Brilliant start for seniors
Sunday 6 June 2010
Cardiff's British League and UK Women's League teams got the season off to a flying start in Cardiff yesterday, 5th June.
With welcome fine weather all day, the women won their match convincingly from Welsh rivals Swansea whilst the men's team, newly promoted to a higher division, finished a clear second, having led the competition for much of the day.
Pictured is athlete of the match Rhiannon Yates, winner of the long jump and second in the 100mB.
Both teams held strong positions in the matches throughout the day and the final scores were:
Women's match: 1. Cardiff AAC (198 points); 2. Swansea H (174); 3. Enfield & haringey (169); 4. Bedford & County (164); 5. Southampton AC (149); 6. Wigan & D HAC (139); 7. Milton Keynes (134); 8. Liverpool H AC (125).
Men's match: 1. City of Sheffield (359 points); 2. Cardiff AAC (320); 3. Kent AC (282); 4. City of Liverpool (281); 5. Blackheath & Bromley (265); 6. Gateshead H (246.5); 7. Basingstoke (218); 8. Trafford AC (189.5).
Cardiff's individual event winners were:
Women: Emma Peters (400m H); Anoma Sooriyaarchi (200mB); Leanne Clarke (Javelin A ); Rhiannon Yates (Long Jump A); Imogen Miles (Long Jump B); Jessica Abrahams (Pole Vault B); Sara Barry (Triple Jump A).
Men: Liam Duff (100m B); Nat Lane (3000m B); Chris Discombe (3000m s/c A); Andy Friend (3000m s/c B); Lewis Long (High Jump B).
The men's 4x100m relay team ran a fine, well controlled race to win, ahead of City of Sheffield.
One of the secrets of the teams' successes was that team managers Debbie Rees and James Williams fielded athletes in every event (with the exception of the women's high jump B and the women's 2000m s/c; the latter event having only 6 competitors in all). This represents excellent team spirit and augurs well for the remaining rounds.
Men's team manager James Williams was delighted and writes:
A great start to the 2010 BAL season for Cardiff's men on Saturday. After romping away with Division 2 last year, the men's team were under no illusion that it would take a mighty effort to repeat that feat. That job was made even tougher when we lost multi-eventer Matt Ledger to a motorbike mishap, and then on the eve of the match Dave Coleman was involved in a car crash.
However, captain on the day Dave Coleman gathered all his strength to launch the discus 47m for a valiant 2nd place - he was backed up by Gareth Winter who also finished 2nd in the B string. This set the team up nicely and they were backed up in the field by Jason Hallet (4th B) in the Javelin and Shot and Justin Sysum in the Hammer (3rd) and Javelin (5th).
In the jumps there was a 4th place finish for Adam Gallie, Jon Murray and Jamaul Whyte in the high jump, pole vault and long jump respectively. Lewis Long took the honours in the B string high jump with a SB of 1.80. Ross Mckensie made a solid debut in the triple jump for 5th. He was backed up by Sam Conway in the long and triple jump - Sam filling in at the last minute following Matt Ledger's injury. Sam also ran 11.4 in the guest 100.
On the track, there were pb's for Liam Duff in the B 100 in 10.79 and Lloyd Reffell in the 200 21.88 into a headwind. They were backed up by Phil Durgachurn's 10.9 for 4th in the 100,and the returning Matt Elias in the 200 - also 4th.
Joe Thomas finished like a train to get 2nd in the 400 B string but in the A string there was frustration for Gareth Hopkins as a sore hamstring meant he had to stride the last 200 but still finished in 7th in 50.78.
The distance events have always been strong for Cardiff - Saturday was no exception. Gareth Wiltshire ran a superb race, narrowly being beaten by European medalist Sam Ellis in a fantastic 1.50.79. Ieuan Thomas also finished 2nd in 1.53. In the 1500, Tom Marshall took the scalp of Scott Overall for 2nd in a sb of 3.49. Adam Bitchell's debut saw him finish in 4th in the B string.
In the 3k - Alex Haines continued his recent good form for 3rd in the 3,000 and Nat Lane won the B string event, giving both men some speed work before a final attempt at the 10k qualifying mark for the Commonwealth Games this Saturday at the Welsh Championships.
In the Chase, Athlete of the match Chris Discombe dominated the field winning in a pb of 9.09. He was backed up again by Andy Friend - winning the B string in another pb of 9.29. Both men then competed in the 110H - doing their bit for the team and gaining the club some valuable points in the process. In the 400H new signings Gareth Morris and Michael Haslett ran exactly the same time of 54.78 to get good points in a very high standard hurdles race.
In the relays - the Mens 4x100 team ran a superb race to just take the victory by the smallest of margins. In the 4x4 the team performed very well with Gareth Warburton making an appearance with a 46sec leg to anchor the team to 5th.
All in all a fantastic day for the club - setting us up nicely for another promotion hunt. Hopefully an incident free build up to the next match will see us being even stronger and hopefully repeat the feat. Coupled with the success of the womens team - it all goes to show that the club continues to go from strength to strength and that 2010 looks like being a succesful year for the senior teams.
Athlete of the match for the men's team was Chris Discombe and Rhiannon Yates took the honours in the women's team.