UK Women's League

Newport Harriers UK Women's League

UK Women's League

Round 1, Dagenham 5th June 2005

Newport Harriers senior women’s team travelled to London on Sunday for their first match of the season in the UK Women’s league. A favourable breeze on the home straight and the sun shining ensured that there were almost perfect conditions for athletics. Sadly, a spate of withdrawals left the team short on numbers and unable to cover the whole programme of events. Despite their lack of numbers, the team displayed the expected Harriers team spirit, and did as much as they could to cover the programme. In the end however, the lack of numbers told, and despite the best efforts of the team, they could only manage to finish in sixth position of the eight competing teams.

Although the overall match result was disappointing, there were some excellent performances from individual team members. Lyndsay Fitzgerald on her debut for the club produced a stunning finish in the 400h. Lyndsay was well down in second place crossing the final flight of hurdles, but managed to produce a blistering finish and snatch victory right on the line. Becky Slaymaker took the only other Harrier victory of the day to win the 400h B event. Karen Buckley also made a promising start to her Harriers career, when she finished an excellent fourth in the 3000m, and Clare Martin took second in the 800m.

Team manager Audrey Bright said after the match, “We were obviously handicapped by losing so many members of the team, but I think our sixth place is better than we could realistically have expected, so I am very pleased. I am particularly proud of our athletes who have done very well in difficult circumstances.”

The Harriers have two further league matches in this competition at Bedford and Cardiff, and with seven or eight Welsh International athletes available for those matches; they could rightly consider a very respectable league position at the end of the season.
 

Results

Match Result

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