R&N's veterans make it a hat-trick of title wins
The veterans of Rugby & Northampton AC made it a hat-trick of consecutive wins in the Midland Track and Field League Cup final at the Alexander Stadium.
R&N took the final after scoring 428 points, followed by hosts Birchfield on 323.
Lesley Willis rounded off season on a pleasing note by being awarded the female athlete of the year.
The final positions saw a win for the ladies Lions with 222 points followed by Harborough with 171 with Birchfield third on 169 points. The Saints were fifth on the day with a tally of 127.
The men's competition was dominated by two teams, Worcester AC and Rugby and Northampton Lions.
Worcester took the men's trophy with 219 points while the lions were tantalisingly close with 206. No other teams got within 45 points of them.
The field events were the first to kick off and the M40 hammer saw John Moreland celebrate his return by bagging seven points for third place.
The first track events was the 800m and the W35 was the race in which R&N would give their opponents a taste of what to expect over the next few hours.
Michelle Leach took off as if the devil was on her heels, but no one got anywhere near her heels and this proved to be one of the strongest performance of the day for the club.
Leach's winning time was 2m 26.7s, while Kate Williams took three points in 3mins 7secs.
W50 800 was the next to start and this time it was Angela Copson wearing Saints numbers that crossed the line first with Sally Hines working hard for 5th in the lion's vest.
The ladies clocked 2m43.2s and 3m25.7 respectively.
Due to injury, the male Lions and the Saints could not field athletes in the M35 800 and all hoped this would not prove to be too costly at the outcome.
The M40 and M50 was a different story though. For many of the athletes from the club, this was the first time they had competed at the Alexander Stadium
Brendon Moen's 2m25.0s was rewarded with five points in the A M40 race, while Terry Akiens' first outing for 14 or 15 years at the stadium produced his victory on the track and the first track win for the Lions, his waving as he ran the finishing straight showed his pleasure and with an eight-second buffer he could afford to do it.
Adrian White and Bryan Acford were the selected athletes for the M40 and M50 Saints.
White's time of 2mins 27.5secs deserved more points than the six that he gained. Acford didn't get what he'd hoped for in the M50 800m, but with recent knee surgery his three points was a realistic goal.
Over in the women's field competition the lions were running wild.
From the 12 field disciplines only three failed to return the victors spoils for the club and of those failures were two second places and the other was a third place.
Tracy Webb made the W35 long jump her own with a leap of 4.54. Debbie Murch wacked out a super throw in the W45 hammer to win by almost 6mts with a 24.67.
The diminutive Sally Hine’s 1.10m high jump was good enough to take the lion’s share of the points in the W50 event.
Debbie’s return to the throwing cage proved just as fruitful as her earlier visit when she skimmed out a winning W35 discus throw when she won with 22.61m. Jayne Scales threw 15.35 and sixth for the Saints in the same competition.
Sally Hine copied Debbie’s achievement by winning the W50 discus with 13.96m.
Over on the track, the ladies were grabbing a lot of points to add to their rapidly building tally.
Juliet Crossin took the win for the Lions in the W35 100m at the expense of last yrs team mate in the Saints, Chris Hawker.
Crossin zipped over the line in 13.9secs as Hawker closely followed with 14.5 for second place.
Team mates watched Lesley Willis and Tricia Garner toe the line for the lions and saints in the W45 100m race. Willis clocked 14.3secs as did the Birchfield athlete but on this occasion although the stop watch could not separate them the judges deemed they could. Willis was awarded 2nd and Garner took the four points for the Saints with 17.3secs.
Massive pts were gained by the male Lions counter parts Ces Moven and Gordon Houghton in the M40 and M60 100m races.
Moven ran home by the tiniest time of 0.1s with 12.3 and Houghton clocked 14.2 for his eight pts.
While the male track athletes were doing their utmost for the club, the women’s Lions continued to stamp their dominance over the field competitions.
One W45 one W35 and a W50 event took place, first Willis proved too much for her opposition by winning the long jump with 4.25, Tracy Webb’s 1.25 high jump effort proved good enough for maximum points while Sally Hine lobbed out a 5.89 shot put to make 2nd place, making it seven wins for the lady lions and one win between the rest of the teams.
On the track it was the turn of the relays and the first event was the women’s 4x100 where at least one competitor per team had to be W45.
The lady Lions yet again zipped around the track to cross the finish line first in a time of 56.3secs and take another win.
The Saints ran a good performance to gain six points and fourth place in 64.9secs.
The male Lions which had to contain at least one M50 athlete were not to be outdone by their female counterparts and a nifty 49.0 ensured them the victory and the nine pts that accompanied it.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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