CLUBNEWS

13^th MAY, 2008

10/11^th May – Yorkshire Track & Field Championships, Sheffield

IT DEPENDS WHET YOU MEAN BY MERELY AVERAGE

The main contrasts with last year’s Yorkshires were the weather (thankfully), the place and the number of Leeds City medals. After the dire soaking everybody got at Cudworth it was a change to have warm – even quite hot and muggy – conditions over the two days at Don Valley. On the medal front it could, among those whose pint is always half-empty, be seen as a sign of a poor weekend that the Club only brought home 65 medals after last year’s 83; but the ‘decline’ only takes the level back to that of 2005 and 2006, and then we thought sixty-odd was something to crow about. It’s natural to aspire to superb levels of constant improvement, and to be disappointed when you don’t hit the target, but aspirations tend to change with success (The Senior Harriers, for instance, who were once ecstatic about getting National Championship medals, would now be pretty mortified if they didn’t!)

There was a lot of success – two Club records and plenty of PBs besides medals – and its’ worth celebrating.

Day 1 – WHAT KATY – AND SEVERAL OTHERS - DID

Saturday got the event off to a fine Club start – 35 medals, consisting of nine Golds and thirteen each of the other two – but the performance of the day had to be Katy Marchant’s Javelin. Last year, needing to learn the event for Heptathlons, she improved from practically zero to a respectable 26.61; this year in three competitions she’s gone up over twelve metres to 38.78 and a Club Under-17 record. In fact the sisters took six medals home on Saturday night between them; Katy took Silver in the Long Jump with a PB of 5.14 and the same in the High Jump (1.60), where she finished second to Amy, who moved to second on the High Jump Ranking List with 1.70 besides taking bronze in Long Jump (5.06) and Spear (another big improvement to 32.74). There would have been another in Hannah Evenden’s 45.08 in the Under-20 Hammer but for her heroics last week; as it was it was only inches short, while Alice Simpson, who’s been struggling for form with the implement, suddenly found a lot more of it for the Silver (37.08), and Stacey Evenden took another of the same in the Under-17 event with a PB (25.22).

There was one other throwing Gold – the Two Jakes got together again in the Under-15 Shot, and as a result “It’s Gold Medal for me (Big Jake – Armstrong) and it’s Silver for him” (Little Jake – Gardiner, though all things are relative as “Little Jake” is pushing six feet!) Two Golds came from Long Jumpers – Anthony Timms (7.00, with Bronze in the 100) wasn’t too much of a surprise, but Tobin Carey-Williams win (5.86 in the Under-17 - he also took Triple Bronze with 12.08) was less predicted and good to see. The Golds on the track came from all parts. In the Under-15 Lads’ 1500, where Elliot Todd made the point that his Blackburn run was no fluke by going just a shade faster (4.18.68); and if Elliot only cut hundredths from his time Gordon Benson in 4^th took nearly three seconds off his (4.24.7). Another ‘predictable’ win came as Tom Mosley, having done the fastest heat of the Under-17 100 by a street, took the Final by much the same margin in a quicker time than either Seniors or Under-20s (11.18); and Matt Wagner turned in another PB-raising performance, running 12.16 in the 80m Hurdles (Jake G was second in 12.65, also a best), which he followed with his first 10-metre-plus Shot Putt (10.15) for 4^th.

Silver medals came from all over the age-group – literally, as one of them was Steve Linsell (1.80); The Scribe must find out just how many Yorkshire medals the Old Leaper has won. The other Senior medals went to the Cautious Leaper, Matt Barton, who’s restricting his Triples and ‘only’ pulled out 14.42 from memory, and to Jake Harman in the 1500, who after running a good one at Stretford the previous Tuesday pushed Phil Tedd pretty close. James Sleigh (39.80 – only 20cm from winning) and Dan Gardiner had their usual close thing in the Under-20 Discus, James’ little brother (come on – he’s six foot odd as well) Ben continuing the family theme by taking Under-17 Shot Bronze with yet another best (11.78). Umar Hameed did the fastest heat time in the Under-20 200, and then bettered it (22.13) in the Final – but Sheffield’s Todd Marshall had clearly been saving something! Finally, with the Marchant girls leaving the Hurdles alone for once, Rosie Trudgen stepped in smartly (13.24) for a Silver of her own.

