British League at Nuneaton on Sat 2nd June 2018

 British League at Nuneaton on Sat 2^nd June 2018

A great result for the club on a warm, sunny day at Nuneaton, which was a new venue for us ,as we produced a fine 2^nd place and that us into 3^rd place in the league – only 1 point away from the top 2 promotion slots.

We had a small team on the day, only 17 athletes, but it was well balanced with the maximum number of events per athlete being four on the day – so no one was over stretched and we produced, for the first time ever, no changes at all to the planned team.

As usual we got off to a slow but solid start with us getting more than the minimum number of points in the Pole Vault and High Jump through captain Joe Appiah, Ethelbert Metzger and Shaun Mulligan. Then new recruit Sam Lyon jumped well in the Long Jump to secure 2^nd place with a jump of 6.89 m and was well backed up by Joe Appiah who jumped 6.11 m to secure 3^rd place in the B string.

Next up was the 400m Hurdles where Jean Charles Roghi, despite not being fully fit, produced a solid run to secure 6^th place in the A string and was well backed up by Shaun Mulligan in the B string as he just broke the minute with a time of 59.9 secs to gain 4^th place – but was really blowing by the end !

Then in the 100 m we had GB International Conrad Williams who ran solidly to gain 4^th place in 10.88 secs and a great win in the B string from relatively new boy Nathan Brown in a time of 10.89 secs. We had to fill in the A middle distance events for once but Dan Pettit ran a well judged race to run a PB of 2min 00.9 secs in the B race. We were also filling in the Steeplechase but Neil Phillips delivered a fine 4^th place in the A string (despite one refusal) and new boy Ian Ellwood ran a excellent PB time of 10 min 44 secs to secure a well judged 3^rd place in the B race.

In the 110 m hurdles our two specialists, Joe Appiah and Ethelbert Metzner performed well in good standard races to gain 4^th and 6^th place respectively.

Next up was the 400 m where the talented Shawn Wright ran a well judged race and secured a fine 2^nd place in 48.24 secs – a great run given the wind and the fact that he is only just coming back from injury. He was backed up well in the B race by George Huxley who was just edged out into 6^th place in the B race but he will improve substantially as he is also getting over injury.

We had edged up to 4^th place in the team competition by then but now the charge was coming !  First Conrad Williams ran well to secure 3^rd place in the A 200 m and was backed up well by Reece Dimesh in the B race as he secured a close 5^th place in a time of 22.68 secs. Then the Discus came in as Sean Breathnach secured a fine win with a throw of 48.23 m and he was well backed up by our own Courtney Green who gained a fine 2^nd place in the B string with a season’s best of 37.42 m.

Then our Irish star Sean Breathnach secured another A string win in the Shot with a throw of 17.67 m and was again backed up brilliantly by Courtney Green who won the B string with another season’s best of 13.16 m. Another great event came in and news of Sam Lyon worth to the team was validated as he came an excellent 2^nd in the Triple Jump with a jump of 13.69 m with solid back up from the key man to our success on the day, Shaun Mulligan, securing even more points with a best of 11.00 m in his fourth event of the day.

Next up was our ever reliable pair of John Gilbert and Jordan Weaver in the 5000 m who both ran really well in tough warm conditions to lose virtually all opposition and gain us 2^ndplace in the A string and a fine win in the B string.

Then came our only hiccup in our charge to the line as we were disqualified in the 4 x 100 m relay despite the box lines being all but invisible. This however just charged up our boys in the 4 x 400 m relay with great early legs from Shawn Wright and Conrad Williams before George Huxley and Reece Dimesh closed to gain a superb 2^nd place in 3 mins 19 secs – just behind a fine Scottish International team.

Results were slow to come out but we enjoyed our trip back to London on the train secure that with a bit of effort on our part we can make a return to Div 1 our priority for the rest of the season.

Team results:                                                                      League – after 2 matches

1^st   Bournemouth            348                                         1^st    Bournemouth          16   (670)

2^nd  KENT AC                284.5                                      2^nd   Havering                 12   (579)

3^rd  Crawley                     280.5                                      3^rd   KENT AC               11   (557)                      4^th   Havering                   276                                         4^th    Newquay & P          10   (560)

5^th   Newquay & P           266                                         5^th    Crawley                     9    (542)

6^th   Glasgow                    241                                         6^th    Basingstoke &MH    6    (516)

7^th   Rugby  & N               233                                         7^th    Glasgow                    5    (494)

8^th   Basingstoke & MH    227                                         8^th    Rugby & N               3    (410)