Southern Athletic League Bromley 15th April

The Colchester Harriers produced an outstanding team performance on a warm Easter Saturday to take a second place to one of the country’s top clubs Blackheath & Bromley in the first Southern Athletic League match of the season.

It was an accomplished team performance achieving an overall score of 200 points. Athletes stepped up to make certain that events were covered, a full team of officials ensuring the match ran smoothly and a coach renewed his competitive licence to score valuable points in the field.

Epitomising this by competing in multiple events were club stalwarts, Matt Rose 110mH, 400mH, high jump, pole vault & discus; Helen Bloomfield 400m, 100mH, 400mH, triple jump & 4x400m relay; Nicola Martell Smith 100mH, 400mH, high jump, javelin and 4x400m relay, and Catherine Holdsworth shot putt, hammer, discus, javelin, and high jump.

The icing on the cake at the end of day was the quartet of Callum McKay, Ben Argent, Joe Wilkin and Charlie Dobson breaking the ten year old all time club record in the 4 X 100m relay in 43.54s.

The Harriers men dominated the middle distance events on the track, with wins in the 800m for Paul Clifford 1:59.84 and Jordan Rowe 2:00.33; 1,500m Ramadan Osman 4:19.02 and 5,000m Jordan Rowe 15:31.95 & Ramadan Osman 15:48.68. Ross Livingstone ran 2:05 54 in the 800m also. Oscar Dawson took second in the 1500m 4:26.37. He was followed by John Nears 4:43.62 and competing in their first senior match Fergus Crouch 4:39.87 & Joseph Boden 4:40.55, both achieved personal bests. Veteran runner Colin Ridley transferred his good form of the winter to the track recording 1500m time of 4:59.29 and 5,000m 17:05.75. He was accompanied in the 5,000m by Peter West 18:26.00 and Arthur Whiston 20.28.16. There were also second places and personal bests in the steeplechase for Anthony Barraclough 6:56 44 and Ben Halls 7:14 56.

For the ladies there was a second place for Stacey Eyers in the 800 A string 2:24 94, with a win in the B string for Denise Morley 2.25 91. Denise also competed in the 1,500m 5:06.70 alongside Emma Livingstone who came second in the B string 5:28 24 . The club had a welcome return to competition in the 3000m & the steeplechase with Lucy Mapp recording 11:20 12 PB and 8:17.32 and Samantha Hart with two PB’s of 12:04 01 / 9:12 81.

In the sprints there were second places in the A string for Rebecca Jeggo 12.24 100m / 24.90 200m (U20W National Standard), and Charlie Dobson 11.01 PB / 22.06. These positions were mirrored in the B string races by Caitlin O’Reilly 12.56 / 26.23 and Callum McKay 11.23/ 22.83 There was also positive early season runs by Megan Stevens 13.42 / 27.88, Katie Rice 13.99 / 28.46, Joe Wilkin 11.52 / 23.49 and in the 100m by Ben Argent 11.42 & Anna Taylor 14.13.
In the Men’s 400m there were personal bests for Jake Young 50.56, Jed Asemota 51.81 & B string win, and Thierry Ajala 52.30, whilst Stacey Eyers took B string second at 64.96.
It the field there was an A string win in the hammer for Rob Earle 49.89m, which was followed with second places in the shot 11.96 & discus 37.54. Supporting in the hammer and shot was Paul Young achieving personal bests in both events. Paul Cooper threw 51.00m to take second in the A string javelin.

Philippa Davenall achieved the school’s national standard in the hammer with a second place throw of 48.37, and then took maximum points in the B string shot putt 10.34 as well as competing in the discus.

Valuable team points were gained by Jake Young in the high jump, Charlie Dobson & Joe Wilkin in the long jump and Ben Argent & Paul Clifford in the triple jump. These were matched by the ladies with Catlin O’Reilly in the long jump and Courtney Bland in both the long and triple jump.

There was a second place for the women’s 4×100 relay and third in the 4x400m.

Many thanks to Chris, Melvin, Rick, Jill and Annette for their work on the day.

And finally to Jacqui, Paul, Louise and John for finding ways to ensure a great day was had by all.

The next meeting is at Harrow on Sunday 21st May.

Provisional match scores
Blackheath & Bromley 274
Colchester Harriers 200
Belgrave Harriers 167
Thames Valley Harriers 125