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Welcome to the Valentines Day edition of State League as we take to time reflect on all things love and athletics . This was reinforced last night where there seemed to be a whole lot of love amongst the Bayside crew on what would otherwise be considered a cold and stinky night. Memo to Team Managers Don’t wear shorts.
The Men’s Team are full of love. Whilst they don’t hug externally, they certainly have lots of inner hugs throughout the course of the night. Tobby got the ball rolling in the 400 hurdles, up against Olympian Michael Hazel in the 400 hurdles. Tobby ran strongly but was just edged out by Michael in the end.
The 200’s saw Justin Lewis lead into the straight, before being run down by a couple of athletes who showed no respect to the man for whom every day is Valentines Day. Disco Stu met a stiff breeze in Heat Two but held his 400 form together to be at the front of the field, whilst Paul Groves ran his two hundred metres like a Long Jumper. Sorry Paul had to be said.
No High Jumper, No Pole Vaulter, No walker, No Discus. No love there.
The five k was a great race to watch with a very big field spreading out fairly quickly over the course of things. Pete Risely and Matt Warrington were both looking to find a pace that would see them home under the qualifying time. Both ran very steady races, urging one another on and helping them to finishing times around 15:30 A great effort from both guys.
Three votes for the men on this occasion goes to Zac Ashkanasy, who never seems to disappoint. Such a fluid man to watch, as he stormed past all the “A” runners to take the glory and give us a taste of that burst of speed that seems to kick in along the back straight. In Heat Two, Brenno, in a rare display, was not able to call on his inner reserves of strength, being run down by two loveless Ringwood runners in the home straight, whilst Tony Wilson ran a very giving race to dip in under the qualifying time. A singletless Reece Paton and Evan both ran by invite to emphasise to TMT the fight that is on for the finals.
Carl Moorhouse could only manage three fouls in the Long Jump whilst Big Kev was still out ther taking his extra three jumps. Good to see Kev and Ev both out there in the 4*400 relay. There’s not enough rhyming in athletics.
And to our hurdlers. Tim looked for nine flights like he had the measure of Kyle Vander Kuyp and then clobbered the last hurdle and broke the crowds’ hearts, as Kyle stepped across the line in 14:10 a great run in the conditions. In the second Heat, Nfa was looking the goods again and showing some of the form that won him the State League athlete of the year award two seasons ago. Seems as though the timing, as is always the case with Roy, is coming together. Paul Harlond managed 15:50 or thereabouts in the invite position.
No result through as yet with the mouse stuck again in the wheel at the AV office, but the men probably had another reasonable night hopefully finishing up in the top three.
Now to the women. The day and the week started off with pleasant surprises with special guest appearances from a swag of British troops, who are all joining Karen Thorp to try and infiltrate our way of speaking. Jessica Cunliffe is a 400 hurdler who arrived from the Rugby and Northampton club, which is home to such luminaries as Judy Livermore, ex-heptathlete and a young Katharine Merry, third behind ‘Our Cathy’ in Sydney. More importantly, the clubs’ High Jump record holder is Jo Jennings, whose autograph still adorns a Melbourne Grand Prix Program I have from 1990.
Jessica also has a poem published at an Open Mic Poetry site if you are interested
Isn’t the internet wonderful? Anyway she ran 66.38 and set the ball rolling.
Our second runner has no link to the Laidlaw Foundation, who in the Year 2000 funded the play As I Love Hell and Thee, written by another Karin, although our Karin hopes once the attack on the hurdles improves, so will the times.
Rebecca Neilsen, who was crowned 2002 ‘Rose Queen’ at the Saint Gabriels church in the UK, took off the tiara to throw the Shot Put last evening. Can’t say for sure whether she had the page boys by her side, but on Valentines Day, anything is possible.
The pressure was on Tamsyn Lewis in the 200, who was handed an
automatic first runner card in front of the in form Katrina Steward
and Emma Cochrane. Management was biting his nails, wondering whether
Tamsyn and co would get safely down the river at Oxford
While it is difficult to prove that Katrina came from Stewardwood, there is no doubt that her 24.8 hand time emphasised the need to conserve our native woodlands.
Emma Cochrane, who made a guest appearance in Episode 138 of The Avengers series, had a decisive victory in the Heat three of the 200, making it a clean sweep for our recreational boating environmentalist actors. Emma and Tamsyn joined Tara Gleeson and another Brit, Claire Robinson, to form a formidable relay team, which crossed the line in a very fast 3:51.
In the Discus Ring, Megan Boyes, Board Member of the Lord Byron Society, showed her graceful elegance again amongst the huddled masses, to rise above the rest with over 40 metres.
Everyone’s Favourite Singer-Songwriter, Megan Peters
Karen Thorp, whose compact guide to the Christian Life, is now available in paperback, showed her true spirit in the 800, where she asked, as she always does, for others to go first. This, as usual, was absolutely unnecessary where Karen worked her way up through the masses, before hearing the bells after 65 seconds. She finished off with determination on the second lap to finish sixth.
Celia Brown, who came to the US from Ireland in the sixties, is another artist in our Bayside ranks. Although the photo on the website doesn’t make one immediately think of 800 runners, her 2:13 on debut from Bayside had greater emotional impact than any poem from her anthology ever will.
Helena Montgomery, born on the 18th of August 1887 and a descendant of the family Goodall, showed remarkable agility for a woman of her age as she trailed the wordsmith Celia on the first lap by only a stride or two. It must be said that age does weary them somewhat, with the last hundred metres proving to be quite difficult, although Helena’s endurance improves with every run.
Kylie Reed who visited the Gordon Lightfoot site, and found it to be ‘a pretty neat site to visit’ was found warming up for the Long Jump. As yet I’m still not sure whether it was Kylie or Lisa Morrison from Ohio State University, who specialises in ethnic conflict and democratisation, who jumped in the Long Jump
Tess Densley, who seems so cool that the only websites with her name on it are her own. She ran the hurdles, attacking the last four with much gusto to finish in 16:40ish, after High Jumping earlier in the evening.
Kate Smyth from Kate Smyth’s House of Travel, was kicking out regular 84 second laps in the first part of her 5k, holding pretty consistently to the travel industry adage that you always end up where you start usually in about 17:34.
Her teammate in the race, Kate Siebold, who is the Assistant Director of Funds for the Sidwell Friends School gets the three votes for the best female performance of the night, breaking 17 minutes in the five k and running yet another pb for the season. And so it seems an appropriate place to finish with Kate and Mr Manager Tim tying the knot this weekend, and it all ties together nicely on this Valentines Day Special. We wish them all the best from the Bayside crew.
I’m off to the Rally for Peace as of 5pm at the State Library and will be taking a pencil and paper not only to write down disparaging comments about our political actions, but also to start jotting down a team for next Thursday. Hope to see you there.
Results are here.
The last Report was Round 8.