Cambridge Harriers Track & Field Nights, Eltham (Wed. 21st June)
Our second mid week open of the summer went off without any of the problems of the first event and had a good attendance across all the events.
In the women's hammer Natalie Mann set a new club record for the W35 age group with a throw of 34.82m.
SCVAC (Kent) Track & Field League, Bromley (Fri. 23rd June)
The fourth of the six SCVAC (Kent) league matches took place at Norman Park on Friday evening. The lack of a starting pistol means that all the track performances are unofficial and have not been published on Power of 10.
The men's team finished in fourth and remain fourth in the overall league. The women claimed third place on the night, but like the men sit fourth in the league.
Wins on the night came courtesy of the men's team. Chris Loudon won the M35 1500m in 5:10.0, Steven Marlow the M35 shot with a best throw of 9.89m and team manager Mark Ashby (M60) took the win in the M50 2000m race walk with 12:02.9.
Top: Lisa Atkinson & Steven Marlow
Bottom: Wole Odele & Joanne Park
Eastern AA Championships, Cambridge (Sat. 24th June)
Triple gold for Craig Lacy at the Eastern AA Track & Field Championships held in Cambridge, with personal bests in the shot (12.96m) and discus (38.14m) and a seasons best of 57.21m in the javelin.
ESAA SE Regional Combined Event Championships, Lee Valley (24th/25th June)
Gabby Noyce and Hans Nmaju both broke long standing club records. In U17 women's heptathlon, previously held by Wendy MacDonald and was 35 years old, Gabby scored 3672 adding over 200 points to the previous record of 3457 points. In the U15 boys pentathlon Hans added just over 100 points to the existing record with a score of 2640 points, the record having stood since 1986 to Kevin McKinson.
UK Youth Development League Upper - Southern 1B, Gillingham (Sun. 25th June)
Our campaign to reach the top Division of the YDL league nearly came off the rails on Sunday as a flurry of last-minute dropouts and no shows stretched the team to its limits, writes Mick Bond. Those that were there however rallied round and filled where they could and performed magnificently in the relentless heat of Medway park. The points position oscillated between ourselves, Havering and Medway throughout the afternoon and at the end of the day the initial results had us losing to Having by twenty points. For a moment on Sunday evening we were promoted to top spot as the results were checked but then a further check moved things again and we were back to second by a mere two points with us on 622, Havering on 624 and Medway on 613. With one match to go we are one point behind Havering in the Division however a win at the next match will see us at least draw level and with 200 more match points than Havering, following our big win at the first match, we will overtake them and get promoted. Our last match is at home on Sunday July 30th.
Under 20 Men: The match saw a welcome return to competition for Dante Legister who ran an 11.05s 100m into a headwind but also showed his power by winning the shot with 10.72m following a 10 minute coaching session with former commonwealth champions Myrtle Augee the previous Thursday. Orin Vitalis won the 400m hurdles, 110m hurdles B-string and set a long jump PB of 5.91m only missing first on countback. The middle-distance quartet of Jack Adams, Aidan Ward, David Pongui and Shola Akintoye all set PB’s on a good day at the office for the Dom Fiore/Andy Knight coaching team.
Under 20 Women: Hannah Bridge recorded a PB in the shot, winning with 13.20m and then won the discus with 33.61m. Cerys Daniels set her 6th PB of the season in the 100m hurdles with 16.55m and then won the high jump with 1.51m. Amira Mohammed-Hassan won the 400 hurdles and B-string high jump.
Under 17 Men: Josiah Mosely Payne pulled ahead of the field in the 100m hurdles only to clip the 9th hurdle and then crash to the ground over the last but still managed to get up to finish 3rd and will surely go sub-16 soon. Josh Baker dealt well with a strong head wind in the javelin to take second with a best of 49.70m.
Under 17 Women: Best performance of the day came in the 4x100 relay as our Under 17 women took another half a second off the club record they set earlier in the season and are now clearly the fastest team in the country. This is good timing as the club has been invited to send U17 and U20 men’s and women’s teams to the club connect relay event at the Olympic stadium in July. The event runs between 12 and 1pm in the stadium and is immediately followed by the London Diamond League event so if you are going get there early to see all our juniors in action! Lily Gayle and Keziah Olaleye warmed up for the English Schools this weekend with wins in the 80m and 300m hurdles respectively.
North Downs Run 30km inc. BMAF Championships, Gravesend (Sun. 25th June)
30 km in 30 degrees C. The North Downs Run is quite tough enough without the addition of sweltering heat; many of us that started with aspirations of times or positions would switch to survival mode before the end, writes Clem Dixon. Many, but not all: Ed Bovingdon (formerly of host club Istead and Ifield, now of Leeds) somehow managed to set a new course record of 1:51:36 despite the conditions. As in previous years the event incorporated the British Masters Athletics Federation trail running championships and national medals were picked up by Christian Poulton (M55 silver) and Clem Dixon (M60 bronze).
Christian Poulton - Clem Dixon - Steve Brown
Results: 22. Christian Poulton 2:30:15, 126. Clem Dixon 3:11:37 & 229. Steve Brown 3:37:58.
Cambridge Harriers Chunder Mile
Clem Dixon retained his title as Club Chunder Mile Champion at the Greenwich Park cricket ground, writes Clem. This annual event follows the traditional British format of 4 x (1 pint + 1/4 mile) (beware of imitations!). It was enjoyed by competitors and spectators alike, a much needed veneer of respectability was provided by Graham Maynard's official timekeeping and by the presence of Club president Dean Lacy in full regalia.
Results: 1. Clem Dixon (Old Speckled Hen) 9:25, 2. Martin Hawkins (Spitfire) 13:10, 3. Guy Swarbreck (Carling) 14:21, 4. Alice Paskell (Carling) 15:00, 5. Ross May (Abbot Ale) 16:59 & 6 Ray Ramsay (Hobgoblin Gold) 17:50.