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The 2003/4 State League season kicked off, not surprisingly, with Round 1. Here was the story from TMT
Opening rounds of anything are a rather strange thing. In the Athletic world, like life in general there are very few constants, so it was with an expectation of seeing new things, not so new things and what used to be new things turned into old things, that I walked into Olympic Park. As usual the ONLY constants were the Officials - god bless their collective hearts.
So let's get straight to the reports…. first up our reigning premiers.
Not so fresh from a record breaking performance at the Uni Games, Megan Peters did a new thing and DNF'd the 5k walk. A pesky virussy flu type thing had kept Megan down and out since her Newcastle triumph, making a leisurely 12.5 laps of OP not such a pleasant experience. We expect Megan will be back for more punishment next Thursday after a day at the races - but unlike most of the fair ladies at Flemington, Megan mind will be on the job working with one of the trainers.
One old thing playing with her new thing was Pole Vaulter Viv Potiris. After the infamous snapping of the pole last season, Viv is now carrying around her new custom built pole complete with flames down the side. Viv burnt up the runway with a blistering 2.70 leap over the bar to secure 2nd place.
On the adjacent runway the Bayside Triple Jumpers were causing havoc. Reporting in for duty we had Emma Knight in the official Bayside team. To keep her company we had a mixture of old things and new things in the form of Jeanette Bowles, Jane Denning, Helen Wilkie and Tasmanian Carmen Miller. Miss Denning took the win with a lovely leap of 12.06m, followed closely by our National Champion off a short run up. Emma took maximum points for the team by jumping 11.50m, whilst new thing Helen hit National Schools qualifying right on the nail with a leap of 11.20m. With Bayside athletes recording 5 of the top 7 jumps for the night, the selectors have a wealth of talent to choose from - and that's a wonderful new thing.
Back on the track, Katrina Steward started the season pretty much where she left it last season - well out in front. With a first up 12.21sec in the 100m, Katrina took home the honours for fastest time of the night. The next heat saw All Schools champ Katie Chivers deliver another set of maximum points after holding on to record a tight victory in 12.73secs. No-one stepped up for the third heat, but no damage done as no other teams had competitors anyway. Unfortunately that's not a new thing.
The new look Tessa Densley (well isn't every week a new look for Tessa) jumped and threw her way to glory with victories in both the High Jump and Shot Put. The only downer for Tessa being a DNF in the hurdles for some unknown reason - VRC Chief Steward Des Gleeson is looking into why Tessa mucked up as we speak.
We always knew the 1500m was going to be a points bonanza for Bayside. With the no 1 and 2 ranked AV Winter runners, Anna Thompson and Kate Seibold-Crosbie, combined with young Anneli Uys from Frankston, the girls looked awesome as they placed 1, 1 and 1 in their respective match ups. Anna surged to the lead early and was never headed to record a decent first up 4:24. Kate came within a second of her PB with a 4:36, but more importantly nearly recorded a PW for me as she inadvertently wore my AV numbers around the track - the officials were most amused!! Anneli improved on her recent All Schools performance to record a 4:57 and comfortably qualify.
With little notice - definitely not a new thing - Jeanette teamed with Katrina, Katie and Helen to run the sprint relay. With Katrina's flying start, combined with Jeanette's back straight flair and Helen's slick bend running, Katie was able to canter home for a comfortable victory. Well done girls on a very smooth performance.
Another new thing was sighted out in the spear chucking arena. Katherine Worotnicki lined up for her first State League comp and went on to take full points for the combine in true Bayside fashion. We look forward to Katharine becoming a not so new thing over coming seasons.
How could I possibly be this far into the report and not have mentioned Megan Boyes?? That would have to be a new thing! It appears as if Miss Boyes is throwing the implements with a certain amount of finesse at the moment as she approaches PB territory in both the Discus and Shot. A very handy throw of 43.40m had Megan a good 2m ahead of Ringwood's Raylene Warren and well clear of the rest of the field. Our favourite 400m relay runner was also sighted throwing the big round ball out to 11.49m…. nice work in my humble opinion.
In what Matt Hanrahan would describe as an old thing for report writers I've managed to leave the one of the best to last. The unseen, but definitely omnipresent Gab Neighbour was out in Yarra Park doing what she does best - tossing the hammer far in excess of the competition. Gab's season opener of 56.28m has her looking the goods for some impressive post Xmas performances.
