This track was a new venue for the vets’ league. It is in a beautiful setting surrounded by lots of grass and trees. The weather was perfect, storms which had been forecast missed us.
We welcomed a new member to the team. Having supported her daughter Chloe’s athletics, mum Jenny Agyepong, got roped into joining Christine’s Thursday group, then in a training session unleashed her talent as a shot putter not having done anything since school days, some…… well many years back. With a little bit of coaching from Mick Bond then Pete Wishart Jenny finished 4th W50 with a confident throw – good to have you on board Jenny and under Pete’s wing for some more training we are sure there is more to come.
Xanine Powell got stuck in traffic and was unable to make the 100m and shot put, so Sally Carr, who’d come to support her team and sister ended up filling in the 100m. She was 4th in the W35 B string. Joanne Murphy was our W35 A string runner, and running strongly in her first race of the league this year also came 4th. Susan Dixon was an excellent 2nd in the W50 race, and Maria McDonald 3rd in the W60.
Xanine was also entered for the shot put. Chris Bond decided to drop the pole vault and do the W35 shot instead. She came 4th. She was also 3rd in the W35 javelin. Lynne Atkinson was 4th in the W50 javelin. Marlow Hadler was 3rd W60 in both the shot and javelin.
In the 800m races Lisa Atkinson was 4th W35 in the A string. Both Susan Dixon and Ros Tabor had to drop age groups for their races, and they both came 2nd, Susan in the W35 (B) and Ros in the W50.
Just before the relays Susan was seen to be hobbling on her warm up, although clearly in pain she didn’t want to let the team down and said she’d run but Team Manager made the decision for her to pull out and sister Sally took her place once again already having run the 100m earlier. With her broken arm still in a splint it was safer to put her on the first leg, Sally handed to Joanne, then Chris Bond to Lisa who ran a good last leg.
At the end, the girls presented Chris Bond with a Thank You card, Lynne informed us that today was in fact National Volunteer Day, a time to show one’s appreciation for volunteers, it was a lovely thought and made staying up late working out the team worthwhile.
We ended a good 3rd on the night, and remain 4th overall after 3 competitions. But most importantly we certainly have something I wouldn’t swap and that perhaps other clubs don’t, a lovely, joyful, helpful team!
Full results are on the SCVAC website.
The next match is on Monday 19 June at Dartford.