By Barry Warne
Nene Valley Harriers’ ladies increased their chances of joining the clubs making the Eastern Masters track and field league finals with an exciting win in last Monday’s fixture at the embankment track.
Though still trailing Royston Runners and Corby AC in the overall standings, Nene Valley are well-placed to qualify as a high scoring third placed team.
Their win was aided enormously by Betty Gash and Lindsay Lister. Over-50 Lister won the 400m in 71.2secs and the 1,500m with a time of 5.44.1mins, while Gash won the over-60 100m in a time of 18.1secs and the 400m in 83.7secs.
Claire Smith clocked 13.7secs for her over-35 100m win, while Andrea Jenkins threw 9.04m for her over-35 shot victory and 35.57m for maximum points in the discus.
Peterborough AC finished fourth out of the seven teams. Judith Jagger played a starring role with victories in the shot, discus and triple jump.
Over-50 Jagger jumped 7.15m in the triple jump, and won the shot with 8.08m and the discus with 21.33m.
Meanwhile, Nene Valley’s men suffered a rare defeat, finishing behind a Corby team who themselves were determined to make the finals.
After three of the four league fixtures, the Nene Valley lead is so great that only a no show in the last fixture at King’s Lynn could prevent them from reaching the end of season finals.
Julian Smith won the over-50 400m in a time of 12.2secs and ran 57.4secs for first place over 400m, while Dave Brown clocked 51.7secs for his over-35 400m win.
The ever-impressive Simon Achurch dominated the over-35 throws with winning distances of 11.02m in the discus and 35.00m in the shot. Kevin Bates also took maximum points in the over-60 discus throwing 20.67m.
Richard Phelan then jumped 1.45m in his over-60s triple jump win, while James Mcdonald won the over-35s 1km walk with a speedy 5.45.2mins.
Elsewhere, Peterborough AC’s Eamonn Dorling won the over-60s walk in 6.33.8mins and his club dominated the 1,500m winning all three age groups.
Simon Fell clocked 4.35.5mins in the over-35 race and Peter Ward won the over-50 event in 5.07.9mins.
One of the performances of the day came from Duncan McGrory, who ran an extremely rapid 4.59.2mins for his over-60 first place.
Peterborough AC finished fourth and are out of the running for a finals place.
Match results: Men – 1st Corby AC 158pts; 2nd NVH 139pts; 3rd Ryston Runners 128pts; 4th West Norfolk AC 97pts; 5th Peterborough AC 83pts; 6th Huntingdon AC 68pts; 7th Stamford AC 15pts.
Ladies – 1st NVH 141pts; 2nd Ryston Runners 137pts; 3rd Corby AC 124pts; 4th Peterborough AC 60pts; 5th West Norfolk AC 44pts; 6th Stamford AC 20; 7th Huntingdon AC 0pts.
- Nene Valley’s Katie Marsh impressed at the Eastern counties AA Championships in Cambridge at the weekend.
Marsh won silver in under-15 girls’ long jump with a leap of 4.75m, and bronze in the 75m hurdles with a time of 12.21m.
