James Trollope Named as Stags Youngest Athlete of the Month 

Less than a month after his eighteenth birthday, James Trollope became the youngest winner of the Birchfield Harriers Athlete of the Month Award.

This accolade rounds off a successful year for the Lichfield youngster which began in January when he won a bronze medal at the Midland Under 17 Cross Country Championships at Leamington Spa despite the handicap of a bad nose bleed which gave him a gory warrior like appearance.

He commented, “I was pretty surprised but really pleased to be told that I had been chosen by the selection panel to receive this award for December which is a very great honour. I began by running cross country when I was fifteen but now just regard cross country and cycling as a way to build up my strength for the road and track.”

The highlight of a limited track season this summer was a silver medal winning performance against some of the best runners in the country over 1500 metres at the National Junior Cup final at Derby in September in a time of four minutes 02.67 seconds.

However it was his performances on the road and over the country in recent weeks which have been a revelation and justifiably earned James this award.

At the age of seventeen despite being one of the youngest of the 600 competitors at the Midland Men’s Six Stage Road Relay in Sutton Park in late September the young Stag clocked an impressive time of 18 minutes 26 seconds, which exactly replicated the time accomplished by the former Birchfield Harriers international Rob Birchall who now competes for Notts AC. The Netherstowe A level student recorded the ninth fastest time on the penultimate stage and had the distinction of being Birchfield Harriers second fastest runner of the championship, within 21 seconds of their Kenyan runner Zak Kihara.

However there was still considerable scope for improvement. Trollope ran out of his skin four weeks later over the same course at the National championships to overtake no less than ten runners to get within four seconds of the eighteen minutes barrier.

Remarkably once again Trollope had the distinction of being the second fastest performer for the Harriers after no less than a 22 seconds margin of improvement.

A week before he came of age, Trollope once again ran magnificently to win the Under 20 Men’s race at the opening Birmingham and District Cross Country League Division Two fixture at Senneleys Park in Birmingham by two minutes and 12 seconds in a time of 33 mins 47 seconds as well as finishing fourth overall in the League event. 

Tom McCook

13 November 2006