Of the remaining Bronzes, two went to the damaged object formerly known as Mark Gulliver, who’s clearly recovered a bit from his trauma as he threw a competent 46.74 Hammer and 11.55 Shot, while at the other end of the age spectrum there were a couple for Fran Coldwell with a PB 100 (13.2) and an anything-but-negligible Hurdles (12.24). There were two fiery 800s – how else do you describe Mike Salter’s Under-20 race (1.55.88), when 0.67 seconds separated the first three? Chloe Harley’s Under-15 race was a bit more spread, though Chloe (2.25.82) ran faster than last week and close to her best; and after 3000 metres Alex Gostling was on the wrong end of a three-hander separated by a mere three seconds (9.45.93), agonising fractions off her best. The most unfortunate was Jack Mosley, whose 24.75 PB 200 was at first missed off the website results altogether, but justice had been restored by Sunday morning. Lower down one field there was another big improvement from one of those usually seen as ‘also-rans’ that caught the eye, as Lee Allsopp (10.25.61) ran over half a minute faster than at Blackburn last week. Perhaps the weather had something to do with it.

Day 2 – SUCCESSFUL GARDENING AND A SPEIGHT OF SUCCESS

Sunday produced a further thirty medals – another nine Gold, eleven Silver and ten Bronze – and another record. The striking Gold, though, wasn’t the record-breaker but Rachael Speight’s blistering 41.38 300m; with only one previous run over the distance (and that indoors) she moved to third on the Club List with a performance which dismissed the opposition. With more experience there has to be a challenge, not only to Bethany Staniland’s record but even to Sara Elson’s 400 time – if Rachel can grit her teeth and stick at the demanding distance. There have been false dawns over 400 before, though in the background a season’s best of 60.72 from Sheryl Punter indicates that some people are preparing to give it a go.

One mark not mentioned above (because The Scribe was convinced there was an error in the result sheets – was Dan Gardiner’s PB of 7.00 in the Long Jump. As if that wasn’t enough, Dan proceeded to put in two more on Sunday – and the 6k Shot at 14.36 was the second Club record of the weekend. With that, and a 15.96 110 Hurdles chasing Silver-medallist Tom Casey (15.56) hard, and Jake taking the Under-15 Long Jump (5.72 – only 5cm. shy of a best) and a Silver in a Discus which was a Benefit (Jake Armstrong won, and Connor Morley picked up the Bronze) there was even more rattling of metallurgy in the Gardiner household on Sunday than in the Marchant and Evenden establishments. Hannah and Alice Simpson were at it again on Sunday, taking Silver and Bronze respectively in the Under-20 Shot (though with distances not up to recent performances) and then Hannah taking apart all opposition of whatever age with the Discus (40.72) and Alice finding another handy throw (34.31) for another Bronze.

There was plenty of variation among the other Golds; Mark Fuszard (Under-17 Vault) got one basically for turning up, as nobody else did (he had to work a good bit harder for his High Jump Silver), while the vastly-experienced but tender of knee Matt Allison took one Javelin throw (57.59) to take the lead, assessed the opposition, sat out the next four rounds and did another one to make a point. He also took home a Discus Bronze with 40.43 – good, but he wasn’t going to go much higher with Marcus Golbourne around. As a contrast in experience Jake Harman (1.55.40) did to Phil Tedd over 800 what he couldn’t quite manage over 1500 to become a Senior Champion at his first attempt. There was also a title for one of the younger ‘lesser lights when Danny Davies took the Under-17 ‘Chase – and more gratifyingly, after bashing away at the fringes of the time for about a year, finally cracked five minutes (4.57.41)

