Medway and Maidstone AC

In spite of a poor weather forecast the sun shone nearly all day at Bedford International Stadium for the 2^nd match of the UK Women’s league division 3.

After a brilliant opening match which saw Medway and Maidstone in 5^th place overall the team, depleted by injury and holiday absences, found the competition a lot tougher than the previous match.

The only victory of the day was achieved by U20 Lucy Underdown who won the discus competition with a throw of 43m57. She was also 3^rd in the Shot Putt in spite of suffering from a back problem which meant she had to do a standing throw. Amy Underdown joined up with sister Lucy in the discus to record her best event of the day finishing 3^rd with a throw of 26m82.

Natalie Whiskin showed real team spirit when she arrived to compete in the 400m hurdles and on finding out there was no-one to run the 800m put her name down for that too, even though it was only 20 minutes after the hurdles! She had a fabulous run in the 400m hurdles finishing 3^rd and then after a quick drink headed back out onto the track for the 800m gaining a few more very valuable points for the team.

In the absence of Natalie Gray it was down to new team member Lucy Hale to contest the 3000m. And in her first track race for many years she finished a creditable 5^th although she was a little unhappy with her time.

Another signing to the team meant that M&M were able to fill the 2000m Steeplechase, a new addition to the time table this season. Amy Tanner having warmed up earlier by running the 800m had a sterling effort in the chase rewarded with 5^th place in a time of 8m14.54.

Team stalwarts Lindsey Christie and Yasmin Joseph, both 400m runners, paired up to contest the shorter sprints this time. Lindsey was awarded 4^th place in a thrilling 100m race with a time of 12.66s just 1/100^th of a second in front of the girl in 5^th. Yasmin not to be outdone was over the moon when she ran a personal best of 13.08s in the B race.

Sophie Copping had her usual manic day and was both pleased and surprised to make the cut in the long jump where she finished 6^th with a leap of 4m84 in a competition where 7 athletes jumped over 5m30.

Nadine Terry has been having a very busy time recently, she competed in a heptathlon last weekend and has the English schools this weekend but she still took time out to contest the 400 hurdles, the high jump where she teamed up with Gemma Dowsett who has recently come back from a few months in Switzerland, and the 4 x 400 relay. Nadine and Gemma to their delight were both 3^rd in the high jump with 1m50 and 1m45 respectively.

The busiest athlete of the day was certainly Tracy Cunningham who started at 12pm with the long jump before tackling the 400m where she was joined by Vicky Randall, the 100m hurdles and finishing with both relays.

The hammer was once again a tough event with 8 people throwing over 40 metres. Dawn Copping and Liz Duffin did their best but could only manage 7^th position although Liz was much happier later when she registered 6^th place and a personal best in the shot.

The 4 x 100m team of Tracy, Yasmin, Sophie and Lindsey were unlucky to finish in 7^th place as only 2 tenths of a second separated 5^th, 6^th and 7^th places. Tracy and Lindsey then had a brief rest before joining Natalie and Nadine for the 4 x 400m relay. The team finished in 6^th against some very tough opposition.

Team manager Dawn Copping must now pull out all the stops for the final match of this year if Medway and Maidstone are to avoid relegation back to division 4. She will be working hard to rally the troops and get as many athletes as possible to travel up to Wigan in August for the showdown, the task of beating both Belgrave and Wakefield in order to remain in division 3 for another season.

Results:

100m 4th Lindsey Christie 12.66s 6^th Yasmin Joseph 13.08s PB; 200m 8^th Lindsey Christie 26.56s

6^th Yasmin Joseph 27.07s; 400m 7^th Tracy Cunningham 60.25s 6^th Vicky Randall 63.73s;

800m 7^th Amy Tanner 2m41.28 6^th Natalie Whiskin 2m50.28; 3000m 5^th Lucy Hale 11m24.6;

2000m Steeplechase 5^th Amy Tanner 8m14.54 100m hurdles 7th Sophie Copping 17.95s

5th Tracy Cunningham 19.96s; 400 hurdles 7^th Nadine Terry 74.63s 3^rd Natalie Whiskin 74.82s;

Long Jump: 6^th Sophie Copping 4m84 7^th Tracy Cunningham 4m33;

Triple Jump 7th Amy Underdown 9m57 5th Sophie Copping 8m94; High Jump 3rd Nadine Terry 1m50 3rd Gemma Dowsett 1m45; Shot Putt 3^rd Lucy Underdown 11m74 6th Liz Duffin 7m32 PB; Discus 1^st Lucy Underdown 43m57 3rd Amy Underdown 26m82; Javelin 7^th Amy Underdown 29m66

3^rd Liz Duffin 24m75; Hammer 7^th Dawn Copping 24m80 7^th Liz Duffin 22m91

4 x 100 relay - 3^rd, Y. Joseph L. Christie, S.Copping, Tracy Cunningham 50.31s

4 x 400 relay – 4^th T. Cunningham, N. Whiskin, N. Terry, L.Christie 4m11.13

Match Result

                                                            Points               Match Points

1. Bedford and County              214                               8

2. Wigan & District Harriers                    190                               7

3. Newham & Essex Beagles                 181                               6

4. Thames Valley Harriers                       173                               5

5. Havering Mayesbrook AC                  149                               4

6. Wakefield D.H & AC              123                               3

7. Medway & Maidstone AC                   108                               2

8. Belgrave Harriers                               84                                 1

SOUTHERN MENS LEAGUE DIV 3S

11 July  2009

KINGSTON 

The penultimate fixture of the season at Kingston against two British League, London based clubs was always going to result a tough match and at one stage last place looked to be on the cards.  However, some excellent late results gave Medway & Maidstone third place by a clear 21 points which, with one fixture to go should provide the club with security in this league.  With the British League ‘participation’ rules changing, it was obvious from some of the results that there were numerous entries from higher league athletes.  Tribute must be paid, therefore, to the11 athletes involved who had to compete in a range of events and pull out all the stops.

Stuart Flack and Nick Slade were once again the work horses of the day and probably slept well Saturday night.  Flack competed in the 800 m, 1500 m, 3000 m Steeplchase (1^st A), 400 m relay and for a point, the discus.  Slade went even further competing in the 1500 m, 5000 m (2^nd B), 3000 m Steeplchase (1^st B), both hurdle events and for a point, the pole-vault.  Mark Cryer also had a busy day and showed his versatility in field and track evets.  Cryer won the B high jump, followed by the 800 m, javelin and 4x 400m relay.  Chris White made it a high jump double by winning the A event.  After Steve Lake was injured in his warm up quick changes were required to fill his long and triple jump spots.  Andrew Wright came to the rescue to join Stuart Ballard in both events, the result being a win in the A & B long jump and two 3^rd places in the triple jump.  Steve Hesketh completed the field event participation by competing in all four throwing events.

In the sprint events, Wright was a little unfortunate to be given 2^nd A in the 100m after recording the same time as the winner (11.3).  Dan Gill ran the B event and his 11.8 would normally have given him an higher place than third.  Wright and Gill also ran the 200 m and again were unfortunate, with good times, to only take 3^rd places.  James Alcock and Kris Fowler completed the 400 m in addition to relays and non-scoring events which included a 11.8 second 100 m from James Alcock.  Gareth Williams had a good run in the 5000 m taking 2^nd A place.

The day finished with the club being very competitive in the two relay events.

View the M&M results