Athletics
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Flying start for B & B's defending champions
BLACHEATH & Bromley's Under 20 men and womens team started their deefence of their National Junior League title with a fine victory in the opening Southern Premier League match at Copthall.
A good start was essential as only two teams from this division, which contains the top eight clubs from the South Of England, will qualify for the National Final in September.
They won by a healthy 40.5 points and in doing so provided both the male and female athlete of the match award winners. Scott Huggins smashed the League Record for the pole vault with a clearance of 5 metres and 5 centimetres an improvement of 15 centimetres on the previous record which had stood since 1998. It was also a new Scottish Junior and Club Record. Shaunagh Brown won the female award for her 13.85 putt to win the shot.
Shaunagh also won the discus helping the Club win 7 out of 8 womens' A string field events, the other victors being Banke Jemiyo (Hammer), Sarah McGuire (Javelin) Jessica Matthews (High Jump) and Lauren Blackie (long and triple jump)
There was also victory for the 4x400 team of Sarah McLellan, Katrina Cosby, Isobel Ivy, and Savannah Echel-Thompson and B string wins for Lorraine Ugen (200 and long jump), Amy DeMatos (400 hurdles), Katherine Jones (Discus), Anne Sophie Gnadou (shot) and Leah Forbes-Morris (triple jump).
For the men Andrew Jordon won the Hammer with 59.90, his first competition using this weight, and the 4x400 team of Lemar Charles, Neil Francis, Steve Cavey and Tom Bensted were also victorious. B string winners were Tom Bensted (400) Ben McCallum (2000 steeplchase), Richard AlAmeen (Hammer) and Charlee Debolla (pole vault).
A number of athletes set personal bests on an afternoon where conditions were not conducive to peak perfomances making this a very satisfactory start for the team.
The day before at Norman Park the Club hosted the first Southern Womens League match of the year and after a close battle all afternoon the team finished third, one point behind Kingston & Polytechnic and eight behind leaders Marshall Milton Keynes.
The squad was a little depleted, particularly in the field events and had they had a couple more athletes they may have actually won the match. Victoria Thomas won the Hammer which was not a surprise as she is one of the top throwers in the country, but, what did raise a few eyebrows was a double victory in the high jump from Rachel Arnheim and Rebecca Haywood.
Rachel was taking the day off from pole vaulting and in her absence Rebecca entered the event to score a point and ended up winning the competition. She also won the B string 100 hurdles despite a fall.
Sam Singer had a busy and successful day on the track winning the 800, 400 and 200 metres races. In the B string 800 and 400 Maureen Miller celebrated her 45th birthday a few days late by winning both events with her 61.7 for 400 being quicker than she ran the whole of last year.
Jane Bradshaw was also a double B string winner in the 1500 and 3000, the latter in a sparkling new best of 10.51.9. Jennie Butler scored useful points in the A races and Katy Benneworth made the most of her weekend back from Suffolk with a busy afternoon competing in the 100, 100 hurdles, long jump and triple jump.
Both the mens' and womens' teams enjoyed victories in the opening Kent Masters League match of the season at Sutcliffe Park
Inspired by Club President Tim Soutar's win in the 1500 there were a number of notable performance. Tom Phillips 25.4 for the 200 is the fastest in the country by an over 50 athlete this year.
Steve Langdon won the javelin by a huge margin with a throw of 46.87 and there was another throws victory for Colin Brand in the over 60s shot, despite being over 70.
The men rounded off the evening with Clem Leon, Ian Holder, Denis Wallington and Tom Phillips combining to win the over 35s 4x100.
The womens' competition saw the welcome return of Mel Healy in the 200 A race with Caroline Nyamusi taking the B race.
Jane Bradshaw and Bridget Davey scored good points in the 1500 and like the men they finished with a win in the 4x100 with Helen Godsell anchoring them home.
Further details of this and other matches are on the Club website at www.bandbhac.org.uk
8:47am Thursday 1st May 2008
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