British Athletics League –
Round 1 – Crawley 5th May 2001
Havering
Mayesbrook’s British League team started their 2001 at a cold and windy
Crawley on Saturday. Already weakened by athletes moving on to other Club’s
after relegation last season, they suffered further blows with injuries to major
point scorers Phil Sadler and Brett Heath during the week leading up to the
match.
But
with some new recruits and the return from injuries of some old campaigners they
put up a good performance. None
more welcome than the return of veteran Hammer thrower Keith Robinson. Keith was
injured for all of last season but returned to the team to record his best throw
for a number of years to gain 3rd place in “A” string with a
throw of 46.50m. Mark Bishop, who is now passing on his expertise by coaching,
showed that he’s not lost the ability to lead from the front, competing in 4
events and scoring 26 valuable points for the team.
Also
returning was Leo Barker out injured for nearly 2 years, looking to regain
fitness, he took the first steps back to competitive athletics taking part in 3
events and picking up 2 second places on the way.
Newcomers
Stephen and David Kearns were thrown in at the deep-end, and did more than make
up the numbers accumulating some 36 points between them.
Irish decathlete Joe Naughton only arrived back on Thursday from a month
in South Africa training with Olympic Champion Erki Nool, but put fatigue on
hold for the day to contribute 42 points to the total.
Scott
Spencer, the only specialist sprinter in the team took 2nd place in
the 400m, 3rd in the “B” 200 and anchored both relay teams. Sam
Harrison recorded the only Havering win the day by throwing 46.33m in the
“B” string Javelin.
The
800m saw Gavin Maley placed 3rd in close finish and Rob Dickenson
fight his way to 5th in “B” string. The same duo took on the
1500m with Gavin claiming 4th in the “A” race and Rob again in 5th
place in the “B”.
Several
athletes gained points by taking on events to help the points tally, Kevin
Benton long jumped, ran the 400m and took on a leg of the sprint relay and 5000m
runner Graham Pritchard long jumped.
It
is hoped that more athletes will be fit and available to make the long trip to
Blackpool on June 2nd for the next match.
| A STRINGS | Pos. | Time/Dist | B STRINGS | Pos. | Time/Dist | |||
| 100 | Leo Barker | 8 | 12.2 | 100 | David Kearns | 7 | 12.0 | |
| 200 | Mark Bishop | 8 | 24.0 | 200 | Scott Spencer | 3 | 23.0 | |
| 400 | Scott Spencer | 2 | 51.2 | 400 | Kevin Benton | 5 | 55.0 | |
| 800 | Gavin Maley | 3 | 1:55.9 | 800 | Rob Dickenson | 5 | 2:03.4 | |
| 1500 | Gavin Maley | 4 | 4:11.3 | 1500 | Rob Dickenson | 5 | 4:17.4 | |
| 5000 | Graham Pritchard | 8 | 16:26.8 | 5000 | ----- | |||
| 3000 s/c | ---- | 3000 s/c | ----- | |||||
| 110H | Joe Naughton | 2 | 15.3 | 110H | Stephen Kearns | 2 | 16.8 | |
| 400H | Stephen Kearns | 2 | 58.2 | 400H | David Kearns | 5 | 63.1 | |
| L.J. | Kevin Benton | 8 | 5.01 | L.J. | Graham Pritchard | 7 | 3.20 | |
| H.J. | Joe Naughton | 4 | 1.85 | H.J. | Mark Bishop | 3 | 1.75 | |
| T.J. | ---- | T.J. | ---- | |||||
| P.V. | Joe Naughton | 4 | 4.20 | P.V. | Kevin Tufton | 2 | 3.20 | |
| S.P. | Mark Bishop | 8 | 10.59 | S.P. | Leo Barker | 2 | 10.54 | |
| D.T. | Joe Naughton | 5 | 37.29 | D.T. | Leo Barker | 2 | 32.50 | |
| J.T. | Mark Bishop | 4 | 47.94 | J.T | Sam Harrison | 1 | 46.33 | |
| H.T. | Keith Robinson | 3 | 46.50 | H.T. | Simon Kilminster | 5 | 33.62 | |
| 4x100 | Kevin Benton | 4x400 | Gavin Maley | |||||
| David Kearns | Stephen Kearns | |||||||
| Stephen Kearns | David Kearns | |||||||
| Scott Spencer | 7 | 47.7 | Scott Spencer | 4 | 3:32.3 | |||
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