So the Women generally cleaned up in Rd 1…. team results were:
1. Bayside 188pts
2. Athletics Eastside 125pts
3. Box Hill 112.5pts
4. Western Suburbs 74pts
5. Geelong Region 58.5pts
And so to the men……
After finishing with the Women's Hammer let's start again with the Men's. With Paul Peulich still not registered, Hans Lotz was back in the squad to have a throw. With reports filtering through that Hans was sighted in Yarra Park, all seemed well. That was however until Bayside management were called up by the powers who be to explain why Paul was on the recording sheet three times and Hans was nowhere to be seen! After a few quick calls it was confirmed that Hans was too ill to compete and the assumption was made that Paul was in??? Confusion reigning at the Hammer ring - not sure if that’s an old thing or a new thing but at least Paul got some good throws in.
No confusion for the sprint squad who welcomed the exciting young Tim Rooke into their fold... well maybe a couple of stony stares and the odd spit in his direction, which is pretty welcoming by sprinter's standards. Justin Lewis showed that a winter of being cared for by his lovely young bride did no harm, as he clocked a cobweb dusting 11.14sec for the 100m with a teeny tailwind. Tim came out for the next heat and 10.97secs later thought "is that all there is to State League". The bounding Matt Woodruff completed the trifecta of wins with a casual 11.24secs without a hop or jump to be seen. Love your work guys.
Tom Farr won the Javelin and came second in the High Jump which isn't new. What also isn't new is that Tommy leads the Bayside mens points scores after round 1. What is new is that Tom's trademark flowing locks aren't quite as flowing anymore and that's not good for athletics.
With less notice than Bowlesy, Paul Harlond took up his position in the sprint relay with Justin, Tim and Kevin Beams. A similar result awaited our kinda awesome foursome as they easily strode to victory. Did a welcome hug from the boys await Tim??.... no - just a grunt of satisfaction and the privilege of wiping Justin's sweat from the baton. As warm and fuzzy a moment as you're likely to get from the kings of speed.
Paul then reverted to his pet event the 110m hurdles, survived two breaks, knocked a couple over and still got home in second place. Not much new to report there.
Out in the infield, Matt Brown was up to his old tricks of trying to create holes in the ground as far away as possible. Tossing the discus out near the 48m mark wasn't quite up to his 50m plus standards, but with 2nd place points in the bag and some decent indentations in the turf Matt could stride off happily to the Shot Put. Once there he got to see Ringwood's Scott Martin make a big hole some 18.27m away from the measurers. Matt threw a solid 12.59m to take home more valuable points for Bayside.
With a change in format for the 1500m, the stage was set for our two middle distance big guns to go head to head. With the rotation system in place last year, we quite often missed the Zac v Clint showdown, however on this night we were not to be denied. In what was a fairly scrappy race early on, Bayside youngster Dane Frey took the lead and set the pace for his more experienced team mates. On the final lap the action started as both Zac and Clint asserted themselves in the race for the line. With his traditional multi surges in the last 200m, Zac established a slight break down the home straight that proved enough for victory in 3:54.80. Less than .3 of a second later Clint finished to give Bayside the old 1, 2.
Dane hung on bravely to achieve a new PB and most importantly, a National All Schools qualifier of 4:00.65. Although missing out on the sub 4 had young Dane grumpier than many of the old things gathered around to watch his race!!
As usual the night's climax was the running of the 400m. Tim Rooke was joined by Ash Mildenhall and Evan Rees to form what we knew would be an entertaining trio. Tim didn't let us down once again, with a strong sub 50 showing and 2nd place in our match up. Next on the track was Ash, who with the legs of a supermodel, sprung out of the blocks early to set up an unbeatable lead and victory in 50.04. With Ev's beanie finally removed, the man who makes qualifying such a dramatic affair each week, snuck in by 0.01 of a second. As usual the assembled crowd was wowed by Ev's ability to tease the qualifier.
With no walkers, pole vaulters or steeples (and that's definitely not a new thing) the Bayside boys did very, very well to take out an easy win. The quality of our athletes far outweighing any deficiency in numbers.
Here are the points….
1. Bayside 254pts
2. Ringwood 182pts
3. Western Suburbs 148pts
4. Glenhuntly 125pts
5. Ivanhoe Yarra 64pts
6. Geelong Region zilch
The action is back on this Thursday night at Olympic Park. Hope you all do well at the Cup or Oaks Day...
Full results are on the AV website