CLUBNEWS

15^th JULY, 2008

9/10^th July – World Junior Championships’ Decathlon, Bydgoszcz, Poland

HOW DAN TOOK ON THE WORLD

It was the sort of performance that, if the national press had got hold of it (which they wouldn’t, as they’ve never heard of ‘ordinary’ athletics), would have been billed as ‘another British failure’ – i.e., Dan Gardiner didn’t come back from Bydgoszcz with any sort of a medal. Well, if placing only 12^th of the nineteen contestants in the World Junior Championships is a ‘failure,’ then that’s what it was; but if setting three Personal Bests, equalling a fourth, adding a season’s best and finishing up, in his very first international appearance, a mere 83 points adrift of his already impressive Club record constitutes a ‘failure,’ The Scribe cheerfully expects to be crowned Queen of the May next year! The report below is embellished by quoted from an e-mail from his Dad Kevin.

Dan started the two days of competition in the best possible way, by launching himself down the 100m in precisely (and electrically) eleven seconds, third-fastest of the competition, a new PB and good for 861 points. It would have been asking too much for him to stay in such an elevated placing, but for the next seven events he was to fluctuate between 6^th and 8^th. His immediate follow-up was a 6.80 Long Jump, better than average for his decathlons and scoring a healthy 767; Kevin says the GB coach present was “raving about his run-up and take –off” but his balance in the air was a bit erratic. (Who ever heard of a decathlete getting perfection anyway?) That was followed by another 746 from 14.29 with the Shot, about a foot short of his best; both excellent performances, but the standard of competition was emphasised by the leading distances – 7.38 and 16.17.

In points terms Dan’s High Jump (680) was a ‘weaker’ event, though in terms of his previous performances it was only a centimetre short of his best; again he was close to bettering it with “three good attempts at 1.90.” He then rounded off a fine first day by “going for it” (with parental encouragement) in the 400, and achieving his highlight of the competition, a massive improvement from 52.0 to 50.09 which racked up 810 points for a half-way score of 3871 – placing him 8^th, but within sixty points of 4^th. The other interesting observation about the day from Kevin concerned its length – Dan was at the track from 7.15 a.m. to 9 p.m., with a four-hour break between Shot and High Jump.

For the first three events of the second day Dan held his place. His third ‘best’ came, if only by two hundredths of a second (15.65), in the Hurdles, scoring 773; his Discus (40.95, a good decathlon effort) put up 684, though he “fell out of the circle” doing a considerably bigger one. He followed that by equalling the Pole Vault mark of 4.20 that he’d set the week before for another 673. Up to here he’d been scoring consistently, while others had been fluctuating rather more; but the Javelin was to come, which is one of Dan’s weaker ones. It can be put in perspective by the fact that Dan’s throw of 45.59 was his best of the season – but placed him last of the 17 competitors still going at that stage, and only scored 524, slipping him to 10^th. It was also a great ‘might-have-been;’ during the two-hour ‘siesta’ after the Vault Dan consumed a sandwich which disagreed violently with him, and spent much of the break in the medical room! This also affected his 1500 performance, but even had he equalled the superb effort that he did to qualify at Birmingham, he wouldn’t have held 10^th place; as it was, 4.53.26 (for 599 points) was not an unreasonable performance for somebody ‘”running on empty after 100 metres.”.

Looked at positively (and that’s how it should be looked at) this is Dan’s second 7,000-plus Decathlon (7124, to be exact) in a month, far and away better than any previous Under-20 member; and it would be difficult to ask more of a complete international novice than to stay on terms with the best in the world for as long as Dan did. It was a performance of great merit to get there and mix it with the best; but even so Dan knows perfectly well that there’s nowhere to rest on his laurels. He only has to consider than this year practically every one of the marks he set four years ago as an Under-15 has been beaten – by younger brother Jake!

12^th July - European Mountain Running Championships, Zell am Harmersbach (Germany)

HOW JAMES TOOK ON EUROPE

The British team in this European event placed 7^th with 70 points; assuming three to count, this placed their runners 20^th, 23^rd and 27^th, which is some way behind Italy’s 11 points (according to Lunchtime O’Surf, the Italians usually win). The identity of the third counter is (as yet) unknown to The Scribe, but James Walsh was second counter in 23^rd, running the race in 53.41, 22 seconds behind Stockport’s Steve Vernon. The team race couldn’t have been tighter behind the Italians; the next three teams all scored 32 points!

11/12^th July – English Schools’ Championships, Gateshead

ONE OF EACH AND A RECORD – BUT SOME DISAPPOINTMENTS

The problem with being a high-level performer – and that can safely be said of all the thirteen Club members who took part in the E.S.A.A Championships – is that what this time last year would have been considered a great performance can now, due to the athlete’s own efforts at improvement, appear disappointing, and it’s very difficult to maintain your own highest level for long periods. Every so often everybody has a day when it doesn’t quite work. Unfortunately at Gateshead it seemed to happen all at once for most of Leeds City’s competitors.

