Faster, stronger, better!
Another busy evening for our multi-eventers Paris Hunt and Wole Odele. Michael Pape has decided expand our portfolio of multi-eventers, by taking on field events in addition to his normal track.
Paris (M55) – nursing a calf injury – had to split himself in two; competing in the high jump and hammer, both events starting at the same time.
He achieved a creditable 4th place in the M35 hammer, and 5th in the M35 high jump, missing out on 4th place only on count-back. This in between sprinting to the 100m start, where he was also competing in the M35 A-string 100m race.
Wole was similarly busy, and excelled again as our star M50 performer, with clear victories in the M50 high jump, and M50 100m.
The team were short of a B-string specialist 1500m runner, so Wole stepped up to the arduous challenge of securing the team some points in the M35 1500 B string. He did however, promise us that he would be fully recovered for the final track event; the 4 x 100 relay.
Michael Pape (M45) in the M35 B-string 100m, finished a creditable 5th. It would appear, though, that he forgot to pack his shorts, running, as he did, in trousers!
After a crash course in shot put (10 throws with Peter and Paris!) he made a welcome debut in the M35 event, gaining 3rd place and a PB.
Valuable points by Matthew Preston 4th in the M35 1500m, and Mark Ashby 5th in the M50 age group.
In the M60 100m a great start by Medway meant Tim was in 2nd from the off but solid running maintained the gap from the leader throughout the race and he held onto 2nd place.
Ian McCarthy, who always makes himself available for any gap in the team sheet, debuted in the M60 shot put. There was not much in it between him and the 5th placed competitor. Great effort by Ian.
In the 4 x100 relay, the teams finished in the same positions as the last meeting at Dartford. Our team (Wole, Tim, Paris, Michael) and Bexley both upped their games improving by over a 2 seconds. Even so Bexley (now with their M35 100m runner) pushed us into 4th again. Now we are achingly close; some fine tuning and a helpful video for after game analysis will give us confidence to improve.
We also gained 2nd place in the M50 shot put.
It seems strange that, by the end of may, we are half way through the league fixtures.
Currently we sit 5th (of six teams) in the division one table; level on match points with 4th placed Bexley, and only 1 behind in the accumulated event points.
It would appear, therefore, that we have to out perform Bexley over the remaining three fixtures to survive in division one.
All hands to the pump!
My thanks to Barry Ferguson and Pauline Boorman for their officiating duties.