Saturday 19th May saw BAC make the trip to Salisbury for the second Southern Athletics League match. After having finished last overall in the previous fixture at Plymouth, the team was looking to improve, despite a few withdrawals due to injury and exams. The sun shone down on a beautiful day, and conditions were ideal for both track and field alike.
Events began on the track with the 400m hurdles, with Sarah Kearsey and Danielle Marshall racing in the A and B sting, respectively. Kearsey finished second in 65.4secs, while Marshall finished 3rd in with a highly impressive 74.0secs for a debut performance.
The 800m followed with both of BAC’s men gaining PBs; Jamie Grose came 3rd in the A race with 2min 00.5secs, while David Flicos ran in the B race.
Next was the women’s 100m, with Kearsey and Jemma Bates both finishing third in the A and B races. The men’s race followed. Moinul Uddin came 4th in a highly competitive race, with a PB of 12.1secs, all the more impressive given he is in his first year of the under 17 age group, and was racing against senior athletes. Jamie Williamson, also an U17 gained a PB in the B race with 12.0secs. Ex-BAC athlete Peter Mitchell also ran as a non-scorer, gaining a PB of 11.2secs.
The 400m was next up. Bates came 3rd in the women’s race, while in the men’s race, Muiris Egan gave a master class in 400m racing tactics. In a close race, he overtook the Bracknell athlete in the closing metres to secure maximum points for Bournemouth.
This was followed by the 3000m, with Samantha Laws running in the women’s race, and David Long finishing a strong 3rd in the men’s race.
Next was the women’s 200m. Kearsey and Marshall both finished 4th in the women’s A-string and B-string races, respectively, and Bates came 3rd in the non-scoring race. Meanwhile for the men, Egan ran to a SB of 23.1secs in 3rd place in the A race and Uddin came 4th in the B.
BAC’s men amassed maximum points in the 1500m, with top spots in the A and B string. Rob McTaggart gained a season’s best of 4mins 07.1secs, while Grose gained another PB of 4mins 14.2secs. In the women’s race, Laws finished 5th.
Ian White came 3rd in the men’s steeplechase, while is the women’s race, Laws dug deep to finish 4th, in what was her 3rd middle-long distance event of the day. This event was sparsely filled, and so the points gained by these athletes were to prove highly valuable.
The final track events were the relays. The ladies’ 4x100m team of Anya Kay, Madeleine Smith, Marshall and Kearsey claimed 2nd spot, while the men’s team of Uddin, Karl Welch, McTaggart and Egan came 4th. The ladies’ 4x400m team of Janet Dickinson, Bates, Marshall and Kearsey struggled to keep with the pace of some strong opposition, finishing in 4th place. The men’s team also finished 4th, with Grose, McTaggart, Welch and Egan bringing the baton home. The efforts of these athletes, may of whom had competed in several events throughout the day cannot be faulted.
In the field, U17 Madeleine Smith put in very impressive performances, winning the A-string for both long jump and triple jump, leaping to 4.45m and 9.98m, respectively. Meanwhile Angie Spall claimed second place in the B-string long jump. White and Flicos competed in the men’s long jump, and later on Peter Briant and Flicos took part in the triple jump. Although these events were not necessarily the usual events of these athletes, the team was enthusiastic to pick up crucial points for the club.
In the men’s high jump, Jamie Williamson placed second in the A-string, with 1.85m, and another up and coming young athlete James Glynn won the B-string with a PB of 1.70m. In the women’s high jump, Angie Spall cleared 1.45m well to come 2nd in the A-string, while Janet Dickinson came 3rd in the B-string with 1.30m. Meanwhile, Flicos placed 4th in the pole vault.
In the ladies’ throwing events, Janet Dickinson was the standout performer, with PBs in several events. She won the A-string hammer with 33.77m (PB), while Anya Kay won the B-string. In the men’s event, Briant came 4th in the A-string and White came 3rd in the B-string.
Kay came 2nd in the women’s A-string shot with a PB of 9.92m, while Dickinson won the B event. Briant also came 2nd in the men’s A-string shot, with 10.81m, and Flicos came 5th in the B-string.
Both Dickinson and Kay came 2nd in the discus for the A and B-sting, respectively. Both had very impressive throws; Dickinson threw a PB of 26.40m, and Kay gained an SB. Meanwhile, both Briant and Flicos competed in the men’s event.
In the womens’ javelin, both Dickinson and Spall threw well to come 3rd and 2nd, whilst Briant and Flicos came 4th and 2nd, respectively.
Thanks must of course go to the officials who accompanied the team; Wynne and Ray Munden, Robin James and Hazel Bates, all of whom helped with the running of the event.
All in all, the team put in a lot of effort, beating Bracknell to 3rd spot overall by a mere 5 points. This slim margin was gained by athletes competing in events which were not their natural choice to earn a few points for the team. Hopefully at the following competitions, the turnout will be even stronger, and BAC can perform to the level that it is truly capable of.
The above report was written using results from thepowerof10, which can be verified using the following link: http://www.thepowerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=103518. Many apologies if I have missed anyone out, and if any of the information is incorrect, please do not hesitate to contact me so I can rectify it! (I can usually be found at the track, when not at university, or alternatively contact me on Facebook)