Northern Track & Field League – Division 2 East Central
Match 3 – Herringthorpe Stadium, Rotherham
Sunday 9th July 2017
The Kingston upon Hull AC senior team made their second trip of the track & field season to the Herringthorpe Stadium in Rotherham on Sunday the 9th of July this time it was for the Rotherham Harriers home match they travelled with a strong men’s team but with some gaps in the women’s line up. This time we were blessed with a fine sunny day and near perfect conditions for athletics.
The squad as usual was made up of a mixture of senior athletes combined with some of the clubs outstanding youngsters from the youth team.
The opposition was provided by teams representing Bingley Harriers, Rotherham Harriers, Lincoln Wellington, Chesterfield and Scunthorpe.
Kingston upon Hull were the winners of the match and their total of 400 match points gained them the maximum 6 league points, 5 league points went to Rotherham and 4 to Lincoln Wellington, Chesterfield collected 3, Bingley 2 and Scunthorpe 1. Kingston sit at the top of the table on 17 points with Rotherham on 15 and Lincoln on 13.
The 4th and final match of the season will take place at the Costello Stadium in Hull on Saturday the 5th of August where the league title will go to either Kingston, Rotherham or Lincoln none of the other 3 teams can gain enough points to win the title.
Men’s Competition
Injuries and prior commitments had ruled out all of the frontline sprinters so long and triple jump specialists James Wardle and Matthew Elvidge answered the call in the 100 and 200 metres races. The 100 metres saw James Wardle running a season’s best time of 12.3 sec in the ‘A’ race to take 5th place and Matthew Elvidge took 3rd place in the ‘B’ with his season’s best run which was also 12.3 sec. In the 200 metres ‘A’ James ran a new PB of 24.8 sec for 6th place taking half a second off his previous best time and Lawrence Baird put in a season’s best run of 24.0 sec to take victory in the ‘B’.
The 400 metres ‘A’ race saw Lawrence Baird collect his second win of the day with a run of 50.9 sec and Robert Tweedale made it a club double winning the ‘B’ race and running a time of 52.3 sec.
In the 800 metres Kyle Foster took 4th place in the ‘A’ covering the two laps in a time of 2:07.4 sec and Daniel Holiday took 2nd place in the ‘B’ with his season’s best run of 2:02.9 sec.
The 1500 metres brought Loughborough University student Oliver Newton into the action and he ran a good race taking victory and posting a time of 4:06.3 sec whilst Liam Holiday ran a season’s best time of 5:32.9 sec for 4th place in the ‘B’.
The 5000 metres race saw biathle and distance specialist Gregan Clarkson take 3rd place in the ‘A’ where he ran a time of 16:37.7 sec and Simon Downs’ run of 18:21.9 sec saw him also take a 3rd place finish in the ‘B’.
Matthew Elvidge returned to action in the 110 metre hurdles ‘A’ race where he was a 3rd place finisher in 37.2 sec and Simon Downs ran a new PB of 22.6 sec in the ‘B’ for 2nd place.
The 400 metre hurdles saw Gregan Clarkson taking 4th place in the ‘A’ with his season’s best run of 85.7 sec and Liam Holiday was the winner of the ‘B’ where he also ran a seasons best time of 66.1 sec.
The 3000 metre steeplechase paired Gregan Clarkson and Simon Downs once more with Gregan taking 5th place in the where he ran a time of 11:16.8 sec whilst Simon covered the seven and a half laps in 11:35.3 sec to take 3rd place in the ‘B’.
The high jump competition saw Tom Horner clear a new personal best height of 1.85 metres in the ‘A’ an increase of two centimetres on his old best and Daniel Holiday took 5th place in the ‘B’ with a clearance at a height of 1.45 metres.
The pole vault competition saw Liam Holiday clear a season’s best height of 3.50 metres to take 2nd place in the ‘A’ event and Matthew Elvidge cleared his personal best height of 2.50 metres for 2nd place in the ‘B’.
The long jump and triple jump competitions brought James Wardle and Matthew Elvidge back into action, the long jump ‘A’ saw James jump a season’s best of 5.90 metres for 2nd place and in the ‘B’ Matthew also took 2nd place with his leap of 5.47 metres. Onto the triple jump where James Wardle jumped a new PB of 12.22 metres 29 centimetres beyond his previous best to take 3rd place in the ‘A’ and Matthew’s jump of 9.55 metres in the ‘B’ gave him a 4th place finish.
In the shot putt ‘A’ Anthony Norfolk was involved in a very close contest with Leo Rowley of Rotherham who just edged him on the day, Anthony’s throw of 12.66 metres gave him 2nd place. In the ‘B’ the British Masters shot champion John Twiddle was the winner of the competition with his throw of 12.12 metres.
