CLUBNEWS

17^th APRIL, 2008

APRIL IS THE QUIETEST MONTH ….

Even though Easter fell about as early this year as it statistically can, there’s still an air of quite about athletics in mid-April. Cross-country’s over, the big road relays come at either end, the track season hasn’t really got us steam yet – in fact if you’re not a Marathon enthusiast it could all be a bit dull. So what’s come out of this dull period? – well, how about four Club records and another possible National title?

13^th April – London Marathon

AGED RECORDS TUMBLE IN GREAT TEAM EFFORT

According to the Legend of Thorpe Park, Lunchtime O’Surf, Leeds City’s long-distance roadies took the team title in the London Marathon ahead of Salford Harriers in what in the relative terms of such an event was an extremely close finish – 93 seconds! The result has yet to be confirmed (and if previous years’ London results are anything to go by it’ll take a while) but no only the counting three but all eight Leeds City participants (assuming none have been missed – please let Clubnews know) did themselves credit – and two came home with a Club Record.

Darran Bilton reports by e-mail that “the top three spot runners” (Chris Birchall, Adam Osborne and himself) “were in fine fettle. Conditions at the start were fine (a little too warm, some would say) and the intrepid trio set of like the proverbial men on a mission. Chris passed the first 10k in 32.44, followed in close pursuit by Darran in 32.44 and running well within his comfort zone was Adam in 34.17. All went to plan and all three made half way in 69.38, 71.09 and 73.03 respectively. All three paced along with confidence though Chris' early exuberance was about to cost him as his race plan, like the sky, started to become overcast. Darran, ever the consummate marathon 'old timer' ran to his plan, paying little attention to those around (thinking of the 'bigger picture' and all that). Adam's pacing seemed to be spot on, though the miles began to weigh heavier on his legs than they really should (perhaps his memory of this unforgiving part of the race coming back to haunt him from last year).

And so to the finishing straight and the cruellest blow of all. The bounding Bilton surged past Birchall to finish in 2.23.49 as 10th Brit, 28th overall and cashed in with the $1000 bounty for finishing first male over 40. Birchall followed with a creditable 2.23.58, a little disappointed with thoughts of what might have been. Close by, Oz finished in a quality 2.37.09, again a good result but not as good as he was hoping for.”

It’s quite a while since two Club members were separated after 26-plus miles by a mere nine seconds! Darran’s run finally did what he’s been threatening for a while and removed Brian Scobie’s record from the lists. (The Lairdie hasn’t vanished altogether; he still holds the 10000m record for Vets. How about a confrontation on the track between Darran and Martin Roscoe sometime??) Adam had to work a bit, though, to stay ahead of Susan Partridge’s superlative 2.41.40 in the �lite Women’s race; the time placed her 17^th in that hot competition, and fourth on the Club Ranking List, and when the only names ahead of you are Marot, Hulley and Catford you can say you’ve run!

The second Club record fell to the slowest of the eight, but Chris Corcoran turned 55 recently, and his 3.15.27 in 2,421^st place took just under two minutes from the time Dave Sutcliffe set two years ago, in spite of the fact that “it was a pity I had to stop for the toilet, since I lost over 90 seconds!” Becoming a record-holder should put vigour in his massaging arm! There was very nearly another, as Trevor Clough (516) ran a splendid 2.51.00 – but it was just 40 seconds too slow, so the name of the legendary Bill (‘Father’) Fielding stays on the list for another year. (If you want to know why he was legendary, read Chapter 8 of the Club History!) Josh Whitehead, who’s been going so well in recent weeks, made his first Marathon appearance in Club colours, if not actually his debut, and was probably a shade disappointed not to break three hours (3.04.13); it suggests that somewhere along the course he had a rough time. The final finisher definitely proved the case that, whatever your talent, if you work at it you get somewhere; Simon Hill (1692) ran a 3.08.29 that when he first joined a couple of years back would have looked out of the question. Simon’s personal ‘Everest’ must now be three hours – and it wouldn’t surprise The Scribe to see it happen.

