News

29th March 2024

Message from Chairman, Jaime Walker

With tonight’s AGM almost upon us, I thought I’d take this opportunity to say a few words:
 
Last year we celebrated our 140th Anniversary and it was our most successful season I would say in the last 30 plus years and what a season to do it in!
  • Multiple county champions, multiple schools champions, Mason trophy medal winners, national medal winners. The list goes on and on.
  • Last year burton firmly cemented their place on the UK athletics map and our athletes and coaches were getting the plaudits they deserved.
  • Numerous clubs records were broken again and 2024 is shaping up to be another blockbuster of a season with many athletes looking to gain national and international honours.
  • League Positions: Senior league – League champions, Lower YDL – 2nd Position, Upper YDL – 2nd position.
  • The Senior Men’s and Women’s team had a record breaking season. We won every match with a record league points and club total in the clubs history. Alice Robinson and Jon Dumelow were the highest male and female point scorers across all divisions including the premier league. Special mention to the throws squad who dominated the league scoring 834 out of a total of 875, incredible.
  • English Schools: This year we had the following athletes selected for English schools at the new alexander stadium:
Isabelle Fellows Inter Girls Javelin – Derbyshire 
Isabelle Gould Junior Girls Hammer – Derbyshire
Nathan Mugoti inter Boys Long jump – Derbyshire
Kaiden Ramsey Inter Boys Long Jump – Derbyshire
Katie Brant Inter Girls – 80m Hurdles – Staffordshire
Chelsea Bogdanova Junior Girls 100m – Staffordshire
Isla Swindlehurst Junior Girls 300m – Staffordshire
Maisie Trueman Senior Girls 3000m – Leicestershire
Ben Pitts Senior Boys High Jump – Derbyshire
Sammy Mccafferty Junior Boys 300m – Staffordshire
Ewan withnall Junior Boys 1500m – Derbyshire
 
  • The work being done by graham and his squad have been nothing short of phenomenal , the standard of the middle distance and cross country teams now show the depth we have. Burton are out performing clubs, such as Tamworth, Cannock and Charnwood in the middle distance areas and this is the club to be at right now in the midlands to progress for any young aspiring middle distance runners. With numerous county selections and national selections and Ewan Withnall again has been breath-taking. If Ewan carries on his development we will be looking at not only national honours but international vests also. This again is down to grahams meticulous planning and organisation.
  • We continue to be blessed with some of the best coaches in the country. Our hurdles, Jumps, throws, middle distance athletes are a testament to this with the number of UK ranked athletes. However, this couldn’t be done without our development squad and work done by Angie and Stevie bringing the youngsters through. So a huge thankyou to Keith, Paul, Graham, Mark and Trevor. Chrissie Prince has joined from Royal Sutton and Coldfield to assist the junior discus and hammer throwers along with Jenna Galiszewski. Both have been a blessing for me and have enabled me to focus time on other areas of throwing.
  • We have a number of athletes that currently train at burton from other clubs due to the quality and standard of our coaching and there has been some criticism labelled at burton by other local clubs at athletes joining us. Success breeds success and athletes will join clubs where they think they can develop and be nurtured as athletes.
I was fortunate enough to be crowned West Midlands England Athletics Coach of the Year. We returned to the Pirelli stadium for our 140th celebration and Awards Night and this was a huge success; we are exploring the option of a bigger venue for 2023 as again we have outgrown Pirelli. Yes, it was much more expensive than previous venues but it was worth the extra cost to celebrate the success of the club. The night saw us celebrate the contribution of Chris Latham and myself and we were welcomed to the Burton AC hall of fame. I was crowned coach of the year and Isabelle Fellows and Ewan Withnall was Crowned Athletes of the year.
 
This year we have received a huge amount of funding and all that hard work goes to Jackie Acton who has been amazing in securing the funding for this. The money received now means we will get a cover for the stand.
 
We have numerous projects that are on our radar:
  • Additional seating
  • Sponsorship and sponsorship boards
  • Indoor training facility
  • Outdoor shelters
It has been a fantastic year to be part of Burton ac. The success on the track, field and cross country as well as the indoor success matches the clubs ambition to be one of the leading clubs in the Midlands and the UK.
 
This could not be possible without the work that goes on behind the scenes by the committee and other members of the club who play such an important role but are not always given the plaudits they deserve.
So a big thankyou to all of you. The club is going through a period of success probably not seen since the glory days of the 1980’s.
 
Again the club has come under some scrutiny as being labelled ‘Arrogant’ I take these slurs as positive, were not arrogant we confident, successful, driven and hungry to be the best club we can be with a common goal to produce the best athletes and be one team and an incredible at that.
 
Regards
 
Jaime Walker
Burton Ac Chair