Newport Harriers
South Wales Masters League

South Wales Masters League, Cardiff 20^th May

Newport Harriers: League Champions 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008

Newport continued to saunter towards their seventh successive league title as they won the second match with almost twice as many points as 2nd placed Rhondda.

Track Highlights – Powell denied as Newport dominate the sprints

This season the match scoring system takes on a number of twists and turns. For example, Keith Powell trounced Brecon’s Derek Osborne and his other rivals in the first 100m race of the evening but did not score as Craig Russell and masters debutant Nick Taylor finished 2nd and 3rd in the next 100m race but with faster times. So Keith was denied points which could dent his bid to retain his victor ludorum title. The M50 sprints were more clear-cut as Glyn Sutton and Geoff Miller won the A and B races with ease in both the 100m and 200m.

Best Newport middle-distance performance of the day came in the M50 800m. John Watkins is carrying a hamstring niggle at the moment so he settled behind the pace for the first 700m then eased away in the home straight ahead of Les Croupiers’ Elio Lepore. Behind him Dave Proffitt outkicked another Les Croup’s athlete, Mike Davies, to win the B race. Meanwhile, there were more scoring shenanigans as Darryn McAtee’s points in the B 800m were awarded to pre-Master Stuart Pearce.

Newport’s relay dominance continued, having won every relay race in the Masters League since August 2003. Malcolm Medhurst did the damage on leg 2 as he established a good 90-metre lead, the only disappointment being that we just failed to break four minutes.

Field Highlights – Newport’s vaulters are poles apart from the rest

Martin Davies has gained a new lease of life since joining us for some serious Masters competition, winning the pole vault and triple jump and coming 2nd in the discus. Glyn Sutton dusted off his pole to ensure a double-first in the M50 vault. Keith Powell’s early-season vaulting form continued as he won the M40 competition ahead of Derek Osborne.

Unable to run due to a muscle strain, Graham Archer’s enthusiasm in his debut season was undiminished as he threw to victory in the B javelin. Rob Eales was up against stiff competition in the discus, coming 3rd behind Swansea’s British League thrower Peter Maitland and Rhondda’s Glyn Pugh, though Rob picked up a B victory in the M40 javelin.

Newport Ladies – green shoots of recovery?

The major shock this season is that Newport actually has a team, albeit a one-woman team. Rhian Loudon followed up her 3000m run in match 1 with 3rd place in the 1500m. Hopefully Newport Ladies can now develop a squad and become a permanent presence in the Masters League.

Newport Officials

Newport provided an ample amount of officials - Chris Boswell (timekeeper), Mark Boswell, Colin Bradley (track), Ian Morgan, Darryn McAtee (field), Shane McAtee (results courier, sand raking).

Results

Newport and Rhondda are the top two teams through sheer volume of athletes, although the efforts of Les Croupiers and Port Talbot are never less than 100%. Thrower Dean Andrews competed for Forest of Dean in match 1 but now appears to have been recruited by Rhondda in a bid to close the gap on runaway Newport.

Over 35

Over 50

Match Results

Ladies Results

Over 35

Match Results