NOT THE ONLY ONES AT LONDON

In addition to the runners, the Leeds City wheelchair athletes were down doing their bit at London, and a fair old bit it was too, as Paul Moseley reported by e-mail:-

“Matthew Hickling and Nick Smith competed in their first London Mini Marathon on Sunday. Their race was the first of the day starting at 9.05 am, which meant that they had the best of the sunshine. Matty finished 8th Male, 5th in his age group in a time of 24 mins 23 secs, whilst Nick finished 15th Male and 10th in his age group in a time of 30mins 35secs. In a competitive race with an athlete who had beaten Matty all last season, Matty took charge for the finishing straight to win by several seconds.”

The preceding Friday night was the date of the Regional Disability Awards Dinner at Elland Road football ground, and again there was a Club presence. “Four Leeds City AC members had been nominated for Awards - Nick Smith (Young Achiever), Matthew Hickling (Young Achiever & Most Promising Newcomer), Lisa Moseley (Coach of the Year) and Paul Moseley (Coach of the Year). When the winners were announced Leeds City AC did quite well. Matty was Awarded the Young Achiever Award, which a great surprise to him and Paul won the Coach of the Year Award - which is testimony to the hard work of the Leeds City AC wheelchair racers and all their hard work during last season.” Having seen the kids, and Paul and Lisa, at work, Clubnews is happy to go along with the last comment!

RUNNING (AND JUMPING AND THROWING) HOT AND COLD

The Scribe was a week premature and a week late! Last edition he almost credited Caoimhe Crampton with a Club record on her first appearance when he misread a result-sheet. However, he hadn’t yet accessed the one from the Reebok Indoor Open at Sport City on March 29^th where the young lady in question equalled Lauren Parr’s mark for 60m with 9.1 – winning her race by over a second!

The trouble with ‘Winter Warm-Up’ meetings is that not infrequently they’re not warm! The variable weather of April can either produce a balmy spring day which encourages performances or a wet and windy horror which puts everybody off, and unfortunately the Wakefield Open on April 13^th tended more towards the latter, though later in the afternoon the weather picked up. It can also make officialling field events fun; The Scribe and his Good Lady Wife spent several happy moments levering Shots out of the holes they’d dug in the ground! Personal bests were at a bit of a premium, but the competition was quite hot in several events.

There was quite a bit of throwing activity. The Women’s Hammer saw a Club record, though not a PB, as Hannah Evenden slung 39.78 to set an under-20 mark – and yes, it isn’t as far as she threw last year as an Under-17, but nevertheless ….. Sister Stacey extended her best by around a metre (24.55), but Alice Simpson (27.27) had one of those days – out of sector, into the net, anywhere but where she wanted it. She did rather better with the Discus (31.72 top Hannah’s 38.28). On the male side there was a promising 28.45 in his first competition with the Hammer from Mark Harrison; the technique’s rough as yet, but it’s clearly coming on, and the one that hit the stanchion would have been over thirty if straight. (But we all say that!) Ben Sleigh had a decent trio of throws in unhelpful conditions (10.95/28.16/42.74), his Javelin being a considerable improvement on a fortnight ago; and Louie Hurley, who looks barely big enough to pick even the little Shot up, slung it 5.29 besides doing some useful sprinting and jumping (12.8 80m, 3.61 Long Jump). Even John Lunn managed to throw his Hammer further with a turn (17.68) than standing!

