Page 7 - Summer2016Gazette

Athletics Report 7

The Senior Men…

British Athletic League 2017

Camron Lyttle (sprints), Jordan tour guide giving his definitive
A frustrating season perhaps? Layne (400), Adam Herring perspective on the South Wales
Frustration more often comes (4x400), Pedro Gleadall (pole towns. Port Talbot came in for
from gaining great results with- vault) and Luc Durant (shot). particular abuse, did he lose in
out the satisfaction of a tangible Scott Huggins had an impres- love here in his distant past? We
reward and there was much to sive win in the pole vault and tried to keep him humoured
be encouraged by, together with a we surprised ourselves with vic- and hoped the refreshments
slow improvement from the team tory in the 4x100. It was great to stall would be open the next day
year by year, which made one feel have Louis Mascarenhas back or we’d never hear the end of it.
that the Senior Men would gain in action after missing all of last After recent terrorist attacks,
that coveted promotion to the season. every station we stopped at in
top flight which they justifiably Thanks to Dave Cordell for Wales was patrolled by armed
would have merited. But it bringing the tent along. police, and, when we arrived at
was not to be. Blackheath and our Premier Inn, the reception-
Bromley have in the past had Final Result: ist informed us that sniffer dogs
to re-locate when circumstances 1. Cardiff 318, 2. Swansea 316, had been through the premises
demanded it. Maybe in the light 3. Harrow 291, 4. Blackheath & earlier in the week and that
of what eventually happened this Bromley 283, 5=. Sale Harriers we had 24 police officers in
season the club needs to re-locate 265, 5=.Windsor Slough Eton & residence.
to Wales! Hounslow 265, 7=. Basingstoke
Pat Calnan reports… This was a tricky fixture for us
& Mid Hants 208, 7=. City Of and we had gaps to fill. Team
Glasgow 208. spirit was good, however, and
Match One, Basingstoke the train journey had given us
6th May. Match Two, Swansea the opportunity to address most
Fourth in the first match wasn’t 3rd June. of the issues. One of these was
really one thing or the other. Flashback to January and I’m not just who would compete in
We weren’t far off third place wondering why there seems to the vault but would we be able
but well adrift of the two Welsh be no accommodation available to find a pole for them to use.
clubs. We were the second best for a Friday night in Swansea. We finished in 5th place scored
team in the field events two In fact there doesn’t seem to be more points than we did in the
points behind Cardiff, but the any in South Wales at all. Ah, first fixture where we came
fifth best on the track. the Champions League Final is 4th. It was a great result partly
Obvious highlight of the day taking place in Cardiff on the because we achieved this with
was James Whiteaker’s perfor- Saturday. This could be a prob- a number of people missing but
mance in the javelin. He won lem, but as the football clubs get more importantly everyone who
with a distance off 77.03. This knocked out, the accommoda- was there made it happen. All
was a qualifying performance tion opens up. Arsenal are dis- events were filled, and athletes
for the Commonwealth Games patched 10-2 by Bayern Munich achieved personal bests, seasons
though did not guarantee and we’re in business. bests and bonded as a team.
selection. It broke Peter Yates We welcomed a number of the Dan Putnam set a personal best
Senior Club record which had new athletes to the team, Ross to win the 200 metres, having
stood for thirty years and was Braden, Tim Ayres, Kieran been pipped in the 100 by a
of course a Club Junior record Murphy and youngster Lewis hundredth of a second. Our
as well. Mills. Fortunately we had old best event was the triple jump
This was James first appearance crusty Ken Daniel in our party. where Jonathan Ilori took the
for the team and there were He was able to pass on his expe- A string with 15.11 and Rob
some more fine debuts too from rience and also act as unofficial Sutherland made it maximum