CLUBNEWS

22^nd JANUARY, 2007

STRONG SQUAD FOR THIRD SHOT AT EUROPE

It didn’t, readers may recall, take much effort in November for Leeds City’s Senior Men to get to be the British representative in the European Clubs’ Championship, as the opposition didn’t show up; but there certainly seems to be an effort among the lads to make the third shot at this event a good one. The squad selected for Portugal is close to full strength, consisting of Darran Bilton, Mike Burrett, Simon Deakin, Martin Gostling, Martin Hilton and James Walsh. In a contest with four to count where some ‘clubs’ look suspiciously like full international teams it would be asking a lot for even this team to be placed, but there’s a good chance of eclipsing previous performances – 8^th in 2004, 11^th last year. It’s not likely to be from lack of effort if they don’t!

19/20^th January – Northern Senior & Under-20 Indoor Championships, Sheffield

A SHINING SHOWER OF SHEFFIELD SUCCESS

Seven medals – one Gold, one Silver and five bronze – from ten athletes isn’t a bad return at this high level of competition; add to it a couple of near-misses and four or five PBs and it looks even better. No doubt as time goes on more of the Club’s members may decide to give the indoors a whirl in winter; it doesn’t seem to harm those who do. There were also a couple of disappointments – but then, that’s the way of it.

Most of the Bronze medals – four, in fact - came on Saturday. Three of them might have been expected; it was no surprise that Tom Casey was up among the better Under-20 Hurdlers, and 8.55 was quite a good opening effort in unfamiliar surroundings. Nor was it any surprise that Matt Hudson took two of the others, in both 60m flat and Hurdles, and it was highly pleasing that he put up PBs (7.03 after a 7.09 heat and 8.20) in both of them. However, the fourth Bronze was a complete bombshell – Kadena Cox in the Under-20 60m. That’s right – Kadena the Walking Wounded, Kadena the Injury Waiting to Happen, is now not only Kadena the Northern Medallist but Kadena the Fourth Fastest Member Ever over the distance. Moreover she not only broke eight seconds (7.93) in her heat, she produced an identical time in the Final. Throughout all her injury problems of the last couple of years Kadena has never lost two things – her determination and her liveliness – and they’ve clearly carried her through. The other five who turned out had a mixed day. Anthony Timms (7.25 for 60m) and Gary O’Neill (51.21 for 400) both went out by one in the heats but set PBs in the process; Danielle Carr (8.13) was a bit down on her best and didn’t progress. Rhys Smith did get through his 400 heat (49.01), but pulled up in the Final; and although Kirsty Parr was fourth in a four-competitor High Jump a season’s best of 1.55 was anything but displeasing.

The Sunday competition saw what could be called a perfect series – five competitors, six events, and they placed sixth to first! In reverse order (as per Miss World of many years ago), Kadena finished sixth and last in the 200 with 26.74, which would have been a PB had she not eclipsed it in the heat with 26.43. Anthony finished 4^th in his specialist Long Jump with a very handy 6.84 in a good-class field. Kirsty figured twice – once with 5^th in the Shot with an effort (11.29) only five centimetres down on her year’s best, and then took a Long Jump bronze with 5.13. Silver went to Hannah Evenden in the Under-20 Shot, with a mark (11.83) only slightly down on her first Under-20 effort in November. Finally, Richard Strachan, stepping down to 200 metres (or up from 60, depending on whether you consider his main event or his last appearance) made his intention clear with a 22.36 heat and then in the Final ran an excellent 21.95 to head the classy Eldridge Phiri by a twentieth of a second.

MORE UNDERCOVER ACTIVITIES

Having set the last Club record of 2007, Umar Hameed made it a bit of an occasion by setting the first Club record of 2008 at the Reebok Indoor Open Meeting at Manchester on January 6^th – by the massive margin of one hundredth of a second! He reckoned, however, that his 7.01 might have been considerably faster if he hadn’t tweaked his hamstring part way down. Anthony Timms also nudged his PB down, by three times as much, to 7.28. The second meeting of the series, on the following Sunday, saw some quite sprightly sprinting from the Mosley brothers – Tom doing a couple of 60s in 7.24 and 7.22, while Jack ran 7.84 and a 25.15.200 – a rare appearance on the boards from Matt Barton in 7.45 (but no Long Jump!), and a 1.49.56 600 from Chloe Harley which didn’t quite break her PB – but she was at pains to point out that she’d run a Leeds Schools’ league cross=country race the previous day.

There wasn’t too long a wait for the second record of the season to go – just another week, until Dan Gardiner upstaged the Under-20 Indoor Heptathlon mark finishing 5^th in the EA Indoor Combined Events at Sheffield. Dan’s performance in adding over 230 points to his previous mark with 4862 was excellent; he opened with a startling 7.12 60m, the first of his two PBs, closed with the second – 2.51.98 over 1000m, a good multi-eventer’s run – and in between produced a massive 13.24 Shot and consistent marks at Long Jump (6.73), Vault (3.65) and 60m Hurdles (8.78). However, the High Jump (1.68) was something of a disappointment, as he was put out of his stride by at one point demolishing the uprights with his head; he reckoned that with a decent effort he could have won.

