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Successful Women's team co-manager Matty "getting those athletes reported in real early" Hanrahan was super prompt with his report this week. Jussie's might arrive soon
When I was a young lad schoolies week meant hanging around Southland trying to buy casks of wine cooler using your brothers drivers licence and then hitting a party where Bobby Brown was blurting out the speakers. Nowadays, it means a trip to Surfers, fun, sun and a week or two of no athletics.
Without a couple of our regular contributors, things were looking a little bleak in the lead up week. Enter Nicky Frey and her bunch of very talented athletes from Frankston, enter 3 (yes count them, 3, 5000m runners from Malvern and Glenhuntly), and keep in mind the fact that we have some of the best hurdlers and field event athletes going around and all of a sudden our team is looking very good. It's only times like this we realise how much depth we have within our little venue.
Last night, Bayside took out their 4 team competition in commanding style, winning by 30 points over a very talented Doncaster team. So many highlights, I don't know where to begin.
(Cue Reggae music) Gab Neighbour booked herself a trip to Jamaica in 2002 for the World Juniors by qualifying with a throw of over 53 metres, taking the Under 18 and Under 19 State Hammer records in the process. Not a bad nights work. Oh yeah, and she won the competition.
Our other throwing events dominated with Bec Neilsen winning Sot and coming second in Discus and Andrea Aspris improving by a metre and a half in the Jav on last weeks effort. Emma Cochrane won the Long Jump against a quality field and Rebecca Weisz took out not only our little competition, but the overall Pole Vault comp for the second week in a row, vaulting 3.20m, i think.
A special thanks to Sarah Wiltshire who quickly ran over to the High Jump to score us some points whilst warming up for the Pole Vault. Her efforts are much appreciated, as are the regular contributions of Sarah Dosen and Karen Laidlaw in the sprint hurdles. Karen just missed out on qualifying in the 400m hurdles and then ran a very strong 15.5 into the wind in the shorter sticks. Sarah continued her good form, winning the same race in 15.09 and holding form in the 200 against Doncaster who seem to have done some good recruiting over the summer with Katerina Dressler and Sonia Brito pinning on the numbers. Meanwhile, Shirley again racked up points for us in the 3k walk.
As we sit around waiting for life to happen, it's always a thrill to have somebody come up to you and say "Hi, I'd like to run a 5k for you tonight". When you know that you already have two runners booked in for this event, it's like finding out that Christmas has come early, or that the hot dog rolls at the kiosk are fresh.
Katie Seibold, Kate Harris and Meg Ritter all pulled on the Bayside uniforms for the first (and hopefully not the last) time this season. It was a real thrill to see them out there and they all performed brilliantly, with Katie running a pb, breaking 18 minutes (17.56.7) fresh from world travels. Both Kate Harris (18.3.2) and Meg (18.52.5) are also hoping to to be regular contributors throughout the season and will only improve as the season progresses. Thanks to André who took a team photo to record the moment for posterity. Look for it on our website soon, as well as other candid shots taken through the night.
Finally a word of praise for our Frankston contingent. At short notice, Nicky Frey was able to make arrangements to bring in a couple of our junior athletes to help out the team. Little did we know that they would perform at a level which not only matched their opposition, but surpassed them. Claire Gough took out the second heat of the 200 metres in a PB of 26.4 (see full results for electronic version of time), whilst Kate Hirst ran 27.3? in the Under 14's 200. Both of these girls then put up their hand to run legs of our 4*400 relay with Karen and Tara Gleeson, (fresh?) from a 2min 20 800. The results were impressive indeed. 4.04.79 for a good mid field finish in a heat of 8. Splits again are available on the website. Remember to check it out.
So a win is a win is a win. Thanks to everyone involved. Remember to keep me informed of your availablity for next week - program 1's, 4's and 15's. Due to a trip to Tassie, I will be away for the actual competition but will be around to organise it. On the night duties will be shared between André "web dude" Sammartino and Jussie "men's manager" Hanrahan.
Results are here.