The eight man squad for the 3rd SCVAC league match at Tonbridge, included a few “running wounded” but was boosted by the late availability of Andy Knight as the only M35-49 athlete in a team with an average age of 59 years.
Wole Odele was the sole Cambridge winner on the night, coming 1st in both the M50 100m and High Jump. Paris Hunt, Peter Wishart and Tim Carter all came 2nd in the M50 Javelin, Shot-putt and M60 100m, whilst Stanley Thomas dropped down an age group to place 3rd in the M35 Shot Putt.
The High Jump and Javelin were the first events, starting simultaneously in the field. Stanley, recovering from a hamstring strain, dropped down an age group to come 4th in the M35 competition, just missing out on 3rd place on countback on his first competitive high jump and Wole won the M50 event, despite nursing a sore heel. Peter dropped down an age group for 6th in the M35 Javelin and Paris came 2nd in the M50.
The next event was the 100m where Stanley dropped down an age group to come 5th in the difficult M35 A-string. Paris, not fully recovered from a hamstring/quad injury from the previous match, had to pull up, but limped through to finish for minimum points in the B-string. Wole won the M50 and Tim came 2nd in the M60 event.
Stanley and Peter were back in the field for the Shot Putt with Stanley dropping down an age group to come 3rd in the M35 event whilst Peter narrowly missed out on 1st place by 6cms to place 2nd in the M50 competition. Octogenarian, Warwick Dixon, dropping down an age group to putt the heavier 5kg weight, a full 2kg more than he usually throws, did well to place 4th in the M60 competition.
The action moved back to the track for the 800m races, where Andy made a welcome return from injury to place 4th in the A-string. With Mark Ashby complaining of a hamstring niggle ahead of the match, a tactical switch was made to move him to cover the B-string whilst Wole competed in the M50. Mark placed 6th and Wole was 4th.
With Mark and Paris unable to compete in the relay due to injury, John Murphy, who had only come down to support his wife, Joanne in the women’s match, was drafted into the squad and the quartet of Tim, John, Stanley and Wole got the baton round in 6th place to secure a final point for the team leaving us in 4th place on the night and 5th on overall match points. Next match is at Dartford on Monday June 19th.
Videos of the races as recorded by the hosts, Tonbridge AC, are available at the links below:
Special mention to the Cambridge officiating team of Pauline Boorman, Jan Clifford, Dave Kitcher, Richard Mann, Barry Ferguson and Andy Murray of Dulwich runners who helped us fulfil our field officiating duty.
Full results are on the SCVAC website.
The next match is on Monday 19 June at Dartford.