first to admit the club faces tougher challenges.

“There will be new and exciting challenges to meet on and off the field during the year, not least the massive step up in competition standard for our teams,” he said. “But I know that the athletes and support we have in the club we shall certainly give everything our best.”

Meanwhile three club members brought their 2019 campaign to a close by competing in the Gloucester 10-mile road race around Quedgeley and Kingsway.

Arthur Daley, running a very even paced race, was the first of the group home, clocking 70:35 to take the M70 prize, beating both M65 and M60s winners in the process.

He beat the previous club age-best by a massive 10 minutes and is now placed third on the national M70 10-mile rankings

Despite not enjoying her best race, Anna Midgley ran a new personal best 71:47, some 46 seconds faster than her previous best, to finish 12th lady, while there was a two-minutes personal best also for Amy Walker, who picked up her pace over the final two miles to finished strongly in 73:06.