Sunday Summary - 18 May 2008

Interesting pace makers in Copenhagen Marathon where Lucy Hine acheived a PB this weekend.

Rampant Cambridge go top - twice!

18 May 2008

Cambridge Harriers have yet another successful weekend as the Senior Men won their second fixture in the Southrn Mens League and the youngsters won again in the National Young Athletes League, to put both sections in pole position.

Senior Mens League
Cambridge Harriers Senior Men brushed all opposition aside at Woking on Saturday as they powered to the top of the Southern Men’s League. Neither the hosts, nor the morning’s league leaders Tonbridge could provide any answers as the light blue vests amassed a lead that grew steadily throughout the grey and wet afternoon.

On the track, A string wins came from Stefan Mitchell (100 metres) and Joe Durrant (800) who each also produced fine second place runs in the 200 and 400 metres respectively. On both the track and field, Francois Potgieter secured wins in both the 110 and 400 metre hurdles, along with the high jump. His third in the long jump capped another fine display from the tall powerhouse, South African.

Yet it was the depth of talent at this club that was to be the real undoing of the opposition, as Cambridge finished first or second in no less than 25 out of 36 of the contested events. Much of this was owed to the emerging crop of youngsters such as Andy Sheridan and Liam Corcoran, both producing personal bests in the steeplechase. Indeed Sheridan was to repeat the feat in the 5000 metres, whilst U/20 athlete, Lee Coogan was another to gain a pb double in the 800 and 1500.

In the field, other young stars shone brightly as Craig Lacy continued his progress by launching the javelin an impressive 51.17 metres in his quest to achieve the qualifying standard for the English Schools Championships. To this another lad balancing GCSE’s with his sports career was Kevin Kwarteng who gained a B string high jump victory along with valuable second places in the triple and long jumps.

Where youth was not on display it was then experience that was to keep the pressure on, such as veterans Andy Kruszewski (shot and discus) and Tony Tipping who competed in all four throwing events. They kept the points tally relentlessly increasing throughout the match and proved that (sometimes) technique can still mitigate for the passage of time.

Once Cambridge added wins in both the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 metre relays, the fixture had turned into something of a rout. The 31 point margin between Harriers and their closest rivals is all the more impressive when it is considered that they were not at full strength!

Match Result: Cambridge Harriers 140, Woking 109, Tonbridge 107, Woodford Green 85, Swindon 78..

National Young Athletes League

Cambridge Harriers made in two wins out of two in the National Young Athletes League after another convincing win at the Lee Valley Athletics centre on Sunday. The win was all the better considering they were competing against three of the top teams in the Division – Eastbourne, Herts Phoenix and Lewes.

In the Under 17 Girls age group Jess Clark ran two great personal bests in the 300 Hurdles and 80m Hurdles, winning the first and only just getting piped on the line in the second. The times of 46.4 and 11.8 should give her a choice of events at the national Schools Championships to be held latter this year. Charlotte Lucas showed her versatility winning the pole vault with a clearance of 1.90, the B string Shot Putt with 8.21 and taking second in the Triple Jump with 8.99m. In the Shot Putt Charlotte partnered Anesa Wanogho who won the A string and also set personal bests to take second in the Javelin and Discus.

In the under 15 age group Cloe Garrett again improved her personal best in the hurdles with a time of 12.5 whilst Channel Hemmings set a big personal best of 13.0 in the 100m and then anchored the team to victory in the 4x100 relay.. Other personal best were set by Ruby Brown (19.34 to win the Javelin), Melissa Owusu-Ansah (27.5 in the 200) and Elle Kimberley (5.30.6 in the 1500).

In the Under 13 Age Group Daryl Nieta again dominated the 75m sprint with a grade one time of 10.3 and won the Long Jump with a leap of 4.72m. Johanna Mandal helped the club take maximum points by winning the B String Long Jump whilst also taking second in the 1200m with a time of 4.39.5

The boys section of the team was equally as successful as the girls. In the Under 17 age group a depleted team performed well. Mayo Oluwole won both the 100 and 200m the latter in a personal best of 23.1. Robert Macdonald front ran the 3000m to win in 10.03.1 whilst Fewa Williams scored a triple success with wins in the 400 Hurdles, 100 Hurdles and 400m flat. Jon Gyimah and new recruit Yasin Saglan dominated the heavy throw winning the And B string Shot Putt, B string Discus and B string hammer between them

In the Under 15 age group David Bolarinwa again dominated the sprints with times of 11.2 and 23.1 for the Under 15 100 and 200m respectfully whilst Tolu Odusanya and Joe Berth Jones cleaned up the B string races. James Murphy won the 1500 in 4.45.3 and overall the boys won 13 out of a possible 27 events

Finally in the Under 13 age group Joseph Epps cleared 1.26 to win the high Jump, Will Smith took second in the 1500 then helped out by competing in the Long Jump, 100m and relay to gain valuable extra points. Jack Parris won both the b string 200 and sprint hurdles

The team now move on to their next match at Horsham in two weeks time when they face the only other undefeated team in the division – local rivals Bexley

Darenth Valley 10k

A small Wednesday night road-running contingent were up nice and early to run the Darent Valley 10k on Sunday morning – the race starting at 8:30am (on a Sunday!)

An absolutely beautiful course along country roads and paths, passing through quaint villages, an old castle and a farm… incorporating the odd few hills.

First home in light blue, and first lady was Claire Gibson (10th overall), closely followed by Nick Jellema (12th) and Gerrard McCann (13th), (a healthy bit of club rivalry between the two is most certainly ensuing).

Keith Dungate had a cracking run to take 2nd SUPER vet, after a period of reduced training due to a couple of niggles since the Paris marathon. Next home was Helen Perera, finishing inside the top 10 women.

Monica Whitfield, Helen Guest, Maria Macdonald, and Stephanie Dungate also ran well, with Keith Miles coming in just under the hour.

And finally...

More marathons...

Les Pullen took another step towards his attempt to complete 100 races at marathon distance or further by completing the Padua marathon in 4 hours and 29 minutes. This brings his toll up to 46 after completing seven races towards the hundred this year, with Stornaway next up on Sat 25 May Followed by Harris Marathon on 27 May.

Lucy Hine gained a PB at the Copenhagen Marathon at the weekend in 3:37:06. Lucy enjoyed the fast paced course and would highly recomment the race to other Cambridge Harriers,
"If you're tired of jostling for road space in London and wanting something a bit more low key than Berlin but still seeking that flat fast course,Copenhagen is not a bad alternative." states Lucy. " The race route has no noticeable nasties, aside from a slight rise onto a slip road and a few cobbles round the Little Mermaid statue. It is a two loop course where you run the longer second leg twice making things easier for friends and spectators. Pace makers caused the odd raised eyebrow for the UK contingent – check out the photo – but were easy to spot. About 8,000 runners were signed up however there was plenty of hotel space to be had near the start. Next running is on 24 May 2009."

If you have any news, results or photos from your weekends event involving Cambridge Harriers that you would like to beincludedin the Sunday Summary, please send it through to Kevin White. Click here to email.. If you would like your story to be included within the local press, please ensure that it is sent no later than 9.30PM on Sunday.