Charlotte Bates, GBR

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Charlotte Bates
Jamie Baulch
Tim Benjamin
Phillip Berntsen
Charlotte Best
John Bird
Louise Bloor
Lucy Bowers
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Charlotte Browning
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Sarah Burgin
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Personal Bests:

2002

In her first cross-country season Charlotte was 20th at the Hampshire Schools Cross-Country Championships at Lords Wandsworth College in Basingstoke. She went on to finish 40th in the South of England Schools race at Portswood Hill in Havant. 

On the track, she improved her 800m PB over 5 seconds.

2002 - 2003 season

Charlotte was 3rd at the New Forest Schools Cross-country championships at Gang Warily, Fawley. She then managed 13th at Hampshire schools, and went on to finish 54th in Junior Girls' race on her home course at the Southern Districts Cross-Country at Gang Warily, Fawley to narrowly miss out on an English Schools place.

2003

On the track, Charlotte took up the 1500m, improving by 21 seconds over the season. In the few 800m races she competed in, she managed to dismantle her PB by over 10 seconds.

She took her first New Forest track title in Bournemouth in May, and ran a PB to finish 8th over the distance at Hampshire Schools. At the Wessex Plate Final, she took her first 800m victory in the U15 girls race. 

Meanwhile, on the road she proved herself over her preferred longer distances, finishing second to Emily Pidgeon in the Gloucester Race for Life 5km at Plock Court.

2003 - 2004 season

Charlotte's improved form showed throughout the first half of the cross-country season, but she suffered in the New Forest Schools Cross-country, finishing in 5th place. She had a disappointing run in the Victory 5 miles race in Portsmouth, finishing 47th woman.

She improved vastly on previous performances to take 12th place at the Hampshire cross-country championships on her home course at Dibden Enclosure, but struggled with the flat course at the Hampshire Schools Championships, missing out on county selection in 21st place.

2004

Charlotte ran her first 3000m in Crawley in late March, finishing 3rd to Crawley AC's Danielle Christmas and Hannah Brooks in a short-lived New Forest Junior club record. 

After a massive start of season dip which saw her form completely collapse as she recorded her worst-ever run over 1500m, her track season saw her develop quickly as she took to the new event, and she flattened her personal best throughout the season, taking 16 seconds off the initial 3000m time, and record 5th and 3rd place performances in the Hampshire Championships and Hampshire Schools Championships respectively.

Over 1500m her times also fell. She retained her New Forest title in May, and took 5th at the Hampshire Schools Championships, her second event of the day. She finished the season recording a massive personal best of 5:09.1 to win the combined Wessex Under 15 and Under 17 Cup and Plate title, and help New Forest Juniors to a Plate win.

On the road she was second woman in the National Sport Relief mile race in Southampton. 

2004 - 2005 season

Charlotte started the road season at the Southern Road Relays in Aldershot, in a disappointing run that was unreflective of her form.

Charlotte smashed the women's course record to win the women's race the Alton Downland Challenge 5km at the start of October, in a sprint-finish over training partner Laura Pankhurst. The week ended in disaster, however, as she suffered knee pain during a training run, an injury which took her out of the whole of the first half of the cross-country season.

Despite this, she limped around the course to finish a comfortable second at the New Forest Schools Championships at the start of December, securing her a place on the New Forest team.

In her first run back from injury she placed second woman in the Somerly 5km.

She started her season properly with the Hampshire Championships in January, where she finished a surprise 8th, gaining her selection for the Inter-counties in Nottingham for the first time. The under 17 women's New Forest Juniors team achieved their first Championships medal, with bronze overall.

She was disappointed with her run at the Hampshire Schools Championships in Alton, where she finished 7th Inter girl, again suffering from the flat course. She finished 25th at the Southern Schools Championships in Basildon, securing her a place on the English Schools team for the first time.

At the Inter-counties Charlotte revelled on the hilly course, having  her best run to date to place 84th overall and 5th Hampshire runner in the under 17 women's race.  

At English Schools Charlotte also exceeded expectations, finishing 4th Hampshire runner in 121st place, despite the flat course and a mid-race fall.

2005 track season

Improved confidence on the track was instrumental in turning Charlotte into a real competitor in local races. She won almost all of her early-season runs over both 1500m and 3000m, dismantling her 2004 times and taking a under 17 plate 1500m and 800m double in the combined under 15 and under 17 races at the Wessex League opener. 

