NORTHERN LEAGUE
MATCH - DIVISION 2W (02/05/09)
YOUNG ATHLETES
LEAGUE - NORTHERN PREMIER (03/05/09)
The league season
got off to a cracking start this weekend with the Northern League match at
Victoria Park Arena (above) in Warrington on Saturday and the YAL
fixture at our own Stanley Park Arena on Sunday.
Northern
League
Saturday had the
best of the weather over the Bank Holiday weekend, with warm sunshine and light
breezes. Early on BWFAC were in
6th place, but with each update during the afternoon, our position
had improved, as excellent performances by our athletes secured a solid second
place. There were too many brilliant
performances to do them full justice and the results can be seen here .
However to mention
one event which caught my eye, was the final race of the day, the 4 x 4
400m. Our squad of Alex Bale, James Fahey, Dominic Garrett and Brent Starkie ran a scintillating race.
During the first three stages they yo-yoed between 1st and 2nd
place. At the start of the final leg, Brent was several metres adrift,
after fast circuit by D Higham of Liverpool Pembroke but Brent ran a composed leg to take the
lead with about 100 metres to go, to anchor the squad to a memorable victory in
3:29.8, thus concluding a successful day for BWFAC.
Although Nia Rutter might reign
supreme at the Triple Jump, (which she won easily with 11.84m), she won’t score
many points for tent taking down!
* * * * *
Young
Athletes League
It was a fresher
day on the Sunday. Although mainly
sunny, there was a stiff northerly breeze to help the sprinters, but frustrate
the middle distance competitors. If the
previous day’s performance had been encouraging, then this result was
outstanding. From the start the outcome
was seldom in doubt, with the team finally scoring a magnificent 447.5 points,
73 ahead of Leeds City, who were Auxiliary finalists last year.
As with the Senior
squad, there were many excellent winning performances that this report would be
far too long and the full results can be seen here. However one performance which typifies the
excellent effort our athletes gave, was by Jack Scarr. Jack has been a revelation, in the
middle distance events this season and he easily won the 1500 metres with
4:12.2, then ran the tough 1500m steeplechase, coming 4th and a few
minutes later anchored the U17 4x 400m squad in third place. (He also threw the hammer to score a couple
of points for the team, but I don’t think he will be taking this event up
seriously!)
Apart from
winning, athletics is about enjoyment.
In the U17W Hammer Loryn McCrudden was competing as the ‘B’ competitor. Although she said she hadn’t thrown the Hammer before, her style
seemed quite good to my untutored eye.
On one attempt she stepped out of the circle awkwardly after despatching
the hammer. Margaret Crompton, who was running the event,
commented with a smile that Loryn would not be getting extra points for her “dance”.
In the U13G
hurdles March Athlete of the Month Amber Swinnerton and Molly Betmead were competing for the first time. Both were nervous before the start, but completed the race in
good style, considering their inexperience (no doubt due to Rita Hope’s excellent coaching). Both had broad smiles on their faces as they
crossed the finishing line. They could
not have been happier if they had come first and second.
David Wood