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Sorry for the delay. My cat ate my computer or some such excuse for tardiness. The last state league is almost a week gone which means the AV results and ladders should be due up any minute now. The upshot is that both mens and womens teams are now firmly entrenched in the finals race and should be gearing up for action. Team Manager Tim has even considered it important enough to return from his honeymoon tanned and ready to man the phones in the lead up. Round 12 takes place Thursday 13th, after the Vics with FINALS WEEK 1 on Tuesday 18th. Are you prepared?
It was a cold yucky night for athletics in general and with the event being bookended by Grand Prix and State Junior titles, numbers were well down. Management was left to ponder the good ol days when State League was ten rounds and Thursday nights meant Law and Order.
So to the results. The day started with a scared Jana Pittman running up against the men in the 400 hurdles in order to avoid our very own Celia Brown who was going over the long sticks for the first time since significant injury. Celia also proved that she knew how to finish a race, winning by a street in a quality time of just over 60 seconds. No mens hurdler due to the fact that Disco Stu was out discoing and Tobby was saving himself for a rainy Saturday night.
The 200 saw a mixed bag. Tamsyn faced a tough audience and needed about 192 metres to chase down Renee Robson, but managed to secure herself the white ticket from the place judges, or are they blue? I Haven’t really received one for a while so if anyone could let me know, that’d be great. Tamsyn finished in 24.8ish. In heat two, Emma Cochrane had a most impressive run into a 2.2 metre headwind, finishing in a time of 25.12, possibly her best race for the season.
The men’s 200s were a mixed bag. Arnold Pamphlis, coming back from injury managed to find a niggle in the warm up, leaving us with only 2 runners behind the blocks. Two turned to one as groups seem to do when they go out some days. Justin Lewis, sprawling on the track in pain around near the steeple. Rumour has it that it may have been only cramps, but it sure looked painful. Hopefully Justin will be back on track shortly. Our only runner left was Tobby, who managed to win and win well in 22.88.
Throwin’ Tommy Farr became Jumpin’ Tommy Farr after a poor(by his standards) Javelin, although he managed a casual 1.85 in the High Jump. Our female Javelin thrower not only one the group but the whole comp. Natasha is really coming into some consistent form post Christmas and we are looking forward to efforts come finals time. Another thrower Bec Neilsen continues on her merry way and is by my reckoning unbeaten for the season. Although I also reckoned South Africa were a shoe in for the super six and that Vanilla Coke would take off.
Paul Peulich had a Shot Put that was a little down on other weeks, but still managed to rack up many late season points as he threw mid-fifties in the hammer. Megan Boyes is stamping herself not only as a business leader of the future but also as the Stealth Thrower as she manages to elude the tape measure with her throwing achievements.
The 800’s saw Brenno taking back the number one spot as Zac had a breather in preparation for the Grand Prix (Why was there not a celebrity race a la the other Grand Prix) Surely Baby John Burgess over a high hurdles would get the punters in. Anyway, Neil found the going tough in the last hundred metres, finishing about fourthish. In Heat Two, Team Hore continued to reign with Evan Rees and Reece Paton putting in solid displays. Ev ran probably his best for the season in 1:58ish whilst for the third time this season Reece was far too close to qualifying to leave management feeling comfortable. Half a world away in the Maldives, Tim shifted in the sand, uncertain as to what was actually going on.
Our girls in the 2 lapper were doing good things. Anna Thompson running a great one on one battle with Alicia Tye-Smith. Anna’s finishing time of 2:11ish was also probably her best for the season and gives a good indication of what she’s in for when she travels to Switzerland for the World Cross Country. Great to see Helena Montgomery post a pb in heat two, running low 2:17 and hanging in there for an extra 15-20 metres with every run she has. Sam Green from Glenhuntly was a Bayside debutant as our third runner. As with most State League rookies, Sam found the pace hot early and will no doubt benefit from the experience. Even better news is that she runs a steeple occasionally.
Gabrielle Neighbour threw 58 in the hammer. She always does that and so we get a bit blasé about it. We shouldn’t, in the same way we shouldn’t get blasé at restaurants thinking that the other person will get the bill at the end of the night.
Our hurdlers for the night were both young, tanned and from Frankston - Paul Harlond in the mens and Tess Densley in the womens. Paul was looking very clean until about hurdle number six, but still finished in 15.5ish whilst Tess as was the case last week, appears to take a few flights to get into it but really motors home.
The Long Jump saw Carl Moorhouse pick up where Kev Beams left off after Kev’s outstanding 7:57 leap at the Vic Under 23’s. Carl proved that he also has the goods, leaping 7:30 into the play area, whilst Carl’s club-mate jumped the jump in the Women’s version.
The 5k runners were the final Bayside combatants on the track. Kate Harris again ran what is very likely a pb, finishing in 17:31 in good conditions for distance runners. Melissa Jones was all smiles at the end also after breaking 19 minutes for the first time this season. In the mens, Pete Riseley sporting only one number to confuse the officials was on a very fast past for the first eight laps and then found the going a bit tough. As our only Bayside runner, we needed him to get in under the qualifying time for some valuable points. He did and we were all given leave to go home and wonder what sports we’d be in if it weren’t for athletics. Pete knows. Do you??
So we’re off on a break for this week due to the Vics. Good luck to all those competing. We’ll try and keep you informed about who’s done what, but you know time and all that. Anyway, a big congratulations to all the Baysiders who competed on Saturday night, and also to those who were selected to compete even though injured but elected not to tell the authorities as then they’d have to pay to get in. It’s thinking like that which makes Bayside great.
Results are here.
The last Report was Round 10.