At the Hampshire Championships Charlotte ran a personal best to finish 5th in the 1500m, behind national winners Stephanie Twell, Emma Pallant and Rebecca Gough, and Winchester's Lorna Russell. She followed this up with silver in the 3000m the following day behind club mate Hayley Pointer.

At Hampshire Schools she finished 3rd in the 3000m in another personal best time behind the soon-to-become National Schools Champion Rebecca Gough, and club mate Hayley Pointer. She again finished 3rd Inter Girl in the soaring temperatures at the Southern Schools Championships in Sutton, behind Pointer and Buckinghamshire's Tanya Taylor, although ran one of her worst ever times.

Competing for Hampshire in the Southern Inter-counties in August, Charlotte took a narrow 3rd place, finishing in an identical time to the second placed athlete in a personal best of 11:02.3. 

Much to her own frustration she didn't manage to improve to sub 11 minutes in the closing stages of the season, but did finish first woman by over half a minute in the Havant Mile Open, and take a comfortable Wessex Plate middle distance double in the season closing match at Bournemouth. 

2005-2006 season

At the Southern Road Relays Charlotte was amazed to finish 18th fastest overall, as she stormed through the field on the 3rd leg, overtaking 10 other teams in the process to elevate New Forest Juniors from 30th to 20th place overall. 

She returned to the Alton Downland Challenge 5km on her 17th birthday, smashing her own women's course record and winning the race outright in a comfortable victory on the overgrown course.

It was her Hampshire League performances, however, that caused ripples on the local circuit, as she ran a swift last 500m to take third place at Farley Mount behind Rebecca Gough and surprise winner Lorna Russell. She improved to second, again behind Russel, at Goodwood. Recovering from a leg injury, she again took 2nd behind reading's Amy Bond at Overton, her first ever victory over ex-clubmate Hayley Pointer.

Meanwhile, she recorded a surprising 6th place at the BMC Cross-country classic in Bristol, while was disappointed with 6th at the Southern Colleges Cross-country in Chichester.

She was uncomfortable over the predominantly flat course at the Southern Inter-Counties Cross-country in Thetford, where she finished a disappointing 16th, but still helped the Hampshire team to the silver medal overall. 

 She did not manage to recover sufficiently from this, and struggled in the Wessex League race in Newbury the following day to finish 4th. 

	Hampshire League	Farley Mount	U17	3rd
	Hampshire League	Goodwood	U17	2nd
	BMC XC	Bristol	U17	6th
	Southern Colleges XC	Chichester	Senior Girls	6th
	Hampshire League	Overton	U17	2nd
	Southern Inter-counties	Thetford	U17	16th
	Wessex League	Newbury	U17	4th
7th January	Hampshire XC Championships	Staunton Park, Havant	U17	6th
	Hampshire Schools XC	Gang Warily, Fawley	Senior Girls	5th
	Hampshire League	Reading	U17	2nd
4th February	Southern Inter-County Schools	Southampton	Senior Girls	8th
February	Southern XC	Bicton	U17	18th

	Hampshire League	Wimbourne	U17
	English National XC	Parliament Hills	U17	24th
	UK Inter-Counties XC	Woollaton Park, Nottingham	U17
25th March	English Schools XC	Mansfield	Senior Girls	61st
31st March	British Colleges Sport XC	Loughborough University		12th

2006-2007 season

6th January	Hampshire XC Championships	Basingstoke	U20	5th
Hampshire Schools XC Championships	Carisbrooke, IOW	Senior girls	6th
27th January	Southern XC	Holkham Hall, Norfolk	U20	13th
	Southern Schools XC	Bexhill	Senior Girls	6th
24th February	UK Inter-Counties XC	Woollaton Park, Nottingham	U20	30th
24th March	English Schools XC	Temple Newsham, Leeds	Senior Girls	37th
31st March	British Colleges Sport XC	Loughborough University		7th

2007 season

Charlotte finished 2nd woman in the Lymington Lifeboat 10km, her first competitive race over this distance in extremely windy conditions. 

She then opened the 2007 season in the Aqua Pura Women's 1500m steeplechase event in Southampton, her first steeplechase event, finishing 5th in a race where 2 athletes (Gloucester's Sarah Hopkinson and Southampton's Louise webb) broke Jo Ankier's UK record time and another (Woodford Green's Jessica Sparke) ran under Bryony Frost's UK Junior time .

