Middle Distance spare the team's blushes!

Report by Tom Gayle

The notoriously consistent ‘dodgy’ fixture in the Junior Men’s League campaign reared its ugly head again over the weekend in the clubs second league match. Like in previous years, Dumfries in 2000 and Wigan last year the club struggled to replicate the form of the opening fixture.

A combination of absences (all the multi-event squad were unavailable as they were seeking English Schools qualification elsewhere), many athletes competing for the second time in the space of 24 hours and quite simply a few under par performances meant the club had a frustratingly poor day.

The best performances on the day came from the middle distance squad. After losing so many good distance athletes last year it was feared that the club would struggle in this department. On the day though those present provided the bulk of the clubs highest point scores.

First up was Chris Steele in the 800m B string. After opening a 50m lead after just a quarter of the distance completed he scorched through an opening lap of 56 seconds. He did slow over the second lap, partly due to fatigue but mainly due to the lack of company. His brave approach to the race earned a comfortable victory, and in a manner which suggests in an even pace run he could possibly crack the 2 minutes barrier.

Following Chris example was his namesake Chris Minor in the 3000m. After a quick opening kilometre he also had built up a sizeable lead, which he held to around 600m to go as the chasing pack reeled him in. Many feared the worst but maturely Chris sat on the back of the now level group and managed to pick off all but one in the finish straight to place second behind Sales Gareth Davies.

In the B string Lee Collis went one better in virtually the complete opposite fashion. A cautious start, probably as he was running his second 3000m of the weekend meant he worked his way through the field to comfortably win the B string.

The best distance performance was saved till last as Gavin Walters and Stephen Cooper took maximum points in the steeplechase. Cooper lead all the way in the B string but Walters had a race long battle with James Herring of Middlesborough & Cleveland in the A. After sharing the pace through out Walter’s comfortably picked the pace up over the last lap to win in 6.31.8.

Outside the middle distance the club was only able to place in the top 3 in two other events. Nick Gayle placed third in the 100m hurdles, his second sub 15 run of the weekend, while the best field performance came from Rob Eggleton in the Javelin. In far from favourable condition (a fluctuating wind always makes the throws difficult) Rob came third in a very competitive competition with a throw of 48.17.

The commitment of the team present couldn’t be questioned though. Special note should also be given to Ashley Stevenson. After some how stringing a hop, skip and jump together, he then later literally hobbled over 1.75 in the high jump despite clearly carrying a painfully obvious limp.

In the 200m Nick Gayle and Andrew Waller both ran creditable personal bests (Gayle went from 23.2 down to 22.7, while Waller just 15 went from 23.8 down to 23.4), but neither was able to make a great impact on the race largely due to the impressive standard. In the A race the first 5 went under 22.5 lead by Great Britain Junior International Arron Aplin (Notts), and in the B string the first 4 all went under 23 seconds.

In the end it wasn’t as bad as first expected though as the team rallied considerably in the later events to claim 5^th place on the day. As a result a place in the final in September is still on course, but by no means guaranteed!

Full results from the meeting can be found at http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/alanjohnson/njal.htm

Stoke AC Results