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The weather looked as though it was going to make it a bit of a dire day for the
first round of our 2002 campaign, storms and localised flooding on Friday did
not bare well. On the day it was actually mostly sunny, which seemed to rub off
on the team, with a UK Women's league match on the next day we were going to
struggle a bit on the Ladies side, so it was up to the guys to make up the
difference. Both teams rose to the occasion, at one point we were leading the
match by about 20 points, before we eventually slipped back to 3rd place. The
Ladies may have been thin on the ground, but  they
did make their presence felt, winning nearly as many events as the men with a
third of the athletes. Several new
faces were making their senior debuts at this match, not that they were without
experience, having tasted success in the junior ranks last year. In the hammer,
Alex Leach was picking up the 7.25Kg weight in for the first time and Sam Adams
in the Ladies Shot and Discus also taking on a new weight. Alex also made his debut in the
Men's discus, with more success, showing the promise that he has even with the
heavier 2Kg discus as can be seen on this short 1Mb video clip. Some of our more 'seasoned' competitors were also making
their usual contributions to the  team score, there were some club rivalries on
show as well, with Steve Davies being piped by Mark Goodger in the 800m by 3
tenths of a second. There were disasters on the way though, Gareth Power
was looking an easy winner in the 110mH, when something gave on the penultimate
flight and he was unable to finish, similarly Helen Shirley fell whilst placed
in a close finish in the 100m, bravely getting up to cross the line in 7th.
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