LWAC - Northern Mens 1 - Report

Lincoln Wellington Athletic Club (LWAC)
© LWAC 2000-2002 - last updated 19 July 2002

Northern Mens Div 1 match 1
Cleckheaton
4 May 2002

The newly promoted Lincoln Wellington men's team made a dream start to their debut Northern League division one campaign in the opening match of the season at Cleckheaton. Against some of the heavyweight squads from the North of England the Wellington boys were in contention throughout the afternoon's competition and at the final reckoning they finished in a remarkable 2nd place from the seven teams competing. The result was all the more praiseworthy as team captain Gary Johnson had no less than twenty two names on his unavailable list.

Wellington's junior cross country international Matt Bowser soon showed he had lost none of his speed by making all the running to comfortably win the 800 metres in a personal best time of 1.54.8. Ninety minutes later he changed tactics to win the 1500m in 4.00.6 with a powerful charge down the home straight after following the pace all the way. Another splendid track performance came from Steve Blagdon who was hugely impressive when running away with the 400m in an excellent personal best of 49.8. He almost picked up the 100m as well but his strong finish after a tardy start just failed to get him in front on the line and he had to settle for 2nd place in 11.2. Another personal best went to Gary Johnson who was a good 3rd in the B 800m in 2.00.3 before going on to take 5th spot in the B 1500m in 4.19.5. Sprinter Ricky Lea missed some of his winter training but showed he is back on track with 4th place in the B 100m in 11.9 and 5th position in the B 200m in 23.5. Jim Ayuba is in particularly good form and ran very well to finish 4th in the A 200m in 23.7. In the 5000m Simon Bell produced his best recent time with 15.38.9 for 5th place and in the B race Andy Wood did very well to finish 2nd in 15.48.3 having already placed 5th in a high class 3000m steeplechase in 9.40.9. Malc Bramhall was a touch below his best in the 400m hurdles when finishing 6th in 63.6 but he went on to take 4th place in the B 400m in 54.6.

There was an encouraging effort from Steve Swaby in the B 400m hurdles and he crossed the line in 2nd place in 64.1 on his debut in the event. Adey White and new member Geoff Powley did a lot of the work in the field events. After the former had a good 2nd in the 110m hurdles in 20.4 he went on to finish 3rd in the pole vault with 3.20m, 6th in the hammer with 26.49m 6th in the B discus with 27.58m and 4th in the B shot with 8.70m. Powley's best event was the javelin where a pretty useful throw of 45.22m was only good enough for 6th place in a high quality event. Further points went to him with 5th place in the high jump (1.60m), 2nd place in the B pole vault (2.70m), 7th place in the shot(9.39m) and 5th spot in the B hammer (18.90m). A personal best 6.19m gave Phil Mackie 3rd place in the long jump and he followed up with 11.32m in the B triple jump to claim 3rd position. Steve Swaby was 5th in the A contest with 11.44m. Youngsters Richard Duffin and Luke Lovell made valuable contributions. The former was 5th in the B javelin with 37.97m and 6th in the discus with 30.39m and the latter was 3rd in the B high jump with 1.60m.

Good points were gained when the Wellington squads picked up the runners up spots in both relays. Lea, Swaby, Ayuba and Blagdon got the changeovers pretty slick with a nippy 45.2 in the 4x100m event. And in the 4x400m contest Blagdon, Bowser, Johnson and Bramhall all ran strongly to finish in 3.30.8.

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