If the 1st May competition was a matter of icing and no cake, the 11th May meeting had both in quantity, writes Geoffrey Kitchener. We fielded athletes in every event (even though some of us had not tried out a particular event before) and secured our best score for years, 71 points.This gave us third place in the competition, behind the teams who were in Division 1 last year; and in the series we advanced from last to fourth place.
On the track we produced five 1500m runners, all providing solid performances. Geoff Vine ran as an M50, and his time of 6 minutes and 1 second looks to be worth 8th position in the UK M65 rankings. Maurice Marchant, who ran as a non-scoring guest, came home in 6 minutes 30.5 seconds which also ranks him within the top dozen UK M65s, although he has bettered this earlier in the season. Our top-scoring runner was James Graham, who won the M60 1500m in 5 minutes 26.2 seconds, some 50 seconds ahead of his nearest Division 2 rival; his real race was with a Division 1 athlete, both runners having pulled clear of the field well before the final lap but with James staying half a second ahead at the finish. The time should be worth 14th place in the UK M60 rankings. Our other middle-distance runners were Duncan Cochrane and David Lobley (M50); the latter dominated the first lap, but was then unable to maintain pace in what then became a punishing M35 A race, although still producing for him a 36th UK ranked time.
Our fastest sprinter was Paul English, with 25.9 seconds for second place in the M35A 200m race. Third places in the 200m were secured by Geoffrey Kitchener in the M50 event and by Martin White in the M35B race, although his position should perhaps have been higher as Bexley AC put their faster sprinter in the B race instead of A.
In the field events, Paul came second in the M35 shot put, with a new M40 club best of 9.15m. Third places were secured by Duncan Cochrane in the M50 shot put; by Geoffrey Kitchener in the M50 high jump; and, with the same height (1.25m), by David Lobley in the M35 high jump – his first high jump for 35 years! David Simpson’s javelin throw of 19.46m may well be enough for second place in the UK M75 rankings.
The last track event of the evening was the 4x100m relay, where the team of Martin, Geoffrey David L. and Paul came home in third place, matching our excellent position in the overall meeting.
I attach a copy of the results.
The next meeting is on Monday 1st June at Canterbury.
The Canterbury programme is:
6.45: men’s discus (including over 60s), women’s long jump and 100m
7.15: men’s 100m
7.30: women’s high jump
7.45: women’s 800m
8.00: men’s long jump, women’s discus
8.15: men’s 800m
8.45: women’s 4x100m relay
8.55: men’s 4x100m relay.
If you are able to attend, please let me know, preferably by Wednesday 27 May mentioning your preferred event(s) – and any others you might do in addition, if we cannot fill a gap.
I can offer a lift for three. If anyone else can offer or needs a lift, please let me know. The track is at Canterbury High School, Knight Avenue, Canterbury, CT2 8QA (parking at the school, which is off the A2050 approaching Canterbury from the west); the nearest station is Canterbury West.