Last Monday, a Teens' member, Isabella Stickney, aged 14, won the most improved member of the year award for 2023. Outside of the Teens many members may not know Bella and her running performances. So this article is to rectify that.
This award is for the club member who has improved the most in training, races personal standing including confidence and participation. Here’s why Bella won it:
Back in September last year, Dorian was asked to assess Bella’s physical activity as part of her Duke of Edinburgh Bronze award. He decided to not only to report his observations from the training sessions, but also to look at her Parkrun times over the assessment period. This is the report submitted:
Bella finishing the Ciren Park XC in Nov' 23
Bella coming down Bertha
The Parkrun referred to, was the 2nd September Cirencester Parkrun, when Bella did her 19:41 PB, which is effectively a 80% age grading.
Her performance improvement in 2023 has been astonishing as shown on the RunBritain handicap graph:
Bella has also been very competitive over the country in 2023, coming second in her U15 age group XC race in Cirencester Park and 3rd at Bath in the County Championship and she seems to like the mud, as here are Dad’s comments on Bella coming second in the Cirencester Parkrun, to the fastest runner in the Club, Rob Forbes on 11th November, “Bella did fantastic at Parkrun this morning, in very muddy conditions!” 19:57.
Lastly, and perhaps not surprisingly she has grown in confidence even penning poems on XC for the News Feed!
Well done, Bella.
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