Aqua-Pura Steeplechase speeds-up Under 17s Sarah Hopkinson (Gloucester AC) and Louise Webb (Team Southampton) both ran quicker than Jo Ankier’s Senior Women’s 1500m Steeplechase UK record of 4 minutes 52.5 seconds in an Aqua-Pura Development Race at Southampton on Wednesday May 23. Both were also well inside the UK Junior Women’s mark of 5.13.7 recorded by Bryony Frost at the 2003 European Junior Championships. From the gun, Hopkinson made her intentions clear and the first 400m was run in a quick 74 seconds with Webb tracking her. Both girls looked very proficient over the barriers and water jump. Hopkinson’s training partner Jessica Sparke (Woodford Green with Essex Ladies), running the event for the first time, lost ground at each obstacle but was never far away from the leaders, using her strength over 3k and cross country to maintain contact. Running stride for stride down the home straight, Webb took the last barrier slightly better to have the edge but Hopkinson proved stronger in the run to the line to win by half a second. These excellent performances bode well for the Aqua-Pura 2,000m steeplechase event during the St Mary’s Relays meeting at Twickenham on 6 June. Both Hopkinson and Webb are young enough to gain selection for the IAAF World Youth Championships to be staged in Ostrava, Czech Republic, where the UK Athletics selection time to chase is 6:48.00. Race result: 1 Sarah Hopkinson (Gloucester AC) 4.50.5; 2 Louise Webb (Team Southampton) 4.50.9; 3 Jessica Sparke (Woodford Green with Essex Ladies) 4.56.4; 4 Charlotte Bates (Unattached) 5.35.6; 5 Becky Neale (Poole AC) 5.38.8. Geoff Watkin, Aqua Pura Steeplechase Coordinator, was delighted with the performances of all five competitors, adding it was clear that this year’s Aqua-Pura programme was paying dividends. He explained: “At the start of the year, Louise Webb hadn’t been over a barrier but through attending the Aqua-Pura sessions at the UK Athletics Endurance Performance Centre at St Mary’s University Twickenham, she has already made so much progress in the event. I know that the 1500m steeplechase is not run too often but these were cracking performances.”

May	RNLI Lymington Lifeboat 10km	Lymington, New Forest	10kmR	Senior	40.22 (v windy)	2nd
23 May	Aqua Pura Steeplechase (incorporating Hampshire Schools steeplechase)	Southampton	1500m s/c	Senior (Senior Girls)	5:35.6	4th   (1st)
9 June	Hampshire Schools Championships	Southampton	3000m	Senior Girls	10:51.6	1st
18 July	Woodford Green Open Graded	Woodford	3000m		10:44.9	3rd (1st F)
8 August	Poole Open	Poole	1 Mile	Women	5:29.4	1st
12 August	Southern Inter-Counties	Portsmouth	3000m	Senior	10:44.6	6th A
26 August	SEAA U20 & U15 Inter Counties	London (He)	1500m	U20	4:55.64	6th
1 September	Southern Women's League Division 3W	Abingdon	3000m	U20	10:46.9	1st
1 September	Southern Women's League Division 3W	Abingdon	1500m	U20		1st
	Fresher's Cuppers	Oxford	3000m	U20/23		1st
27 October	Birmingham Cross Challenge	Birmingham		U20	14:31	7th
4 November	Freshers Varsity Match	Cambridge	1500m s/c		5:32.3	2nd
4 November	Freshers Varsity Match	Cambridge	3000m		10:42.4	3rd
	Cuppers XC	Port Meadow, Oxford
	Varsity II-IVths	Shotover, Oxford				4th
1 December	Hampshire League	Overton		Senior	23:59	16th (6th U20)
8 December	Southern Inter-Counties & London Championships	Parliament Hills		U20	23:06	7th

2008

Suffering a number of injuries in the latter part of the cross-country season, Charlotte managed surprisingly good runs at the Southerns and BUSAs. However, seriously hampered by illness at the Nationals, the after-effects of which carried through to the Inter-Counties, this season will remain a disappointing one for her.

Having started out the season steeplechasing, Charlotte switched back to the flat after an accident involving a water jump and the Iffley Road ducks two days before the Hampshire Championships, from which she developed an instinctive fear of water jumps which severely precluded her running a good time on her second run out over the barriers at Portsmouth, and led to her turning down the event at the Varsity and Senior Inter-Counties matches in May. However, she still turned out over the 400mH for Oxford, surprising everyone by taking an unexpected second for the Millipedes in her first attempt at the event in the opening event of the 2008 Varsity Match. However, her real intentions for the rest of the match, and indeed the season, lay over 3000m and 5000m. 

2009