There were impressive runs on the track as well. Umar Hameed didn’t over-exert himself in the cold outdoors but still managed a double (11.3/23.2), and similarly Tom Roberts wasn’t fast but was decisive winning the 400 (52.6) Behind him Dan Gardiner (53.2) put in a bit of work on one of his lesser Decathlon events – not a bad idea at this stage of the year. The conversion of Sheryl Punter to 400m runner also took another step; 62.0 on a chilly April afternoon wasn’t a bad start to the year. Elliot Todd bravely tried to take the Under-15 800 field to the cleaner’s, but lacked just a little edge at the finish; still, 2.11.3 was a big improvement, and he’s better at the longer distances. A little later in the afternoon, in the Under-13 Girls’ race, Gemma Kier (2.46.4) showed him how to do it! Mike Wood looked to be struggling a bit in his 1500, until you remembered he was a 15-year-old taking on Seniors; in fact his 4.20.9 was less than a second off a Ranking List standard in his first race in his new age-group. In the Under-15 800 Chloe Harley led from gun to tape in 2.30.7, again not her fastest but the manner was more important than the time.

There was some excellent hurdling from both Jacob Gardiner (12.7 over 80m) and Fran Coldwell (12.3 over 75m), and both did other things; Jake (12.07) put the Shot further than the next two competitors put together, whole Fran looked good winning over 200m (28.2) and extended her best Long Jump to 4.78. Kadena Cox (13.4) had a good battle over 100 with Mikaela Harrison and was close enough to be pleased about it, and Jess Dobson (73.6) looked sprightly and determined over 400m Hurdles. Among the very youngest, besides Louis, Harry Ansell-Wood added a solid 2.06.8 600m to a 12.7 80 and 3.48 Long Jump for a good day, and Emma Claughton (12.5, 2.09.2 and 3.23) had a similar treble. Last year’s Under-13 Harry Foster was some way back in the Under-15 800, but five seconds quicker than a fortnight ago (2.35.5); among other movers-up at the same age, Dylan Bradley (14.6/1.40/4.21) and Connor Morley (15.0/1.30/4.29, the latter a PB), had a sound day’s sprinting and jumping, while India Wilson (14.2/30.4/2.53.1) battled in everything. There werp3

e several new names on view in the Under-13s, including reasonably good first 100s from Dylan George (14.6) and Daniel Ward (14.9) and a 15.4 from Mark Podd, who caused The Scribe to consider his own age; many years ago he taught Mark’s Dad and Auntie, but Uncle Cec was just before his time!

There being no Senior High Jump scheduled for Wakefield, both Steve Linsell and Tom Lindsay took themselves off to the Land of the Stotty Cake and competed at the Shildon Open with some success. Steve opened his outdoor account by winning with 1.80, while Tom was a mere five centimetres down on that, and also produced a 5.77 Long Jump and 24.8 200 for openers. (Incidentally, in spite of living up there for a spell The Scribe has no idea what a Stotty Cake looks or tastes like!)

If it was cold at Wakefield, it was perishing at Cleckheaton on Wednesday the 16^th when the first Northern Veterans’ League meeting was held there. With that and the cage still being out only four hardy bodies turned up, and none of them really cracked any pots. Steve Linsell got over 1.70 off a short run-up, but missed out at 1.78; Tony Bowman got the old legs going in the three sprints, but was restricted by temperature to 14.7, 30.5 and 73.2 (after which he describer himself as “kn*****ed!”); and John Lunn couldn’t project his sphere further than 5.73. In fact the only ray of sunshine was Mark Harrison, in his second competition ever of any sort; deprived of hammer, he had a bash at Shot (8.48) and javelin (26.96) and again gave evidence of possibilities when he gets his technique honed a bit.

ANYBODY GOT A BIT OF SPARE TIME?

The Club has three home Track & Field League matches scheduled for the first month of the season – National Junior League on April 27^th, Northern Senior League on May 3^rd, and UKA Young Athletes’ League on May 18^th. There’s a number of areas where a bit of help from any member with some time to spare would be appreciated – running the refreshment bar, bringing results to the recorders, even a bit of pit-raking and shot-carrying. If anybody out there’s willing to assist could they please get in touch with Pat Childs or John Lunn at the Stadium, or if that’s not convenient give John a ring on 0113 2630622.