Southern Counties Veterans AC Kent League Division 1, Tonbridge (Fri. 14th June)
Men (Tim Carter): I thought that the team produced an outstanding performance given that many of our regular athletes were either injured or not available - we gained a further 4th place on the night maintaining 4th overall after three meets with just three points behind B&B in 3rd place. Again, all events were covered on the night.
Star performances included Edmund Adigwe winning the M35A 800m in 2:07.2s - an excellent time and tight race in blustery conditions. Lincoln Campbell M55 pulled back the years with a brilliant 2nd place in M35B 100m in 13.1 Wole Odele M55 jumped 4.79m to gain 2nd place in M50 LJ. A creditable 3rd place for Martin Leat M60 800m - 2:39.8s and our 'new boy' Duncan Hope impressed for 3rd in the M35B 800m - 2:11.9s and a turn of speed for 4th leg of the 4 x 100 relay.
Again, for the umpteenth time, Wole and Paris Hunt put themselves on the line for multiple events - Wole, in addition to above, 5th in M35 shot, 5th in M50 100m and a point in the M35 hammer - giving years away and shot/hammer not his normal events.' Mr Versatility' Hunt M60 gained good points in the M35  LJ - a very solid 4.41m jump, M50 Hammer and M60 SP.
A fine performance by Matthew Preston gaining 3 points in M50 800m - 2:20.7s, Edmund and Lincoln adding more valuable points in the M35 100m and M50 Shot respectively. The 4 x 100 relay team comprising of Wole, Lincoln, Edmund and Duncan gaining 5th place - a creditable performance for an 'oldish' team. Mention also to our non scorer - John Barron M65 ( nearly 70) - a robust 100m in 15.6s and 800m when it turned chilly.
Women (Chris Bond): We came third on the night, and sit fourth in the league, but Tonbridge & Dartford both have had home matches so hoping we can pull up at the match on 28th June as it will be our home match!
Kicking off, two fifths in the 100m, middle distance runners up against some mean sprinters, thanks Joanna Parkes & Christine Lutsch fillings at short notice. In the W50’s, Lisa Atkinson nursing an injury finished 4th . In the 800m Christine filled in for a poorly Sophie Johnson to finish 3rd, with 5th place for Rose Baker in the B-string. In a very competitive W50’s 800m Julie Backley, nursing afoot injury, was 4th.
With only one quick training session, Joanna surprised us on the night, having not done long jump since school days jumped 3.69m for 2nd place to a 3.70m jump! Our ever loyal and strongest field competitor in the Natalie Mann (W35) gave us our only clear win of the night in the hammer with a best of 33.04m.
Southern Athletics League - Division 1, Woking (Sat. 15th June)
On Saturday our athletes travelled to Woking for the 2nd Southern Athletics League of the season, writes Sophie Fenner. A depleted team left us lacking on points and a lower position than hoped for, but athletes performed well individually.
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In the sprints, Emily Cadman won the 100m A-string and Christal Izuchukwu won the B-string with a personal best of 12.37s. Ariana Clarke ran well with a time of 12.95s and Victory Ogbah ran 14.05s. In the 200m, Christal finished 4th (A-string) and Ariana 3rd in the B string. In the 100m hurdles, Amira Muhammed-Hassan finished 3rd and Cerys Daniels won the B- string. Gabriella Noyce was unlucky not to win the 400m hurdles, having led the whole way, coming away with a personal best of 67.97s.
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Cerys finished 4th A-string and Gabriella1st B-string in the high jump. This was very good considering the weather conditions of the day. Gabby jumped 4.33m in the long jump and Amira 8.22m in the triple jump. Â Sophie Fenner threw a personal best in the hammer of 37.53m, her furthest throw in over 2 years. Natalie Mann won the B-string hammer with 32.46m. Natalie also threw 6.95m in the shot, 23.24m in the discus and 20.50m in the javelin. Cerys threw a personal best in the javelin of 18.93m.
UK Youth Development League (Lower), Basildon (Sun 16th June)
The weather thankfully held off for the third YDL match in Basildon on Sunday where the club finished third in the match and sits third in the league.
U15 Girls (Emily Yeatman): The U15 girls put in a solid performance with PBs for Nia Thomas (100m - 12.8s), Celia Yeatman (300m - 47.8s), Sophia-Rose Bonnar (800m - 2:29.8s), Delilah Lester (1500m - 5:12.1), Eniola Sodeke (SP - 6.76m), Jadesola Adenle and Elizabeth McKen javelin 14.64m and 9.74m.
U13 Boys (Sarah Ravenscroft): Sunday saw another successful day out for the U13 boys team. PB’s Herbie Tobin and Johnny Ravenscroft in the 800m (2:29.8s & 2:33.7s), and some strong performances on the field with PB’s for Zakai Attram in high jump (1.35m), Phoenix London (4.01m) and Rupert Scott (3.47m) in the long jump and Johnny Ravenscroft (14.05m) in javelin. The U13B are a growing team and it was good to have first performances from Raif Mendjeli and Isaac Thompson in the 1200m.Â
Johnny Ravenscroft - Raif Mendjeli
Eltham Park 5 (Sun. 16th June)
This is a nice two lap, five mile trail race organised by our friends at New Eltham Joggers, free beer and cake for all finishers add to the appeal, writes Clem Dixon. This year it was a counter in our Road Grand Prix competition and we had a good turn out of 17. First home for the club and showing that his recovery is progressing well was James Macdonald, although he waited until well into the second lap before he overtook Liam Carr, our next finisher. James was 11th and first in the M40 category in a more competitive field than usual on account of this also being a counter in the Kent Grand Prix this year. Sue Dixon was first of the club's women followed by Rose Baker and Sally Carr.
Cambridge Harriers Beer Mile (Fri. 14th June)
Our annual beer mile was again held at Greenwich Park cricket field taking advantage of the fact that the boundary line is as close to being a quarter of a mile as a GPS watch can measure writes Clem Dixon. Our competition is run under traditional British "Chunder Mile" rules (4 x (1 pint + 400m)), beware of imitations! You will find many seemingly impressive performances on YouTube and elsewhere, including a 5:22 clocking by Ingebrigtsen, but these are achieved by drinking smaller quantities of beer (it is more expensive in Norway I suppose). To be fair, owing to the difficulty in finding bottled or canned beer in imperial pints (568ml) we do allow measures of 500ml but no other concessions are made.
In the interests of propriety I shall draw a veil over many of the details of the race but suffice to say that James Macdonald had learnt the lesson of a schoolboy error in a previous year (ice cold lager!) and took the title in an impressive time of 8:26. James was made to work hard for his victory by Phil Dickens who was just 6 seconds back. Previous champion Clem Dixon was beaten into third place with Joe Sheldrake fourth. Alice Paskell retained her title as ladies champion.
Many thanks to the 11 who competed, to Graham Maynard and Foy Ahmed for doing the results, to Danny Easton for the excellent photographs and to the many who turned up to spectate on a sunny evening. What did we do afterwards? Went down the pub of course!
Link to Danny's photos here.
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