South Wales Masters League

South Wales Masters League Newport Harriers

South Wales Masters League Cardiff July 11th

It threatened rain but, in a break with tradition the evening turned into a rather dry and warm affair. The competition was also quite hot with some blistering races, hard fought to the line. No quarter was given in the field either, with razor sharp wits tearing the opposition to shreds. It was too easy to take the mick out of certain Swansea athletes.

Anyway to business, we were a bit thinner on the ground due to the inevitable injuries and work commitments, so pressure was on those who competed to hold off the challenge from Swansea and the others. The 400's kicked off the meeting on the track for us as we didn't have any hammer throwers. Gavin won the A string in 58.5 whilst Craig Russell guested well with 56.7, meanwhile the B string was well covered by Paul Young making it a double first in 60.9. On the field, we struggled a bit on the Under 50's, Keith only picked up 3rd & 4th places in the High Jump, Triple Jump and Javelin, thankfully Gavin was able to score well winning in the B string Triple. Back on the track Brett had to give 2nd best to Phil Crane in the 1000m although he was able to edge out Bil from Rhondda in a close finish. Darryn underlined the teams track pedigree winning the B string event and repeated that feat in the 3000m, in which Malcolm managed another win ahead of Darryn before he sloped off to work.

The Over 50's were even more thin on the ground, but with a couple of real stars on board, they made up for that and nearly scored as many points as the bigger M35s. Glyn was his usual dominant self in the 200m, having already scored in the Hammer, so it was time to relax and watch Geoff get on with all of the other events. Geoff also covered the Hammer, then the 400m followed by the High Jump, and finally by the Triple Jump and Javelin. John had to pull out of the 200m B event but he didn't let a minor thing like an injury stop him from competing in the 400m and the 1000m, but he did have to give the relay a miss. Dave Proffitt put in some hard running in the 1000m and the 3000m, to round off the over 50's individual contributions, clocking up a couple of best times for himself in the process.

The relay was looking a bit dicey now, having lost Malcolm and John from the team. We didn't need to worry though, we held Swansea for the first three legs, before Glyn, with a meter lead, reduced the opposition to distant memories as we won by about 20m to keep the 100% relay record intact and ensure yet another league win.

Results

Men Under 50

Men Over 50

Match Results

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