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Southport Waterloo A C
NEWS REPORTS - AUGUST 2009
| News reports and results should be E-mailed
or telephoned to Ron Scott
Photographs always welcome within 24 hours of event. |
Statement of Practice on the use of photographs |
26 August 2009: More
club success at Harrock Hill (by Steve McLean)
The 2009 Harrock Hill series concluded on Wednesday evening with more Southport
Waterloo AC successes.
12 Southport Waterloo athletes ran on the night although, altogether, 22 club
members took part in at least 1 race in the series.
Best 3 positions counted for the series and going into this 4th and final race
Richard Shearer had a win and a 2nd place to his credit but as Phil Bolton of
Rossendale also had a win and a 2nd it was game on. An in-form Richard is always
going to be hard to beat and so it proved as he continued his excellent run
of form to win both the race and the series. Richard's decisive break came on
the second hill, 2 miles or so into this 5.2 mile race, when he opened a 30
second gap.
In the series, it was also all to play for in V45 between Rick Bowker and Steve
McLean with both having run only 2 of the opening 3 races and Steve having a
mere 1 point advantage. However, a Southport Waterloo victory wasn't a certainty
as Horwich's Paul Boardman was tied with Rick. Unfortunately Rick was absent
but Steve and Paul had a fantastic tussle. Despite the lead changing several
times Steve eventually fought off the Horwich athlete's strong challenge to
secure the series V45 prize and 7th overall. Horwich did get their own back
though as Steve finished 2 seconds and 2 places behind another of their runners
which was just enough for them to edge the team prize on the night by the narrowest
of margins. Richard Shearer and Ben Johnson, who had an excellent run to finish
10th, were the other Southport Waterloo AC counters.
Richard, Rachel Thomas and Carole James all recorded their best times this year
despite the soft ground, Chris Dunn ran sub-40 in his first Harrock Hill outing,
Christine Cutner won LV50 as well as taking her age group series title and Rob
Ashworth, absent on the night but with 3 scores already in the bag, won V40
series and was 4th overall. Other good runs came from Brian Davey, Mike Cunningham,
Andy Hudson, Vicki Harvey and Clive James. All in all a very successful evening
and series.
Many club athletes recommend this series and it would be great to see even more
challenging for honours or just enjoying the varied course and post-race socialising
in the pub as results are finalised. Organisation is great, venue ideal and
the large boxes of fruit and veg make useful, if different, prizes so put the
4th Wednesday in May, June, July and August in your 2010 diary now!!
Race results. Series
results
Harrock Hill Club Rankings
22 August 2009: Eight
medals taken at Mid Lancs Medal Meeting
The
Mid Lancs T&F season ended today, with its popular Medal Meeting held at
the Robin Park Arena in Wigan. 16 Southport Waterloo athletes, all juniors,
took part and six left with medals. More medals would have been won but several
athletes were ineligible, not having taken part in at least 2 Mid Lancs League
meetings during the season.
By far the best performance on the day by a Southport Waterloo athlete was by
Jordan Kelly who won the triple jump competition with a magnificent 13m 14,
a grade 1 standard jump.
Our Under 15 Girls took 2 medals, a gold and a silver. Ellon Hart won
the 300m race in 44.2 and Patsy Irizar took silver in the 1500m with a season's
best and a new personal best time of 5:26.3. Sally Wareing competed in the 100m,
long jump and shot. Her 6m 94 shot put was close to her best and 4m 40 in the
long jump improved her PB by 10 cms.
In the Under 17 Women's events there were 4 medals taken. Ruth Doran
was the most prolific, taking three medals from three events. Her best was in
the hammer where a new personal best throw of 32m 47 took gold. Another gold
came in the discus with a best throw of 17m 40 and she took a bronze in the
shot with 8m 01.
On the track, Beth McBride was in excellent form again, winning the 100m race
in 13.0 and finishing 3rd in the 200m in 27.1 secs. Katie Morris was 3rd in
the 300m, in 44.0, and Catherine Hulme took a gold medal in the 1500m in 5:41.5.
Our other Under 17 Women was Lucy Whitehead who concentrated on the horizontal
jumps. She cleared a best of 4m 49 in the long jump and 9m 23 in the triple,
taking 3rd place in both.
Amongst the boys, our four Under 13s took 2 medals and achieved 4 PBs.
In the 800m, Michael Panes ran a PB 2:27.7 for silver, just edging in front
of Luke Tyson in the club rankings. Michael also ran a season's best of 30.5
in the 200m and his long jump of 3m 49 was a massive half a metre improvement
in his PB.
