Medway and Maidstone AC

 

 

3rd August 2008

 

 

 

An almighty cheer raised the roof at Ashford’s Julie Rose Stadium as Medway and Maidstone UK women’s league team and their many supporters heard the news that they had gained a highly coveted promotion place to division 3 next year. It had been a tough day’s competition against Bedford & County and Coventry Godiva as both had fielded extremely strong teams in their bid for promotion. However team manager Dawn Copping had managed to fill all but one event, the B string pole vault, which meant the 16 strong team were in close contention with Coventry throughout the day and eventually 3rd and only 10 points behind them. This meant that winners Bedford also won the league with 22 points, Medway & Maidstone were just behind them on 21 points and Coventry 3rd on 19 points.

Once again the weather was not helpful with a strong wind in the home straight meaning that times suffered as a result but the team spirit was such that everyone put in their best efforts, and some went above and beyond the call of duty in their desire to help the team gain points. One such athlete was sprinter Hannah Biddiss who, apart from her usual fine performance in the 200m, also stepped out onto the track to contest the B string 800m where her “I will jog it for the points” turned into a fine run that saw her finish in 5th position. Multi eventer Nadine Terry matched her position as she once again showed no fear stepping out in the 800m A string before later on being part of both relays.
Another brave performance came from veteran distance athlete Tina Doyle who contested the B string 1500m and was also 5th. She agreed to compete just the night before the meeting after the original athlete had to pull out due to illness.

There were just 5 winning performances, although amazingly no-one placed any lower than 5th throughout the whole day. Lucy Underdown who, having won the English Schools senior discus a couple of weeks ago is having a great year, was unbeatable again this weekend as she gained maximum points in both Discus and Shot. Hammer thrower Kate Morris who has paired up with Lucy all season, had her best distance recorded for the UK league meetings this year in her preferred event but was also 2nd in the discus and 3rd in the shot.

The sprint hurdles were made much tougher by the fierce headwind but in spite of that both Sophie Copping and Vicky Randall ran strongly to finish 3rd A and 1st B respectively. Sophie also had a winning performance in the long jump, where she and Amy Underdown teamed up, with Amy jumping 5m05 for 3rd A and Sophie just 1cm less at 5m04 for 1st B.

The other winner on the day was veteran Kim Heffernan who agreed to come out of retirement to replace the injured 400m hurdler Maria Crowe. Kim was well ahead of the field by the 3rd hurdle and never looked like being caught. She then stepped in at a moments notice to run and place 5th in the B string 100m. The team will certainly miss her if she does indeed retire from athletics.
The only personal best of the day was recorded in the hammer by Liz Duffin who was 3rd B, her highest placing this year, in 28m10 a substantial increase on her old best.

The standard of competition in the sprints was very high but Lindsay Christie, running in lane 8, was magnificent in the 400m. She stormed off over the first 200m and said later “I kept waiting for them to come past but it wasn’t till I came into the home straight that I could see anyone” She was rewarded with a very fine 2nd place and a time of 57.9 only 4 tenths outside her pb, an amazing achievement in view of the conditions. U20 athlete Yasmin Joseph was obviously inspired by Lindsay’s run and also from lane 8 she employed the same tactics and finished strongly in 4th position.

Natalie Gray, whose university commitments have meant this was her first UK league outing this year, showed why she is a valuable asset to the team as she competed in both the 1500m and the 3000m. She was up against very tough competition but rose to the challenge and gained very valuable points to add to the teams tally. She was joined in the 3000m by UK league newcomer Justine Myton, another veteran athlete who has been busy in road races so far this year. Justine wasn’t too happy with her time but the team manager was more than happy with the 4 points she picked up in 5th place.
Gemma Dowsett, M&M’s sole pole vaulter, battled with an uncertain start and in difficult vaulting conditions to finish in 3rd position with 3.20m. She cleared the same height as the Bedford athlete but lost out on 2nd position to her on countback. Her best placing came in the triple jump where she was 2nd with a distance of 9m73.

Claire Welch proved courage in the face of injury as she ran with a badly bruised foot gaining valuable points in the A string 100m before running a brilliant anchor leg in the 4 x 100m relay to finish 2nd just three tenths of a second behind the Channel Island team.

The day finished with a flourish as the 4 x 400m relay team of Randall, Joseph, Terry and Christie put in a fine display to finish in 3rd just ahead of eventual league winners Bedford.

Next year will bring a much higher standard of competition in division 3 which will give both the athletes and their team manager something to work hard for over the coming winter.

 

6th July 2008

 

A magnificent if unexpected win at Coventry on Sunday has left Medway and Maidstone’s UK Women’s league team not only in a promotion spot but with one match to go also with a realistic chance of securing the division 4 title as they will have home advantage in the remaining match over current league leaders Coventry Godiva.

Conditions on the day were far from ideal with torrential rain showers interspersed with bright sunshine, though the rain unfortunately outweighed the sun by some margin.
Double wins in both the long jump and 400m hurdles events by the trio of Maria Crowe, Vicky Randall and Sophie Copping ensured the day started brilliantly and inspired the rest of the team to pull out all the stops on the way to victory.

Once again the team was unable to field many middle distance athletes and with Helcha Penfold injured it was left to veteran Sarah Kenyon and U20 Nadine Terry to come to the rescue. Sarah contested both the 1500m and the 3000m and it was in the longer discipline that she was pleased to record her fastest time for a couple of years.