The fashion for collecting masses of medals is catching. Fran Coldwell decided two Bronzes wasn’t enough and went for two more; but while she was shut out of the Final in a competitive Under-15 200 (28.06) she rose to Silver and a PB in the High Jump (1.45). Two other middle-distancers came back for another successful bash. Mike Salter (4.01.57) moved up a place for Silver in the Under-20 1500, and Elliot Todd matched Jake’s collection in his 800; he possibly hasn’t quite got the extreme sharpness for really swift 800s, but 2.08.78 was a 2½-second improvement and an indication of enough speed to scare the pants off most 1500 runners. There were a couple of excellent Silvers among the Under-20 distance-boys from Joe Townsend (9.10.45) and James Lavin (6.19.95 – a nice five seconds off the Best this time), and Umar Hameed added 100m Silver to the 200 from Saturday – and was just one-hundredth shy of going one better.

The Bronze medalists had reasons to be cheerful. Tom Roberts put up a season’s best – 51.47 – for his in the Under-20 400m, Ben Sleigh (45.07) did likewise in the Under-17 Javelin, and Tom Wagner, who hasn’t made meteoric rises of height but has rarely failed to keep progressing steadily, did so again with 3.80 in the Vault. New member Rosie Bridger managed to ‘sneak’ one in the Under-17 Shot, and Robert Torch got one by deserting the 800 for once and being one of only three to Chase his Steeple – though 5.21.57 wasn’t a bad first effort at all. Even though Sophie Waterhouse missed out in 4^th in the Under-20 1500, she won’t have gone home despondent at a six-second lowering of her best that puts her on the cusp of cracking five minutes at last (5.02.85)

The Scribe hasn’t been able to mention everybody who took part (the Old Gentleman’s only human after all) but congratulates all those who did. A good haul of County medals is good for the Club’s morale – and once again we’ve got that.

THE SCRIBE DID IT AGAIN

Listing the British Universities’ performances last week, The Scribe managed to forget all about Anthony Timms’ 5^th in the Long Jump with a season’s best of 7.00 – which, just to remind the Old Gentleman of his sins, he equalled at Don Valley.

BETWEEN THE MAIN COURSES ….

Not surprisingly, three days before the Championships, the second West Yorkshire League meeting at Wakefield on May 6^th didn’t see a lot of older Leeds City members, though Tom Lindsay had quite a merry frolic, winning the High Jump (1.70), running a crisp (24.4) 200 and essaying 800 rather quicker than last time (2.17.2). The results also had Louie Hurley winning the Under-13 80m in 11.0; as Louie had already placed third in the Under-11 Long Jump (3.42) The Scribe suggests it’s a transcription error for brother Elliot, bout would like confirmation, please. There were also a couple of good sprints in this age-group from Chris Giff and Mark Podd (both 12.0), while Chris did 10cm higher in the dry (1.20) than he’d managed in the Blackburn Monsoon. At an older level Liam Braithwaite ran a sparky 200 (27.4), Dylan Bradley (4.50 – believed to be a PB) and Connor Morley (4.20) gave solid exhibitions of long-jumping, and Harry Foster (2.36.3) made a bit of progress with his 800 time.

Among the Girls both Caoimhe Crampton and Emma Claughton had a win and a good performance; Caoimhe took the Under-11 75 with 11.3 with Emma third (11.8), whole Emma got within shooing distance of five metres with the Shot (4.98) and Caoimhe had a good first effort. Alyssia Carr (11.5) and Lana Morgan (11.6) both ran good 80s, and Gemma Keir (12.1) did a decent one for a half-miler; and both Gemma and Melissa Fletcher (who ran 12.4) threw decent Discuses (13.84 and 10.14) for little ‘uns. (For some of the littlest girls –and boys – with the Discus they’ve got a job to get their hand round it, much less throw it!) Fran Coldwell’s putting in quite a bit of sprinting in these meetings, to sharpen for multi-events, and she ran a pretty slippy 27.7 200 (Megan Brennan did 31.4), but she was beatebn in the Shot (6.27) by Charlie Nicholson’s 6.93.