British Athletics League Division 4 – Round 3 – Rugby 2nd August 2003

The Senior Men’s team continued their season at Rugby on Saturday. The match was another closely contested affair but the outcome wasn’t as good for the Havering athletes who were only able to finish in seventh place.

With a number of injuries, and a number of athletes returning from injuries the team performance was like a Beckham haircut – basically bad with a few highlights.

Leo Barker started the day with a season’s best in the Long Jump, finishing in 3^rd place with a leap of 6.91, before going on to compete in another 6 events, the best of which a 2^nd in the “B” shot.  Sam Harrison was only just off his pb with a season’s best of 50.98 for 4^th place in the javelin. And Steve Prady Long jumped to 3^rd in the “B” event with 5.98, then equalled his best High Jump of the season with a 1.90 metre leap to claim another 3^rd place, but this one in the “A” string event.  A fine run by Trevor Keys in 15:38.4 earned him 7^th place in a very good 5000m field.

Mark Bishop, busy as usual competing in 5 events, his best place coming when he grabbed 2^nd in the Pole Vault “A” competition jumping 3.80m. Fellow vaulter Kevin Tufton won the “B” event with 3.60m. Sprinter Matt Russell, grabbed a 3^rd in the 100m and went one better in the 200m despite missing training with a nagging Achilles injury.

Steeplechaser Jason Lendon defied injury to pick up valuable points, in his last event of the season before getting married next week. Fellow ‘chaser Rob Warner had fought his way through the “Knebworth” traffic to run the 400m hurdles, before taking on 3000m steeplechase under the blazing sun.

Thrower Danny Gamester is getting back to fitness throwing the hammer out to 42.98 to claim 3^rd place in the “A” string. Fellow Hammer thrower Kevin Deacon had an off day only reaching 40.89, but still good enough to claim a 3^rd in the “B” string.

Despite the effort put in by all the team points were hard to come by all day and the team could only muster enough to finish in 7^th place. Although in a much better position than for the last few seasons the threat of relegation is still there, albeit in the distance. The Club must go in to the final match of the season, at Norwich, at the end of the month, prepared to ensure that relegation doesn’t become a reality.

Match result

League positions after two meetings

	A STRINGS	Pos.	Time/Dist			B STRINGS	Pos.	Time/Dist
100	Matt Russell	3	11.4		100	Andrew Bartlett	7	11.7
200	Matt Russell	2	22.5		200	Scott Spencer	5	23.3
400	Scott Spencer	7	51.6		400	Andrew Bartlett	8	52.1
800	Matt Bland	8	2:09.2		800	Chris Coates	8	2:06.9
1500	Rob Dickenson	6	4:14.2		1500	Matt Bland	5	4:22.4
5000	Trevor Keys	7	15:38.4		5000	Ryan Prout	6	16:29.0
3000 s/c	Jason Lendon	5	10:16.1		3000 s/c	Rob Warner	3	10:34.4
110H	Leo Barker	8	17.1		110H
400H	Rob Warner	8	80.6		400H
L.J.	Leo Barker	9	6.91		L.J.	Steve Prady	3	5.98
H.J.	Steve Prady	3	1.90		H.J.	Mark Bishop	6	1.65
T.J.	Mark Bishop	8	10.87		T.J.	Steve Prady	8	9.82
P.V.	Mark Bishop	2	3.80		P.V.	Kevin Tufton	1	3.60
S.P.	Mark Bishop	6	11.38		S.P.	Leo Barker	2	11.11
D.T.	Mark Bishop	5	34.14		D.T.	Leo Barker	5	31.55
J.T.	Sam Harrison	4	50.98		J.T	Leo Barker	4	39.80
H.T.	Danny Gamester	5	42.98		H.T.	Kevin Deacon	3	40.89
4x100	Matt Russell; Scott Spencer, Andrew Bartlett; Leo Barker						4	44.1
4x400	Andrew Bartlett, Matt Russell, Leo Barker, Scott Spencer						6	3:30.3

Additional photos courtesy of Ted Sepple whose copyright they remain. Taken on behalf of Romford Recorder