Matthew Lawson also had a PB in the long jump, clearing 3m 63, and put the shot
5m 68.
Andrew
Kershaw focussed on the 1500m and on a warm sunny afternoon took a silver medal
in 5:06.5. Finally, Liam Harrison has made a great impression since joining
the club. Today he won the discus competition with a best of 20m 35 and he was
3rd in the shot with 7m 85.
Gary Clark was the only medallist in the Under 15 Boys, taking a bronze
in the 1500m in 5:03.4, again a good time in these warm conditions.
Owen Williams ran his first 800m race of the season and was rewarded with a
new personal best time of 2:34.7. His long jump of 4m 03 was also a PB so a
great result for the day! Graham Boreham was our fastest 800m runner today,
coming from behind to finish in 2:32.1, before going on to run 28.8 in the 200m
and improving his discus PB with a best throw of 17m 07.
Finally, in the Under 15 Boys, George Ingram also ran in the 800m, in 2:46,
and long jumped 3m 33.
Jordan Kelly was our only Under 17 but he made his presence felt with
fine wins in both the long jump and the triple jump. His triple jump of 13m
14 was further than any of the seniors jumped today, was a grade 1 standard
performance and improved his PB by 3 cms. He is slowly but surely edging towards
Adam Chandley's 13m 25 club record.
Thanks to Dave Whitehead, Lesley Scott and Steve Boreham who officiated today;
and to our team manager Sarah Lawson.
Results for club athletes. Full
results.
We are still hoping for a good turnout by Southport Waterloo juniors and
seniors at our open T&F meeting on 5th September. See entry
form for details.
12 August 2009: SWAC
dominate at Haigh Hall (by Rick Bowker)
Family
man and all-round nice guy Richard Shearer won the Haigh Hall race series. He
was backed up with one of SWAC’s best ever team performances, winning both the
male (Richard Shearer, Rob Ashworth, Rob McGrath and me) and female team (Tracey
Peters, Rachel Thomas and Christine Cutner).
The Haigh Hall race is a real challenge with 300 ft of climbing in the first
mile, but you are always rewarded with some great racing action. I had a good
old battle with new club member Ben Johnson who put in a fantastic first run
here to finish 12th. I just managed to pull away on the final super fast finishing
mile, taking out quite a few runners in the run down to finish 10th.
Tracey Peters (second lady) also ran well in her first road race after long
term injury.
Richard’s next challenge is to win the Harrock Hill series in a couple of weeks,
so please support him and maybe we can win first teams again which would be
awesome!
Next week Wed 19th sees the return of the Rubbish 5k training run.
On a final note thanks once again to Paul Carroll and his Wigan Phoenix team
for putting on such a great race series.
Race results
Updated Grand Prix table.
8 August 2009: Home
fixture flop in Mid Lancs League
To say it was disappointing would be an understatement! Indeed, the support
from the club for a home fixture in the Mid Lancs League on Saturday was an
embarrassment and one that won't be repeated next year - or indeed in the foreseeable
future!
Going into the final league match of the season, the boys were nicely positioned
to win promotion back up to Division 1. Surely a home fixture would ensure a
good turnout and a good points total that would see us through as Division 2
champions. No. Although 11 males turned out, few were competing for points and
a total of just 78 handed the Divisional title to Horwich. With officials' points
still to be added for Litherland, it does look as though we have finished 4th
on the day but remain in 2nd place overall - beating Barrow by just 4 points
- so will be in Division 1 next year. Whether they can stay there is another
matter.
With just 60 points scored, the girls remain in 4th place in Division 2.
The Mid Lancs is a development league but it offers excellent competition in
most agegroups albeit that numbers overall at Litherland were affected by the
school holiday period.
The good news is that those who competed produced 8 PBs and new member Under
13 Liam Harrison was a ray of sunshine in the throws.
Lucy Hunter was our only Under 13 Girl. She competed in the 800m
and the shot.
In the Under 15 Girls, Ellon Hart and Patsy Irizar, both consummate
competitors, competed in one event each, Ellon showing excellent consistency
by equalling her recent personal best of 2:28.2 in the 800m, and Patsy a little
disappointed with her 5:32.2 in her 1500m.
We had three Under 17 Women in action. With very few Under 17s
altogether, Beth McBride was competing against seniors and was superb, winning
both the 100m and the 200m, the latter by a country mile! her 12.6 for 100m
was a new PB and 26.9 in the 200m an excellent time.
