Overall and Skinner selected for England (From News Shopper)

Overall and Skinner selected for England

1:58pm Friday 6th November 2009

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Two members of Blackheath & Bromley have been selected to race for England in the Gateshead International Cross Country races on the 14th of November.

Mike Skinner and Scott Overall secured their selections after some impressive performances on the road and country so far this Winter.

Scott ran the third fastest time at the National 6 Stage Road Relays last month and followed this with fourth place in the BUPA Great South Run in a field of over 20,000.

Mike ran the fastest time at the National Cross Country Relays last weekend, with Scott the second quickest.

Their efforts helped the Club achieve second place, their best result for years. Many of the Club's future Senior Internationals feature in the National Under 20 rankings lists which have appeared in the last two weeks in Athletics Weekly magazine.

The Club is enjoying huge success in the younger age groups but unfortunately the price of success is more expense and this is causing the Club some difficulty.

Shaunagh Brown is the number one in the country in both the shot and the discus.

The outgoing Junior Womens captain was way ahead on the lists with distances of 14.51 and 50.81.

Lorraine Ugen made a big breakthrough this year going over 6 metres for the first time in the long jump and finishing with a best of 6.29, the second best in the country.

Also ranked second is Serita Solomon in the 100 hurdles, a remarkable achievement after spending two of her three years injured having snapped both her achilles tendons.

Her best for the year was 13.89 which is both a Club Junior and Senior record.

Also second ranked is Kola Adedoyin in the triple jump. He has also had more than his fair share of injuries and finished the season back on crutches.

However, prior to this he leapt 15.63, just 7 centimetres off the Club Junior record, to qualify to represent Great Britain ath the European Junior Championships.

Andrew Jordon is third ranked in the Hammer with a throw of 63.41.

Other first and second claim Club members to figure in the top tens include Funmi Sobodu (100 metres 5th), Alex Bruce Littlewood (2000 steeplechase 5th), Samantha Milner (discus 6th), Savannah Echel Thompson (400 6th), Rebecca Smith (3000 steeplechase 6th), Katrina Cosby (400 hurdles 8th), Sandra Seaton (100 hurdles 10th), and Richard AlAmeen (Hammer 10th).

This individual success has enabled the Club to be the top Junior womens team in the country for the last five years, a remarkable achievement.

However, the reward for all the hard work and expense in achieving this is much more of the same.

As National champions the Club has represented the UK in the European Champions Club Cup for Juniors for the last four years with matches in Moscow, the Czech Republic, Serbia and Bosnia.

Next years venue has yet to be confirmed but favourite at the moment is Istanbul.

Competing at such fixtures is not cheap both in terms of the amount of unpaid work contributed by volunteers and the huge actual expense which this entails.

The Governing Body does make a contribution to the event but the Club is still awaiting the £1800 promised for 2009, a 40% reduction on the £3000 amount for 2008.

This comes at a time when costs are increasing.

For example, new airline legislation has meant that the Club had to transport the poles for the vault by courier.

What this has meant is that for two of the last three years the Club has had to fall back on reserves to represent the UK, thus, compromising it’s ability to fund the activities which helped achieve the success in the first place.

Paul Byfield, Head Of Active Athletics at Blackheath & Bromley Harriers says “It would be disastrous for athletics clubs in this country if lack of funding precluded competition at this level, especially as these are stepping stones to senior competition.

"With the Olympic Games coming to London in 2012 it is vital that our athletes compete in events like this”

Julian Golding, the Commonwealth Games 1998 200 metre champion gained his first taste of International competition when he ran for the men's team in the ECCCJ at Albi, France in 1992.

And Senior Mens’ club captain Michael Skinner has highlighted the importance of this competition in his development into a Great Britain international.

For all the latest Club news visit the website at bandbhac.org.uk

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