EAL Match 4 – The Buzzards Attack

Track & Field, East Anglian League –  Match 4 – The Buzzards Attack

Event Summary

The August EAL is always a difficult one to get athletes to attend, mainly due to holiday commitments so it was pleasing that we managed to get 30 athletes out including u17 boys for the first time this season and a strong senior men’s squad (noted mostly throws but that’s the way we rock at the moment).

After the slight rules infringement at Cambridge, we were still on for a strong league position so it was good to see athletes in high spirits and full of enthusiasm for the day.

We were up against some of the strongest clubs in the league and no surprise that Ipswich (league leaders) arrived with 2 coach loads but there was definitely an air of something for the taking.

2 club records went.  The men’s shot that had stood since before cars were invented was taken by Will Ponissi with 9.96m.  Amazingly due to some idiocy by the team manager he was down as non scorer as we had not seen him for a few months due to work commitments and had obviously been doing secret training.  Alex Killick extended her Hammer record for the millionth time despite saying she wasn’t on form.

Overall for the day we did not finish last in any age group which I think is a first in the EAL for us apart from the overall match result.  Technically we should have finished higher due to a rules infringement by Colchester (rule 25 failure to supply field officials) but due to some technicality in the post event investigation it was deemed that the rules were not clear on this and were awarded full match points (I fear that the league were worried that taking points away would deny Colchester a place in the finals but did say they will apply the rule next season).

Overall for the season we finished 15th out of 19 clubs which is our highest league position in the league, put out the most athletes consistently for a season (although I think we can do better) and had athletes consistently breaking their own PBs or club records through the season.   For what is known as a running club we have certainly put AC back into the title.  We have a very strong throws section (I remember writing 2 years ago an article about the ‘lonely thrower’ and now I can’t get into my own team), some great coaching across all events that are driving athletes to perform at their best and a great attitude to competing which I think other clubs could learn from.

I can’t forget also the support of parents at each event in terms of officiating or admin (yes we did put full teams out to comply with rule 25), the coaches for supporting each event, Alex Killick for putting up with bits of paper and numbers in the week before each event, my kids for doing the number allocations and Nick Clay for providing some excellent guidance in my debut season doing this.

As frustrating as it has been at times this season (doing declaration sheets is not fun) I have loved seeing the results and performance of each individual athlete and really start to see where we can take the T&F part of the club.

Next Season – I need more athletes!!!!!!

At age groups the final positions were

U13 girls – 17th (14th – 2016)

U15 girls – 11th (11th – 2016)

SW/u17 – 12th (17th – 2016)

U13 boys – 12th (15th – 2016)

U15 boys – 13th (13th – 2016)

U17 men – 19th (19th – 2016)

Senior Men – 12th (12th – 2016)

 

Ed. A big thank you and well done to you too David. Without you, none of this would have been possible. Here’s to an even more successful Track & Field season next year.

 

Results Summary

U11s – 7 attended including Ben Oakes making his debut alongside the ever present Ash Carter, Katie Killick and Sophia Watt.  It was great to see Toby Evans, Charlotte Evans and Hollie Scott having enjoyed the Cambridge event come out for their second outing.  80ms saw Ash and Toby break their PBs (Toby was just outside the club record) with Ben in the middle time-wise, whilst Katie was the fastest LBAC followed by Sophia and Hollie.  600m Ash, Toby, Sophia and Hollie broke their PBs.  In Long Jump Sophia jumped over 3m for the first time.  In Shot Ash completed his clean sweep of PBs for the day.

U13s – slightly light on numbers at both boys and girls but still didn’t stop some great performances.  U13 girls saw Julia Bell, Imogen Chesterton and Jessica Stenner.   Runs wise they were slightly off their PB pace although Julia and Imogen were quite close to their best in hurdles.  Long Jump saw a PB for Jessica who then went and repeated that at Shot Put.  U13 Boys saw an expected appearance from Sid and Arty Mead who provided some company for Aaron O’Dwyer, slight controversy in the first event Shot Put as Colchester failed to supply any field judges (complaint was made as it violated rule 25 but to no avail), so starting some 20 minutes late Aaron and Arty still whacked out PBs (Arty taking max points as B string) unfortunately this late start impacted Aaron on long jump as he missed warm up and first round but still did well as did Sid who gained a PB.   Aaron bounced back on HJ equalling his PB.  Arty then went and blitzed his discus PB (he was competing against Geoff Capes’ grandson so tough competition).