Catherine Hulme settled on a 1500m and ran a season's best 5:35. In the field,
Ruth Doran won both the shot, with a new personal best 8m 58, and the hammer,
throwing in excess of 30m.
Now working back to race fitness, it was a pleasure to see Senior
runner Lorna Graham back in action. She ran the 200m in an encouraging 29.0
secs.
There were 6 Under 13 Boys competing in Southport Waterloo vests
today. Liam Harrison has started training as a thrower and made his debut in
the shot and discus today. And what an impressive start! He won both events,
the shot with a fine throw of 10m 05 and the discus with 19m 75. That discus
throw is a new club record replacing Sam Moran's mark of 19m 27 set in 2001.
The 10m 05 shot put is only 8 cms off the club record so an excellent new young
thrower in prospect!
In the field, George Sutton also did well with a new PB of 17m 65 in the javelin.
Luke Tyson long jumped to a new PB 3m 67 and ran 2:27.9 in the 800m where Zac
Hogg debutted with 2:32.7. Kieran Andrew's 17.7 in the 100m was a PB and Chris
Fallon ran 32.5 in the 200m.
Amongst the Under 15 Boys, Jonathan Foster debutted in the 1500m
with 5:16, Jake Hogg equalled his PB of 13.7 in the 100m and set a new PB of
58.2 in the 400m and Alex Bentley also ran a 400m PB of 59.1 to win his race.
And George Ingram ran 2:49 in the 800m and long jumped 3m 65.
Finally, Senior Richard Shearer, arriving at the track for a training
session, joined in the 3000m finishing 4th in 9:24.8.
The club is indebted to Chris Henders, Lesley Scott and Steve James for their
invaluable help, together with support from officials and helpers from other
clubs who made up for our shortcomings. It requires a lot of helpers and officials
to host a match and, along with the athletes, that help was largely absent today.
Special thanks too must go to team manager Sarah Lawson who came down to Litherland
to look after the team despite the fact that her boys were unable to compete.
I am sorry that there was no possibility of taking photos today but if any parent
has any to submit I will post on these pages.
Full results.
The club's open track & field meeting
is on Saturday 5th September. Hopefully that meeting, when most holidays are
over, will be better supported by the club's own athletes.
2 August 2009: Seniors
drop back to Div 3 next year
Our
seniors have enjoyed two consecutive years in Division 2 West but reality struck
home in the final match of this season's Northern Track & Field League at
Blackpool on Sunday when a 4th place meant relegation back to Div'n 3.
After Round 3, three clubs - Southport Waterloo, Liverpool Pembroke & Sefton
and St Helens Sutton - were on 9 League points with whichever of the three finishing
lowest today being certain of relegation, along with Manx Harriers. This appears
to have galvanised LPS and St Helens who fielded strong teams in the final match
and proved well worth their place in Division 2.
The match points were Manx 207 points, West Cheshire (already certain of promotion
and fielding a weak team today) 300, SWAC 319.5, St Helens 359, LPS 401.5 and
Blackpool, who go forward to the play-off final, 433.
With the weather set fine and an on-shore breeze dropping away, the scene was
set for an excellent day's athletics. And so it proved as the teams battled
for final positions. Southport Waterloo was unable to field its strongest team
and the seniors, indeed like the juniors, lacked strength in depth. Again like
the juniors, some rebuilding will be necessary if we are to triumph in Division
3 next year and win promotion back to Division 2.
Richard Shearer was our only event winner, in a tactical 5000m race. Several
athletes achieved personal and season's bests and Stephanie May must be congratulated
for stepping in to fill gaps in the team sheet and compete in a maximum 7 events
which earned more than 10% of our total match points. With the help of all the
athletes, team manager Barbara May was able to lodge an almost complete team
sheet.
In the Women's match, Stephanie May started with a season's best in the pole
vault with 1m 90 before filling in in the 400m hurdles where she was 2nd in
72.5. After a 2nd place in the flat 400m in 61.6, another season's best followed
in the 200m (26.8), a new personal best in the javelin (18m 39) and, after taking
the 1st leg of the 4 x 100m relay - a season's best 54.4 for the girls - she
went on to anchor the 4 x 400 relay - her 3rd 400m race of the day - pulling
back a position with a fine split of 60.7.
Charlotte Buckingham also had a good day, a PB 4m 60 long jump getting her off
to the best possible start. Another PB followed in the 400m hurdles, run in
77.9, a high jump of 1m 40, then a 20.54 100m hurdles and finally an 8m 83 triple
jump.