In most cases it wasn’t that people were very far off the boil. For example, Tom Mosley ran three really consistent races in the Intermediate Boys’ 200m – 22.61 heat, 22.73 Semi and 22.66 Final – but never raised that bit of extra spark and wound up 7^th. Hannah Evenden, who has been throwing over 40 metres all year, chose this day of all days to miss it and finish 4^th in the Senior Girls’ Discus with 39.17 – and the 43.00 she threw the previous week (see below) would have got her a medal easily. Jacob Gardiner (13.05 for 4^th) was similarly no great distance below his best in the Junior Boys’ Shot, and would have been in there on his very best form.

The Marchant sisters were both there and thereabouts, but having qualified in comfort for the Intermediate Girls High Jump Final Amy was one of several who stuck on 1.65, finishing 10^th; while Katy, having run an excellent heat (11.67), must have hit something in the Final and finished last in 12.43. In the same age-group Rachael Speight, like Tom, ran two consistent races (42.14 and 41.86 over 300 metres, but that wasn’t enough for a place in the Final; while for Carrie Simpson, although 10.41 (6^th) was a metre down on last year’s best, the great thing after her months of injuries was that she was in there and competing. Mike Salter ran to form (1.56.23) in his Senior Boys’ 800m heats, but in a very fast Final was never with it. The only North Yorkshire representative, Stephen Coles, produced 1.64 in a classy Junior Boys’ High Jump, again not quite up to best form but not too far away. In short, it was a ‘nearly’ weekend all round.

It was also a ‘nearly’ for at least one of the medals. Jake Armstrong’s 44.29 for Silver in the Under-15 Boys’ Discus was only 51 centimetres short of the winning throw – and only a metre or so below the Club record he set three weeks ago. To get as close as that to both is one of the more galling things athletics can throw at anyone; but it’s unreasonable to expect PBs every time out, and Jake’s effort was a fine one. There was nothing ‘nearly’ about the only title taken, though; with his competitive record this year it seemed almost inevitable that James Wilkinson would add the Senior 200)m ‘Chase to his list of titles, and he duly did so in assured fashion, going under six minutes (5.58.72) for the second time.

So why save the Bronze medal to last? Well, possibly the story of the season, among the younger athletes, has been the virtually continuous attack on their 1500m PBs by Gordon Benson and Elliot Todd; and a new chapter was written at Gateshead. Both qualified for the Final of the Junior Boys’ championship with fast times in the same heat (Elliot 4.17.52, Gordon 4.18.74), and both exceeded them in the Final. Gordon, who started the year on 4.33.1, ran splendidly to finish 7^th in 4.16.59 – over sixteen seconds improvement; but if that’s something, how about Elliot (last year’s best 4.36.3) taking the Bronze medal with 4.11.97 and consigning Paul Darkins’ Club record to history? With respect to the other medallists, it was probably the Club’s run of the weekend.

FURTHER TRACK MATTERS

There wasn’t a very large Club presence at Perry Barr for the UKA Olympic Trials over the weekend. Of the four people who went, the best performance was probably Matt Hudson’s l14.67 in the 110m Hurdles heats, his best ‘legal’ time so far; it got him into the B Final, where he ran slightly faster (14.65) with a slightly over-the-limit wind to finish 5th. Simon Deakin (14.08.58) placed 8^th in a very tactical 5000m, a couple of seconds outside his season’s best, but Adam Grice (25^th, 14.38.96) was a fair bit down on his recent form at Solihull. Matt Barton, still creaking at the knees, was 9^th (and last finisher, though one failed to register) in the Triple Jump with 14.52.

You’ve heard of the Seven Ages of Man; now how about the Three Ages of Hannah? Miss Evenden spent the weekend before the English Schools’ at Varazdin in Croatia representing England in the International Championship of Throwers; and when there she discovered (according to an email from Mum Ros) that “as she was born in 1991” she was eligible to compete in the Under-17, Under-19 and Senior events. She duly won the first in the late morning with 41.52, came out in the afternoon and won the Under-19 with 43.00 (edging closer to the Club record), and finished off with a 39.43 effort for 7^th (“and last,” admits Ros) in the Senior event. Not bad, considering it was so hot that “the athletes generally stayed in their hotel until they were needed on the track.”

Paul Moseley was away last week, so full details of the performance of the Wheelchair Lads at the CP National Championships at Blackpool on July 5^th aren’t to hand, but The Scribe has received notice of the times they did, from Nick Smith. He, Matty Hickling and Chris Maw all took part in the three sprint events; their times were respectively, Nick, 29. (100), 55.0 (200) and 1.54.4 (400), Matty, 23.6, 43.0 and 1.29.4; Chris, 25.5, 47.1 and 1.40.0. One observation from The Scribe – as with able-bodied athletes, maximum speed seems to be achieved over 200 rather than 100.

Only two Senior Citizens went to the British M****rs’ Championships at Alexander Stadium, Birmingham, last weekend (most of the others were in Club teams!) Tony Bowman brought home four medals, one of which (the Over-70 100m Hurdles) was Gold; he also had Silver in the 100 and Bronze in 200 and 400, but none of his times were outstanding (inclement weather or anno domini, one wonders?) Hazel Barker took Silver in the Over-45 High Jump (again with not too good a mark, at 1.35), but had a better Shot (9.09) which only took 5^th as there was more opposition around.