Peter Smith and John Twiddle represented the team in both the discus and hammer events, the discus saw Peter win the ‘A’ with his throw of 35.86 metres and John followed suit winning the ‘B’ with his effort of 34.34 metres. In the hammer Peter Smith was the winner of the ‘A’ where he threw 57.75 metres and John Twiddle took 2nd place in the ‘B’ with his throw of 40.18 metres.
The javelin competition saw Simon Downs take 2nd place in the ‘A’ where he threw a new PB of 37.67 metres 1.06 metres above his previous best performance and Peter Smith also took 2nd place in the ‘B’ his effort of 32.10 metres.
Women’s Competition
The 100 and 200 metre sprint races were covered by the outstanding Megan Hoult and under 20 Gabrielle Whittle who was making her comeback from injury and had not run competitively for 14 months. The 100 metres saw Megan take 2nd place in the ‘A’ race where she ran a season’s best time of 12.6 sec and a huge performance from Gabrielle in the ‘B’ saw her win the race and also run a season’s best of 13.2 sec. The 200 metres saw the girls put in two more excellent performances with Megan running another season’s best of 26.8 sec for 2nd place in the ‘A’ and Gabrielle finishing 2nd in the ‘B’ in a time of 27.2 sec another season’s best for her.
The 800 and 1500 metres races brought Jessica Capplemen into action and she put her standard wholehearted performance into both of the races, running season’s bests in both races taking 4th place in the 800 metres in 2:25.6 sec and 4th place in the 1500 in 5:27.6 sec.
The 100 metres hurdles race brought Sonia Santos into competition and she took 3rd place in the race running a time of 16.9 sec.
The women’s pole vault saw the Northern champion and Northern indoor silver medallist Clare Blunt making her first league appearance of the year for the Kingston team she was the winner of the event and was the last competitor to exit clearing a height of 3.70 metres.
Youth team athlete Abbie Haigh made her debut in the senior team this season and she has overcome her early nerves to put in some good performances and has kept her place in the team on merit. She was the ‘A’ athlete in the high jump where she took 3rd place and went clear at a height of 1.35 metres.
Clare Blunt and Abbie Haigh were the triple jump pairing, Clare was the ‘A’ jumper and she won the event with her first jump which was a new personal best performance by her of 10.60 metres 15 centimetres beyond her previous mark and Abbie was the winner of the ‘B’ where she too jumped a new PB of 9.72 metres adding another 26 centimetres to her old best.
The long jump saw Northern combined events champion Venus Morgan add a further 20 centimetres to her best mark jumping a new PB of 5.62 metres to win the ‘A’ competition and Abbie Haigh taking 3rd place in the ‘B’ with her jump of 4.30 metres.
The hammer competition brought a re-union for the Northern under20 champion Olivia Stevenson and Maggie Okul the Northern senior champion. Olivia was the winner of the ‘A’ with a throw of 55.00 metres and Maggie was the winner of the ‘B’ with her throw of 53.65 metres.
Sophie O’Hara was the ‘A’ thrower in the shot competition where she took 2nd place and threw a distance of 9.31 metres whilst in the ‘B’ Maggie Okul also took 2nd place with a season’s best effort of 8.54 metres.
The discus event saw Sophie O’Hara taking 2nd place in the ‘A’ with a throw of 34.43 metres and in the ‘B’ Olivia Stevenson was the winner of the competition with her throw of 30.60 metres.
In the javelin event Maggie Okul took 3rd place in the ‘A’ where she launched the javelin out to a distance of 27.47 metres and sprinter Megan Hoult took 2nd place in the ‘B’ with her throw of 20.38 metres.
Relays
Women’s 4 x 100 metres
Due to injuries and work commitments the team was left with only one women’s sprinter for the relays such is the spirit in the team that two hammer throwers and a triple jumper put their hands up to run the race. Sprinter Megan Hoult went flat out on the first leg and handed over in 1st place to Abbie Haigh who put on a huge performance on the back straight and Maggie Okul dug in and did the same on the top bend and handed over to Olivia Stevenson who produced another massive effort on the final leg where she was holding 2nd place but was overtaken in the last few metres with the team finishing in 3rd.
Men’s 4 x 100 metres
The Kingston team of Daniel Holiday, Matthew Elvidge, James Wardle and Lawrence Baird finished in 2nd place and ran a time of 47.4 sec.
Men’s 4 x 400 metres
The Kingston foursome were Oliver Newton, Daniel Holiday, Robert Tweedale and Lawrence Baird who were the race winners and they posted a time of 3:32.5 sec.
