 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
State League kicked off, not surprisingly, with Round 1. Here was the story
Welcome one and all from Bayside for what will hopefully be a successful season. There are a few administration changes for us, the main one being that Jussie has left the building. After many years of reports, phonecalls and abuse from officials because our singlets were emblazoned with Beside and not Bayside, Hanrahan the smarter has taken up a life of fatherhood. He has promised to turn up whenever possible and offer his long winded stories and his wisdom on all things athletics. In the meantime, Brenno will be left to speak in a wise and timely manner, whilst Tim Crosbie and Cathy Woodruff will help out rounding up the Bayside faithful.
It was great to see the thousands of folk all milling about in the car park in preparation for round one of state league last night. Never realised that athletics had so many unhip, fashionably flawed, followers until it was pointed out that John Farnham was over the road - thanking people for extending a career that should never have gone beyond Bobby Dazzler.
So to the women: Two major highlights for the night really – the first of which was Bronwyn Loizou’s sterling run in the 800m. Fresh from double gold in the World Masters Games, Bron came down on a cold windy night looking for a fast time. She was pushed into the first race, meaning a fast 63sec first lap from the leaders. Bron continued to pass (nearly) all and sundry on lap two to finish third overall and register a three second pb – 2.15. In race two Helena ran a slower first lap but a tactically strong race, pushing to the lead from 300 out and finishing second after being passed in the last 50 metres to finish in 2.23. No third runner is a bit unusual, but so is the Whispering Jack album.
Second highlight of the night had to be Emma Cochrane asking to run a 4*400 leg. Such unbridled feats of gallantry are unheard of in this day and age. It was little wonder she was keen as she had just finished the second heat of the 200m 20 metres up and in a time of 25.20 into a strong headwind. Kylie Reed finished third in the previous heat while Jeannette Bowles took the Pewter Mug in heat three. After all that, there was no relay, but there will be next time.
In the field, Tess Densley, sporting the coolest number in athletics was delighted to find that a high jumper gets free invitations in the Long and Shot. She trundled her scooter down the runway in both jumping events prior to officials intervening. Tess has promised to help out wherever possible after sacrificing schoolies week for athletics. Team management approve. In the Shot ring, Bec Neilsen put the big round thing onto the big red stuff and looks like she will face some serious competition for a Bayside spot from Stacey Vernon at Frankston.
Megan Boyes was excited after throwing the Discus and playing in her new discipline, the hammer, where she managed to push towards 40 metre. It wasn’t good enough for the team spot, where Gab Neighbour, who promised me that she was going over the road to sing Two Strong Hearts, threw a very casual 57metres in the hammer. It’s great to see Gab up the standard every year that she competes for Bayside. In the Long Jump pit, Lisa Morrison hid her top hidden from the uniform officials, and managed to get five fouls and a legal jump to finish third with 5.86m.
No hurdlers didn’t really hurt us too much with Viv in the Pole Vault and Megan Peters doing what she does best, walking the shorter three k event with a hat on to keep off the cloud. In the longer running event, we welcome British runner Claire Garwood to the crew, as she joined Kate Harris (18min) and Melissa Jones (Approx, 19m15) to provide us with solid points. Overall, a pretty good night for the women, and if the hamster starts running fast enough, you’ll probably find that we finished the night with more points than anyone else. In the men, things have changed. But then again, they haven’t. No Pole Vaulter, no high jumper, no walker– no surprise. The big surprise was that except for Tom Farr and Nic in the Javelin, we didn’t have another thrower, what with Brownie and Sam Hanzel and their school commitments, whilst Neighbs trains in a faraway land. No Hurdlers, in either the shorter or longer events was a bit strange after being overburdened with them last year, but nobody wanted to run hurdles last night. After watching the 800m invite race last night, there might be a secret weapon out there yet.
After Johnny sang the national anthem, Justin Lewis and the Sandi boys hit the track in the 200’s. Justin finished fourth in the fastest heat of the night, whilst Disco Stu looked solid and Arnold finished gamely in second place. Highlight, as always was wondering who would be roped in to run the 4*400. Kev Beams looked like he’d put his hand up until he realised that 400 metres in longer than 6 long Jump runups. It ended up an interesting mix with Justin leading off with a 49 split to have us duelling for the lead. Stu looked good to have us in front by change 2. Zane Holland stepped in at late notice to take Ev's spot and ran a very mature 51sec split to keep us in 2nd place, then the old war horse Brenno took the baton to bring us home in 4th - not far off the placings. Not sure about the time -somewhere around 3:25???
The 800’s saw Brenno and other first heat runners pulled from the track as the officials counted how many lanes were present. An angry Brenno was then caught in traffic as things slowed in the first heat at the 200 mark, finally finishing third behind Gorski and Lewin. In the second heat, Evan Rees, after a long pre-season returned to the Bayside flock alongside new boy number 1, Zane Holland from Frankston. Zane ran a tactically excellent race, going through in 59-60, and managing a negative split in an unofficial (I counted 1 mississippi, 2 mississipi) 1min 58.5. Evan got caught off the back 300 out and finished strongly. In racing parlance, he’ll be better for the run.
Clint Perrett, our AV Junior Cross Country athlete of the winter and Bayside all round nice bloke award recipient for the second year running showed his stuff with a 14min 20 5k– a pb by 9 seconds. Clint takes the meat tray as the male performance of the night with more to come. Dean Lane from Malvern ran a solid 15:43, cruising through the qualifying time with 2 seconds to spare, whilst new boy number two, Matt Warrington from the emerging Frankston tribe finished in 16:03 after falling for the second oldest trick in the book (remember the land war in Asia) and going out a smidge too hard. Matt will no doubt learn a lot from the run and it will be great to see how he progresses along with new boy, number 3, Dane Frey, who will be debuting next week. It was indeed most excellent to see all three young boys – keep a look out for next week where the average age in the 1500’s will be 16.754 years.
I’m sure we had a Long Jumper. It could’ve been Grovesy, or maybe someone who looks like him, but nobody really looks like Grovesy so I’m not too sure. In any case, check the internet this day next year to celebrate was no doubt a special occasion.
So as Johnny leaves the building for a final time, it’s time to say farewell to one of the least uncool pop icons in our scattered history, keeping in mind that while John and Glen have nothing left but Telstra ads, we are consoled by the truth that there’s always athletics. See ya next week.
Results are here.