The most recent West Yorkshire League, at Cleckheaton on Wednesday last, took place on such a foul night that there was little chance of many really good performances – unless you happen to be one of the Throwing Armstrongs, that is! Not only did Jake extend his Under-15 Shot best to 13.22, but little brother George slung the Under-11 Shot 6.93 to claim that age-group record (it previously stood a t 6.14 to Jack Gape) and produce the – as far as The Scribe recalls – unique situation where every competing member of the family holds at least one Club record. Harry Ansell-Wood (4.36) also got on the Ranking List, and he and Louie Hurley did a bit of sprinting, but like most of the others were well down on their best times. (Even Louie’s brother Elliot only managed 11.3 winning his Under-13 80, as against 11.0 on a good day – was the wind the wrong way round?)

There was some decent points picking-up from Luke Murray in the Under-15 1500 (4.59.8) and from Tom Lindsay in the Senior events, including a Long Jump win in 5.56. The only girls to improve their best were Emma Claughton (2.05.1) in the Under-11 600 (Caoimhe Crampton equalled hers at 2.04.8) and Nicola Sawyer (3.01.6) in the Under-13 800, but Alyssia Carr had a win in the Under-3 High Jump (1.30 on that night was an achievement) and Fran Coldwell won the Under-15 Long Jump (4.62) and placed second (13.5) in the 100.

The original idea behind the Barnsley Young Athletes’ Open (staged on July 13^th this year) was to provide an event for those who missed out on the English Schools’, and also get more youngsters used to running heats and finals; it certainly attracted some pretty fair numbers, and several good Leeds City performances. Perhaps the best was one of the youngest, Emma Claughton, who had two good wins in the Under-11 sprints (12.0 for 80m and 22.7 for 150m), and there was also an emphatic win for Elliot Hurley 913.3) in the Under-13 100m. Fran Coldwell produced her best legal Long Jump (4/92) and set a 200m PB in the heats (27.3) that she didn’t quite match in the Final, with a 1.40High Jump thrown in for good measure; and in third place in the Under-17 100 Harvard Jefferson (11.5) continued his comeback in some style. Also among the PBs was Connor Morley, who extended his Shot best – for the second time in a week – and this time cracked the psychological eight-metre barrier – just! (8.01) Ben Tootall had a first crack at 800 (2.43.8 – he usually does League 1500s), and Chloe Harley (2.24.9) produced a well-timed effort which wasn’t quite enough to get the better of the formidable Samantha Satkovic.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

The first Hyde Park 5k race, on July 1^st, had the smallest field for some time, a fact which Greg Hull puts down to both himself and Tony Gill having too many other commitments to go round leafleting local races as they have in the past; he’s ideally like to find somebody to act as race director or publicity person for next year, if there are any volunteers. The actual race was won fairly comfortably in 15.56 by second-claim member Steve Body (who had apparently offered to turn out at South Leeds the following Saturday for Bedford, but the offer wasn’t taken up); he also told The Scribe that he’d recently won two other road races, so he must be getting back to something like. Also on the way back, though well strapped up after his track injury. Was Pete Steel, who finished 5th (16.50), while Rob Gatenby placed 21^st in 20.02. There were two lady finishers from the Club – Sorrel Hoare, second lady overall in 26^th (20.50) and Jenny Harrison (32^nd in 22.02), who must be either getting over or getting used to some of her legendary aches and pains.

Rothwell Harriers started naming their Rothwell Canal Run after Jane Tomlinson last year (she ran with them at one time), and two of Leeds City’s elder citizens – one new, one back in action – both finished well up in this year’s race on July 8^th. Martin Horbury, clearly over his track traumas, placed 5^th (17.51), which made him second Over-40 (if there’d been five-year categories, however, he’d probably have been first Over-45. No such equivocation for Trevor Clough; in 8^th place (18.06) he was unquestionably the first Over-50!

The Eccup 10-Mile Race this year had a new course that was at least partly off-road; what with that and the hills around Eccup times weren’t unduly quick. Star of the show on July 13th from the Club point of view was Sean Cotter, who finished second (about a minute adrift of Pudsey’s Steve Neill) but was a comfortable winner of the Over-40 category. Pete Steel, still strapped, ran his third race in ten days and finished 11^th (60.15); one way to get fit again! The two other gents who showed were Chris Corcoran (113, 71.18), who was 13^th Over-50, and Dave Barras (158, 75.090< fifth among the Over-60s. There’s no indication in the results of any team races, but the three Leeds City ladies would have taken a bit of beating; Jennie Guard (61^st, 66.44) was third Lady finisher, Sorrel Hoare (124, 72.12) was 6^th, and Sian Davies (194, 77.06) placed 10^th.

Lunchtime O’Surf’s contribution to this edition – apart from reporting on James’ run in Germany – was to pick up a report of the Yeovil Town 10k on July 9^th, which was won by Tim Crosland in 15.36, and in a bit of a desperate finish as he was only a second clear at the end.