Midland League Report

06 August 2016

Sprinter Sam Griffiths was in excellent form and the club’s pole vaulters dominated as Cheltenham Harriers won their Athletics Direct Midland League Division 2 match held at the Prince of Wales stadium to ensure they will remain in the division next season. Griffiths was the club’s outstanding athlete of the day, winning the women’s 100m A race in a PB of 12.2 seconds, winning the 200m B race in a PB of 25.5 and anchoring the women’s 4×100m relay team to another victory. Not to be outdone, however, the pole vault squad made a clean sweep of their event, winning all four contests. Megan Mokgweetsi won the women’s A event with a PB of 2.50m, Georgia Wray won the B event with 2.30m, Florin Matei won the men’s A with 3.80m and Dan Carpenter won the B event with 3.20m. In the sprints, support came from Steph Beardsmore who won the B 100m in 12.9, whilst in the men’s events Jeremy Drackett ran a PB of 11.0 to place third in the 100m A race and 16 year old debutant Jamie Worman ran a PB of 23.9 for fourth in the 200m B race. The shorter track races also saw Freya Lane place third in the women’s 400m A race with a time of 63.0, Jessica Robins take second in the women’s 100m hurdles, and Jane Horder finish third in the women’s 400m hurdles with a season’s best (SB) time of 72.5.

The distance events again brought the club a good points haul with four A string victories. After feeling unwell during the week Dan Owen was content to run tactically rather than go for a time and he made it five wins out of five in the league this season by taking victory in the 3000m steeplechase in 9:47.9. The women’s 3000m then saw sixteen year old Megg Brinley claim her first senior league win and set a new PB. Having tracked the leader for 2100m Brinley quickly established a winning lead over the final two laps to cross the line in an impressive 10:29.5 whilst Rachel See ran well to finish as second B runner in a PB of 11:15.7. Graham Rush then made a rare middle distance appearance to win a slow and tactical 1500m by just 0.2 seconds in a closely contested final straight sprint that saw him stop the clock at 4:06.5. In the same race that Alex Chantler-Mayne set a PB of 4:18.8 to finish as second B runner. Just 35 minutes later Rush returned to the track to claim another tactical win in the 3000m in 8:41.0 as the Harriers gained maximum points with Richard de-Camps the first B runner in 9:02.9.

In the field, double firsts were secured in the men’s javelin and the women’s discus. Neil Crossley won the A javelin with a SB throw of 63.45m and Will Sage followed that by winning the B event with a SB of 51.77m. Mel Bird won the A discus with 35.85m, leaving mum Ruth to claim first place in the B event with 25.64m. There was another first place for Bird senior in B shot event with 7.86m where a putt of 9.10m earned Mel a third place in the A event. Ruth also finished with a third in the women’s A javelin with 22.34m. Crossley earned more points with a second place in the men’s shot with a putt of 12.97m (SB), plus a third place in the men’s discus with 35.85m, yet another SB. In the women’s hammer Linsey Hutchins came first in the B event with distance of 21.05m, whilst Mel Bird was third in the A with 27.63m. Finally, in the jumping contests, the high jump saw 16 years old debutant Hannah Tilley earn second place in the women’s A event with a PB of 1.50m, and Jamie Worman place third in the men’s A with 1.85m. Tilley also placed third in the A long jump with 4.61m, sharing points again with Worman who was second in the men’s A event with 6.45m; In the triple jump, the women’s A event saw Mokgweetsi place third with 9.23m and 15 years old debutant Rob Worman, secure an excellent third place with a jump of 11.88m Team Manager Derrick Lord dedicated the match win to Dave McNamee.