The first of four senior track and field league meetings took place on Saturday 06 May at Worcester. The start of each season is a difficult time as team managers and athletes alike look forward to a new track season with so much expectation and a desire for individuals and the team to do well. Saturday was no different in this respect but there were perhaps heightened expectations given our relegation to division 2 last season. Saturday morning dawned gloomy and cool with a brisk breeze, in stark contrast to earlier in the week when the sun shone and temperatures were much higher.
The journey did not dampen spirits of the team travelling on the bus to Worcester despite certain knowledge that we had far from a full team. Conditions did not improve as the match got underway and very early on it was clear that it was going to be difficult to achieve our target of promotion back to division one at the first attempt. There were however two outstanding performances both coming from the women’s team.
Firstly Rhianne Moore-Martin produced another phenomenal performance in the hammer. Hot on the heels of her 51.35 metre throw for a new U17 club record at the YDL upper age group meeting on the previous Saturday, Rhianne, just 15 years of age, launched the 4kg implement to 39.86 metres eclipsing the U20 and senior club record for the event in the process for second place in the A string competition and 3rd overall. Rhianne now holds all our age group hammer records and has become our best women hammer thrower of all time.
The second outstanding performance came, perhaps not unexpectedly, from women’s team captain Kate Holt in the 3K. Kate had an excellent cross country season which this year flowed seamlessly into the track season taking first place in the 3K with a personal best clocking of 9:23.3, a 15 second improvement, in a hard fought race in less than ideal conditions. The performance also set a new senior 3K club record, which had stood for 15 years, by some 4 seconds. Kate then went on 30minutes later to win comfortably win the 1500m and run the fastest leg in our winning 4x400m team. An excellent start to the season.
Congratulations to both athletes on a job well done.
There followed a number of personal best performances throughout the match:-
Josh Billington 100m-10.9, 200m 21.8
Ishmael Anderson 100m 11.1, 200m 22.4
Bret Okeke 200m 22.2
Heidi Jackson 200m 25.5
Oliver langford 5K 14:57.4
She Janally 5K 16:12.3
Alice Wright TJ 8.11
James Taylor Discus 19.63
Despite these and many more good performances the men’s team finished last and the women team finished third combining to manage a lowly 5th team place on the day leaving us once again with an uphill battle in our quest for promotion and it may yet turn into a battle for survival if athletes who could have made the difference do not play their part in the remaining fixtures.
It was clear that those teams at the top of the division filled the majority of events, we were poor in this respect. There is not much scope for improvement in the women’s team, however, that can not be said for the men’s team far too many gaps and key athletes missing. We hope that more athletes will make themselves available at the remaining fixtures and give us the chance of at least remaining in this division. We need all athletes to play their part and support the club in the remaining fixtures.