My URL: http://surf.to/bayside
I got it for free at http://come.to
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Bayside Women Newsletter No 1 by David Appleby
"This is the worst conditions we've ever had for state league, and that includes the times it rained." - Hugh McKechnie, Portfolio Manager, Summer Competition Committee.
OK, let's be honest, Thursday was a really lousy night for athletics. Looking on the bright side, however, there were two positive features to the night. One was that it only actually rained once during the program, the other was that Bayside started the season far more strongly than in 1997.
Competing against two of the strongest teams from last season, Athletics Essendon and RCDS, Bayside finished a close third. This will put us at least sixth on the ladder, possibly fifth. At one stage we led Ballarat by forty points, but they managed to halve the gap in the 800m. Essendon finished way out in front, but we finished just nine points behind RCDS - an outstanding effort first up.
Megan Peters led the way as she did for much of last season, with first place in the walk. This was our only win for the night, but we had three second place-getters in the throws. Gabrielle Neighbour made her state league debut in the hammer, Nicky Aspris took the 10 points in the javelin and Megan Boyes carried on her form from last season in the discus. Jeanette Bowles also took second in the long jump. This followed followed the pattern of last season, when the field events were Bayside's saving grace. It was in the track events that we saw the big improvements. Jane Denning, Katrina Steward and Jeanette Bowles all qualified in the 200m, something that did not happen once in 1997-98. If we can maintain this standard in the sprints, it is going to make a very big difference, and the distance events may not be too far behind.
Anna Johnson may be a novice to state league, but she ran the 5000m like a veteran, hanging on to the back of the field in the early laps and picking runners off as they tired, to finish fifth. Kate Seibold also made her state league debut in the 800m, missing the standard by one second in appalling conditions. Kate will certainly be scoring points within a few weeks, in an event that gave us no points before Christmas last season. The hurdlers had to battle the weather and a very strong field. Helen Galanopoulos took third, while Jeanette Bowles unfortunately lost her stride in the 3 m plus wind.
Overall, an excellent start to the season. Having competitors in almost every event makes a huge difference. The 400mH will continue to be a problem, but we must make sure that the HJ is not left vacant again. Some crossed lines during the week saw us with no high jumper. Did it matter? Well, yes. A 1.45 jump would have created a 13 point turnaround that would have put Bayside into second - and I don't need to list all the athletes who can jump 1.45 or better. Unfortunately, we missed a golden chance to knock off RCDS, who are going to be a bit stronger when Cathy Freeman and Lauren Hewitt become available. The lesson is, of course, that a state league team has to grab every point it can get. Bayside has already shown that it can be a far more competitive force in 1998-99. The trick now is to keep on showing it.
More info on the Results Page.
November 13:We make it through first week
In Antarctic conditions State League competition kicked off for another year last night at Olympic Park, and Bayside finally had both a women's and a men's team to cheer for. The Bayside boys were pretty hard to miss in their day-glo outfits, and we certainly heard a few "what the...?"s as opposition teams averted their eyes from the glare.
The 400m hurdlers were first out on the track, shivering in the 13 degree temperatures. Alistair Tait was the first to don the Bayside Blue, White and Yellow(green?) and he carried the colours well running a gutsy 58.83 in third place. "Disco" Stu Laidlaw ran 58.17 to run second in the next heat. We had no male walkers, which put us a little down on where we'd like to have been. Next up our sprinters held their own, including Disco recovering well, Jeremy Marmur making an impressive Bayside debut, and Jussie Hanrahan filling the breech as he will no doubt do many times this year. Meanwhile out in the field the throwers and jumpers were battling with some far from ideal conditions. Javelin was particularly affected but Dave McCaffrey managed to chuck close to 50m for third place.
When 'Nfa Forster-Jones put in a 15.60 high hurdles the men's team were in front of traditional rivals Glenhuntly and a chance to hold on to third in what was proving to be the strongest grouping of the evening. The weather was starting to play havoc by time the 800m runners hit the track and Brenno and Ev just managed to squeeze inside qualifying. Tony Wilson ran a corker as an invite runner and we look forward to him being eligible for Bayside representation next week.
By now we were all shivering and contemplating invading one of the cosy superboxes upstairs, but we had to cheer on Marty and Sean in the 5k. Marty ran a very strong race (remember he's only 18), finishing ninth overall in 14.39.4. If we needed any proof of how strong our grouping was, it came with the realisation he'd only scored as sixth against the strong Glenhuntly, Eastside and Essendon teams. Sean McAleer didn't quite make it to the finish, claiming some singlet-related injuries and mumbling about how the shorts he'd borrowed from Evan were cramping his style.
In the field we were doing much better, with Matty Woodruff missing victory in the long jump by a mere 4 cms. Sean Pollard was third in high hjumping 1.85 in horrible conditions.
Our throwers were showing their strength as Matt Brown cruised to victory to be Male Athlete of the week, and surely celebrated with a big bowl of cereal (come on sponsors, get on this lad). Jussie failed to recover from his 200m in time and missed shot qualifying by 5 cm. Again there were other groups where no one qualified so we should pick a few more points in future weeks.
The final event of the night was the 4x400m relay and the men managed to get together a team which surprised themselves (and us) by running a gallant third with the versatile Mr.Hanrahan holding of a fast finishing Glenhuntly team. A big thanks to gutsy Disco Stu who popped up again to finish a very tiring evening.
The wash up of all this was a fourth place finish in our comp. It was impressive that we manage to field athletes in most events, that our singlets arrived on time, and that we haven't all woken with pneumonia. Our team will improve and will knock a lot of the weaker teams off over the next few weeks. Jussie is off on doing a "tour of dooty" in 'Nam so Andre is the guy to contact re: the men's team in the interim.
More info on the Results Page.