However, against previous form James Sleigh’s 4789 in 7^th place – a gain of over 450 points, with four PBs set and one equalled – was probably an even better performance; it’s really tricky to judge between two such levels of excellence. James’ opening day was a cracker; 3.95 equalled his best vault, and 7.41, 6.81 and 11.59 were all improvements. He followed that with 8.46 ‘over the sticks’ and a useful 1.80 High Jump, and his 3.06.99 wasn’t far slower than the mark he did in the same event last year. There could be some outdoor fun later on.

The Women’s Pentathlon saw a sound opening gambit from Kirsty Parr and a bit of a disappointment in that Jenny Lumley didn’t complete the five events. Kirsty was just below her previous best with 3311, but 5.46 in the Long Jump, a quite sprightly 9.43 Hurdles and 11.34 with the Shot (only a centimetre off her best) won’t be sneezed at in mid-winter; she rounded off with 1.50 in the High Jump and 2.40.98 over 800. Jenny started a bit down with 9.64 in the Hurdles, but then rose to a splendid early-season 1.71 High Jump; However, after her first effort with the Shot (10.02) she had a recurrence of her back trouble and wisely left it alone.

MEANWHILE, OUT ON THE ROADS AND COUNTRY ….

The Brass Monkey Half-Marathon at York on Sunday didn’t actually live up to its name as far as temperature was concerned, but a severe cross-wind on parts of the course kept times slow; winner Steve Hepples was two minutes down on the record. Against this Darran Bilton’s 69.45 in a clear third place (and needless to say winning Vet.) doesn’t look the slightly disappointing performance it might have done ‘on paper,’ being again about two minutes down on expectations. Three of the other four Club participants were also down on their best – Scott Mitchell (18^th) some way down in 76.33, but he’s still working his way back from that hamstring problem. Chris Corcoran (184^th, 90.56 – 13^th Over-50) was also a couple of minutes slower than last year, and while Julie Barley has run faster she at least had the satisfaction of bringing home the Over-40 Ladies’ ‘pot’ – though honesty has to admit that the first Over-45 was in front of her! In fact only one member beat the weather-induced trend; in 130^th place Simon Hill (87.32) ran about 5½ minutes faster than he did last year.

The Brass Monkey is a very popular race, and gets up to its entry limit very quickly, so quite a few people miss out. One of them this year was Trevor Clough; and as he was looking for a race to set a first Over-50 mark he looked for an alternative and found the Four Villages Half-Marathon at Helsby in Cheshire. It was probably worth the trip, as in spite of weather he describes as “a bit wet and breezy” and a course which “I would call mildly undulating” he came within 15 seconds of Keith Horn’s age-group record with 80.40. he finished 47^th overall, and sixth among the Over-50s.

Four of the Elder Brethren of the Club turned out in the Yorkshire Veterans’ Championships on the notoriously muddy and hilly Cliffe Castle course at Keighley on the 13^th. Martin Farran, the only representative in the race for ‘young oldies’ (those between 35 and 49), finished 9^th, which placed him second in the Over-45 category and gave him the Club’s only medal. Among the older gents (those from 50 to 69) Roger Parker, who found the course to his liking, was 8^th Over-60 in 51s place, Dave Barras, who most certainly didn’t (he likes tarmac) was 15^th Over-60 in 84^th, and John Mace, warming up for the northern, was 13^th Over-55 in 63^rd.

Martin Hilton put on his civil servants’ hat (a bowler, presumably!) to participate on January 16^th in the annual match between the Civil Service, the RAF and Middlesex for (The Scribe believes) the Sefton Brancker Trophy. He duly won the match, but finished 4^th overall as the race was run in conjunction with another match featuring the Police and Oxford University, and he was (according to Dad Lunchtime O’Surf) “beaten by two policemen (Dave Mitchison being one) and a student.”

EDUCATIONAL FOOTNOTE

It won’t be too long to the County Schools’ Championships; indeed North Yorkshire had theirs last week, with Caitlin Regan finishing 7^th and Emily Robinson 9^th in the Junior Girls; results passed by courtesy of Dave Paver. Leeds Schools’ teams for the West Yorkshire races were picked before Christmas on the basis of the third Leeds Schools’ League race; assuming that the first eight were chosen, Club members in the various races are Elliot Todd, Gordon Benson and Alex Hart (first three in the Junior Boys), Johanna Wilton, Chole Harley, Becky Whitfield and Georgia Yearby (1^st, 3^rd, 6^th and 8^th in the Junior Girls), Mike Wood, Tom Rollins and Lee Allsopp (1^st, 3^rd & 4^th in the Inter Boys), Rachel May (7^th Inter Girls) James Wilkinson, Mike Salter and Geoff Belcher (first three Senior Boys) and Sophie Waterhouse and Jodie Gregorczyk (first two Senior Girls).