Under
17 Beth McBride was not out of place in this senior's field, finishing 3rd in
both the 100m, equalling her best time of 12.7, and the 200m (26.3) and helping
the relay team to their season's best.
Steph James ran a 2:35 800m and then a season's best 64 in the 400m and added
points in the high jump. Sarah Docherty ran 2:37.5 in the 800m but will be best
pleased with her horizontal jumps; a PB 3m 17 long jump and a PB 7m 59 triple
jump.
Elsewhere in the field events, Under 17 Ruth Doran was back in action for the
senior team. Her hammer throw of 32m 08 was a new PB for a 3rd place and she
shrew the discus 17m 98 and put the shot 7m 59. Ann Dignan put the shot out
a season's best 7m 19, threw the discus 14m 80, the hammer 14m 76 and the javelin
20m 50.
For a change, the Men did rather better than the women today with some of our
best athletes turning out at Blackpool.
Richard Shearer warmed up for his 5000m race with a 4:25.9 1500m. In the 5000m,
he led the group that broke away until the St Helens runner came past. That
challenge met, he was then taken by the LPS runner before working back to the
front to win in 16:15.8; not his fastest time but racing is about winning and
he should be satisfied with that performance. Gerry Lenehan was our 'B' runner
stopping the clock in 17:20.
Fell runner Rob Ashworth ran 4:48.5 in the 1500m, possibly his first for the
club, and won the 'B' 3K steeplechase in 11:44.3.
The team was bolstered by Under 17s Josh Hughes, Andrew Starkey and Jordan Kelly.
Josh was 3rd in the 'A' 100m and 2nd in the 200m in 22.8. Andrew ran 23.5 for
200m, 52.6 for 400m and our fastest 4 x 400m runner with a split of 56.7 on
the anchor leg. Jordan Kelly was in the jumps and had a great high jump, clearing
a new personal best of 1m 70. His 12m 88 triple jump, not far off his best,
gave us a 2nd place and he long jumped 5m 43.
Under 20 Rob Anderson ran a season's best with 12.2 in the 100m and teamed up
with Jordan in the horizontal jumps, Rob long jumping the furthest with 5m 45
and triple jumping 11m 45.
Mike Evans is over injury and back in regular training and ran 2:07 5 in the
800m and 56.2 for 400m today. David Gough joined him in the 800m running 2:22.2,
before lining up for his regular steeplechase event. Today he got around in
11:25.
The hurdle events were covered by Stephen Marshall, Nathan 
Ouko
and Steve Wilkinson. Stephen ran 20.0 for 3rd place in the sprint hurdles and
64.3 for the 1-lap event. Nathan's 21.7 for 110 hurdles was a season's best
for him as was Steve's 64.7 for 400m hurdles. Nathan also cleared a season's
best in the high jump, 1m 55. Steve also appeared in the shot (9m 63) and the
discus (27m 23).
The shot competition was an amazing one today with the three leading throwers
throwing 20m 33, 10m 47 and 9m 76. The leading thrower was Blackpool's Carl
Myerscough who twice broke the stadium record to finish with a best of 20m 33
- a world qualifying standard!
Back at club level, Peter Mason put the shot 8m 77, threw the hammer an impressive
24m 79 and the discus 21m 95. Tom Leyland put in a rare appearance in a club
vest. Always impressive with the javelin, Tom had a best throw of 40m 37. Finally,
James Tartt only appeared in the javelin today, and had a season's best of 28m
40.
In the relays, the 4 x 100m time of 45.3 was a season's best and the 4 x 400m
time of 3:48.8 was exactly the same as the season's best at Warrington.
So the Senior league concludes for another year although there are still opportunities
to compete - in the Mid Lancs meeting at Litherland next Saturday, and the club's
open meeting at Litherland on 5th September which includes 1 mile races which
will hopefully attract a number of seniors. There is no age group club records
set yet over this distance on the track, except for Under 17 men, so hopefully
we will get lots of club records set!
Thanks today, and over the season, to Barbara May for all her hard work as team
manager. Barbara herself is grateful to all the athletes who have supported
the League this season and many of whom agreed to do extra events to boost team
performance - and sends a special thanks to Norman Marshall for his personal
help and support.
Thanks to today's officials; Norman Marshall, Sue Gellett, Lesley Scott, Peter
Mason and Ann Dignan. And thanks to Alex Anderson for sending me a number of
photos from today.
Results for club athletes. Full
results.