Multi eventer Nadine meanwhile made her UK league debut by being thrown into the deep end but showed she was more than up for the challenge gaining valuable points in both the 800m and the high jump before coming to the rescue in the 4 x 400m to replace an injured Charlotte Mackie.
Charlotte, another U20 and new to the team, had started the day well teaming up with Claire Welch in the 100m where she finished a very creditable 4th. Unfortunately she injured her hamstring running the 200m although with great spirit she fought her way to the finish.

Maria Crowe and Vicky Randall were the victorious pair in the 400m hurdles. Maria, who is competing this weekend in the UK national championships and Olympic trials, put in a very strong performance which left the rest of the field trailing some way behind. Meanwhile Vicky, who is also in action this weekend though this time at the English Schools Championships, decimated the B String field in a similar fashion before going on to win the B string 100m hurdles later in the day.

Another athlete competing at the English schools this weekend is Lucy Underdown who should be full of confidence after winning both the discus and the shot by a considerable margin. She teamed up with old hand Kate Morris who had her usual busy day in the field. She was 3rd in both the hammer and shot but won the B string discus, although she was not happy with her distance of 31m32.
Lucy’s sister Amy had to wait till the last event of the day but she and team mate Liz Duffin added quite a few to the points tally with Amy throwing 29m95 for 4th A string and Liz one place behind in 5th B string.

Gemma Dowsett just missed out on a hat-trick of victories in the field. She won the B string High Jump and Triple Jump honours but was still pleased with her 2nd place in the pole vault where she vaulted 3m20 in the very difficult conditions.

Lindsay Christie and Yasmin Joseph contested the 400m and both were 4th though Lindsay was unlucky not to place higher as she was catching those in front of her with every stride. Yasmin had to cope with torrential rain for her race and unfortunately slipped and hurt her foot meaning she also had to pull out of the longer relay.

Sophie Copping proved once again what a fantastic team player she is as she not only competed in Long Jump, Triple Jump and 100m hurdles A strings gaining 1st 2nd and 3rd respectively but she was also part of both the 4 x 400 relay team, where she replaced the injured Yasmin, and the winning 4 x 100m relay team whose other members were Maria Crowe, Yasmin Joseph and Claire Welch. Maria got the team off to a brilliant start and each of the 4 girls made the gap between them and the rest of the field grow. They were rewarded with a time of 50.8s only two tenths off the club record.

Team manager Dawn Copping was left jumping for joy as the team was announced in first place on the day and 2nd in the league after two matches. Dawn is now looking forward to fielding a full team in Ashford next month and competing for promotion to division three next year.

 

8th July 2008

The UK Women’s league season started in Newport on Sunday. The conditions were challenging with a baking hot sun but also a strong headwind in the home straight which meant performances had to be worked hard for.

But a highly impressive start was made by the 12 Medway & Maidstone athletes who made the journey to Wales as they finished in 3rd place overall, only 3 points behind Bedford in second. A fabulous achievement considering the only middle distance athlete was Helcha Penfold who covered both the 800m and 1500m with her best run coming in the 800 where she was third in 2m19.5. But with 6 first places and a host of second and thirds M & M kept racking up the points.

The day started well in the field with Kate Morris and Elizabeth Duffin gaining 2nd and 4th respectively in the Hammer and as a bonus Liz was thrilled to throw a personal best. Meanwhile over at the long jump Amy Underdown had her best place of the day jumping 4m96 for 4th though she also contested the javelin and in the middle of that had to dash over to run the first leg of the 4 x 100 relay.

The track events began with the 400 hurdles and while Vicky Randall was a very creditable fifth she was less than pleased with her performance, B string Kim Heffernan however was M & M’s first winner as she stormed to victory. Vicky cheered up after the sprint hurdles though as she was the B string winner in 16.5s. The A string was contested by Sophie Copping who had a very determined run to finish second, an outstanding achievement for someone who doesn’t actually train for hurdles, Sophie was also one of the M & M winners in the B string long jump.

There was some very tough opposition in the short sprints but Hannah Biddiss who ran both the 100m and 200m was pleased with her runs and just missed out on fourth in the 200m as she was given the same time as the fourth placed athlete.

Lindsay Christie and Yasmin Joseph, in her UK league debut, made a formidable pairing in the longer sprint and both were third in 57.7s and 61.2s respectively, Lindsay and Kim were both instrumental in team morale as when not competing they could be found beside the track cheering on their team mates.

Back out in the field Lucy Underdown paired up with Kate Morris in both the Discus and Shot Putt gaining a double victory in the discus and then both coming second in the shot. Lucy just missed winning the shot by a margin of 1cm which would also have equalled her personal best.

The twelfth member of the team, another field eventer, amassed 21 points as Gemma Dowsett vaulted 3m20 in her main event then went on to gain second in the high jump and first in the B string triple jump.

The day was rounded off in style by the 4 x 400 relay team of Kim Heffernan, Yasmin Joseph, Vicky Randall and Lindsay Christie who finished in 3rd position, reflecting the teams final position, to the cheers of the rest of the athletes and of course the supporters who had also made the journey to Wales.

New team manager Dawn Copping was absolutely over the moon with the result and would like to thank all the athletes for their sterling efforts and is now looking forward to Coventry in July when, with the expectation of being able to field athletes for all events, the team are well positioned to be placed higher and have a realistic chance to challenge for promotion to the third division.