BAC Men’s British Athletics League team who were promoted to Division 3 for this season got off to a great start in their first match at Swansea on 9th May. The team who had a few setbacks with injury going into the match battled their way to a superb 4th place (out of 8 teams) to show that they really aim to to business in this division.
The day opened with James Lelliott winning the A-string Long Jump in blustery conditions. This led the way in a feast of great BAC field event performances proving that Bournemouth are a team to be recognised in their new division. Lelliott followed up with a win in the B-string Discus with Andy Brown taking the B-string Javelin, behind Lelliott’s A-string 3rd place. Matt Ridge scored valuable points in all three heavy throws with a superb second place in the A-string Shot.
On the track, conditions were harsh for the sprinters with a strong headwind gusting to -5m/s. Nonetheless, Kevin Hodgson, Ben Arnold and Scott Rutter scored superb points in the 100m and 200m. One of the outstanding performances of the day by a BAC athlete was Muris Egan’s 400m A-race finishing 3rd in a superb PB of 49.99s. Ben Arnold, making a BAL debut at the same event scored well with 3rd in the B race. Jamie Grose and Josh King gained A and B string 3rd places in a tough 1500m race before Rob Mctaggart and David Long finished 5th (A) and 2nd (B) respectively in a quality 3000m race containing containing some good national standard athletes.
Great performances in the relays saw the 4x100m squad (Rutter, Hodgson, Arnold and Lelliott) finish 3rd while the 4x400m squad battled out 5th place in a very tough race.
Team Manager Tim Hughes was delighted with his team’s performance… “The enthusiasm of this team is second to none. This is a great bunch of lads to work with since they want success so much. This result really sets us up to think about promotion once again and if I can pull in some of those athletes unable to compete this time round into the remaining matches then that certainly could be on the cards.”