U15s – Girls slightly down on the mega numbers we have seen this season still had the reliable squad of Amy Killick, Daisy Giltrow, Niquole Carter and Jenny Abington pushing some of the larger clubs for top spots.  Jenny completed a good season with PBs in 300m, Long Jump and it’s a real a shame that the u15 girls can’t do triple jump in the league.  Niquole returned to 800m distance to produce a strong PB backed up with another in 200m.  Daisy gave Shot a go and produced a PB which again was backed up in Long Jump.  Amy completed the clean sweep on Long Jump PBs for the girls jumping beyond 4m for the first time and finishing first, in the 1500m tried a Laura Muir style tactic by taking the race out but couldn’t quite hold on to the pace but still finished high up again.   The girls were the only 4x100m team of the day for LBAC and nice to see some slick handovers lead to a sub 60 time.

U15 boys saw Isaac Newell making his debut to support Harry Bell as the other competitor.   Harry PB in the 300m was slightly faster than Isaac.   Harry was slightly below his PB in the Long Jump but still scored good points as did Isaac in the High Jump and hopefully with winter training will see some good results next season.

U17s – Finally we had two u17 boys competing with Daniel Horner hopefully over his injury nightmare of this season making his debut alongside the promising Alfie Day.  Daniel’s 800m was impressive in a race where they were running alongside senior men and managed to hang onto the leaders for the first lap to finally finish up only a few seconds behind Chris Norman.  Alfie set a blistering time in the 100m to finish 3rd backing that up with a strong Long Jump.

U17 girls – slightly down on numbers saw McKenna Keefe again equal her High Jump PB and I am sure next season it will go beyond the club record.  Dana Carter dropped down the distance to 100m to produce a seasons best and just outside her PB, bravely went with it in the 800m but ran out of juice in the last 200m and picked up vital points in the Javelin.

Senior Woman – Alex Killick and Megan Westrope once again turned out and continued the point’s fest that has seen them combined with the u17s produce a great league result.  Alex decided to unleash the hammer beyond 17m for the first time to continue to break her club record.  Unfortunately she couldn’t quite get the rest to follow suit but still picking up vital points.  Megan still struggling for form was off her PB but still hit a season best and also picked up points in Long Jump and PB in the 400m.

Senior Men’s – Bolstered by the appearance of our track specialist Chris Norman and the returning Will Ponissi it gave team admin a headache over who could do what events, causing him to drop himself from Shot and to non-scoring in discus such is the field quality.  The team supported by Nick Stonehouse fresh from his Gold Medal at the transplant game and Michael Watt continuing to enjoy the T&F experience.  As it was and determined to keep his place in the squad David Killick upped the game and decided to unleash spin rotation in the hammer resulting in a massive PB, which was good as Michael decided he wanted some of the plus 18m distance to finish just short.  Shot saw non-scoring Will produce the longest distance in the event and break the club record that has stood since 1999.  Discus was mainly a battle between Will and Nick with Will taking the honours with a new PB.  Javelin also saw Will PB whilst my own efforts were muted as I had my mind on the 1500m.   Long jump saw Michael continue to soar like a Buzzard whilst Will slightly behind but still with a PB.  On the track Chris Norman fresh from his 800m (2 seconds off his PB) decided to act as my Pace Maker in the 1500m (I decided to do this as this was preferable to the 400m).  Obviously Ultra training is great for 1500 as I somehow managed to keep pace, over take people and break my PB by 18 seconds to go sub 5:28 with Chris shattered from 2 days of T&F still pulling in some good points.