Men take third place

Sunday 9 August 2009

Cardiff's senior men's team contested the BAL 10 in 100 cup final at Copthall Stadium, North London, yesterday, 8th August, taking third place behind winners Channel Islands with Blackheath and Bromley second.

Best points winner for Cardiff was Dave Coleman who won the discus with 51.23m and came third in the shot put with 13.88m, both personal best performances.

Club captain and team manager for the day, James Thie, led by example, winning the 1500m and Lloyd Reffell, making a welcome come back to athletics, took second place in the 200m and added an impressive 200m leg in the last event of the day, the medley relay. Christian Malcolm was shaded in the 100m by fellow GB international Dwayne Grant, both sharing the same time of 10.57 into a slight headwind.

On a rare perfect day for athletics, this competition, comprising only 10 individual events plus a medley relay, with everything completed in 100 minutes, is an interesting innovation created by the British Athletic League but needs to be better organised and promoted if it is to catch on. Cardiff had qualified for the final by winning the elimination round in Yate and took a very young team to the final - the entire team except two being under 21 years old - which augurs well for the future.

Cardiff's team was:

100m - Christian Malcolm (2nd place)
200m - Lloyd Reffell (2nd)
400m - Gareth Hopkins (3rd)
800m - Declan Evans (5th)
1500m - James Thie (1st)
400mH - Luke Morgan (5th)
Discus - Dave Coleman (1st)
Shot - Dave Coleman (3rd)
Long Jump - Sam Conway (5th)
High Jump - Lewis Long (4th)

Match Result: 1. Channel Islands (82); 2. Blackheath & Bromley (77); 3. Cardiff (69); 4. Crawley (46.5); 5. Bolton H (44); 6 Kingston Poly (DQ); 7. Stevenage & N Herts. (41); 8. Rugby & Northants (21).

To view the full results click on RESULTS.