Medway and Maidstone ladies and men claimed second place in a closely fought match at there 4th Southern Athletic League fixture against local rivals Tonbridge, Ashford and league leaders Ipswich. This now leaves them going to there last match with chances of a promotion to division one.
What is worth noting is the coming together of the age groups of the SAL team from U17s to a V65. It is fantastic to see how inclusive athletics can be with such strong performances across the age groups.
In the men’s events the ever present Lewis Heffernan had victory in 400M hurdles ‘A’ ( 57.4s ) 110M hurdles ‘A’ ( 16.3s ) triple Jump ‘A’ ( 12.45m PB ) and legs in the winning 4×100 and 4×400 relays add to that a 5.93m PB for 3rd in long jump.
Andre Wright was just pipped in 100m ‘A’ in 11.1s were Rory Kuypers won ‘B’ in 11.5s then reversed that in the 200m ‘A’ with 21.9s victory, Reece Dimech repeating this in the ‘B’ race in 22.8s. Adam Thompson was a convincing victor in ‘A’ 400m in a quick 49.6s. Ben Townend battled for 2nd ‘B’ in 52.6s.
Tewelde Menges was another run away winner of the 3000m ‘A’ in 9.02.7 with Tom Collins repeating victory in ‘B’ in 9.23.5. Tom went on to finish 2nd ‘A’ in 3000m s/c in 10.33.0 with the same position for Mark Wilkins 11.06.6 in ‘B’ race. Andrejs Safars was winner of the ‘B’ 400m hurdle in a PB time of 60.1s.
Strong runs from U17 Quinn Austin in 800m ‘A’ with a 2.03.7 3rd with Alex Donnelly 2nd ‘B’ in 2.07.
The Field events had a double high jump victories for U17s Johnny Berry 1.80m PB in ‘A’ and James Butcher 1.63m in ‘B’.
Newcomer Vet Darren Collins was 2nd with 35.20m in ‘A’ Discus. Will Blake a 26.73m PB for 3rd ‘B’. Another Veteran Clive Thompson was victor in the ‘B’ hammer with 25.11m were Andrejs Safars was 3rd ‘A’ in 29.32m. Another U17 Max Eldridge making his debut for the team had a 35.22 PB with his first attempt with senior Javelin and another PB of 2.35m in Pole Vault.
There were again some strong performances by the ladies.
U20 Lucy Hope contested the 100m ‘A’ and 200m ‘B’, finishing 3rd and 2nd respectively in 13.1s and 27.3s and also just missing out on 2nd ‘B’, in an extremely competitive long jump, with a season’s best of 4.12m. With Emma Giles taking 1st ‘B’ in the 100m and 3rd ‘A’ long jump with a season’s best of 4.99m to take 3rd. U20 Eleanor Callaghan Inge running strongly for 1st place in the 200 ‘B’ 26.9s. The 400m saw 2 of our U17s athletes competing in a strong 400m field. Lucy Maunders 4th ‘A’ in a PB run of 65.1s along with Emily Featherstone’s first outing at the distance to take 3rd ‘B’ in 64.5s. The 800m saw another strong performance for U17 Charlotte Young, in 2.21.9s and a season’s best for V40 Bernadette Harrop in 2.44.3s with both taking 2nd places. Harrop also stepped in to cover the 1500m ‘A’ in 6.04.10s and struggling towards the end with an injury but still managing to finish. Her teammate V35 Claire Wilkins ‘B’ 6.10.2s to take 3rd and 2nd place respectively. Wilkins then went on to contest the 1500m steeplechase ‘B’, 1st in 7.18.5s along with team mate Mo Fazakerley ‘A’, 4th in 7.12.7. Great points were taken for our V40 5000m ladies with 2nd place in what was Kerrie Clarke’s second track race of the season in a great time of 20.23.9s and Jenny Fowler in what was her first track race for several years, 1st ‘B’ in 21.19.8s. U17 Gbemi Kasumi was 3rd in the High Jump ‘A’, 1.43m along with U20 Grace Adeleye ‘B’, 4th in 1.28m. Both also competing in the triple jump with Kasumi 10.01m for 3rd ‘A’ and Adeleye 1st ‘B’ in 9.29m. With Adeleye also contesting the shot putt for 2nd place in 7.65m. However, her best and probably the outstanding performance of the day saw Adeleye launch the hammer to a PB of 41.18m for 1st ‘A’. Also contesting the hammer was U23 Jess Blake again achieving a brilliant PB of 39.69m also taking 1st ‘B’. Blake also taking 1st place in the discus 21.78m and 3rd javelin in 15.41m. With teammate V45 Vanessa Hannam taking 1st place in the shot putt in 9.85m, discus 33.93m and 3rd in the javelin 26.75m. There were 2nd places in both the 4x100m (Maunders, Hope, Featherstone and Callaghan-Inge) in 52.3s and 4x400m (Young, Featherstone, Maunders, Hope) in 4.13.8s to end a successful day of athletes for the M&M team.
Match score:
Tonbridge 222
Med & Maid 211
Ashford 202
Ipswich 143