Week Ended 2nd July 2010 - Updated Again!

Club News

  • Last weekend was very busy for our track athletes with both our senior men and senior ladies’ teams in action. In addition Paddy North was competing at the UK Trials in Birmingham.- see below for more details of all these events.

The mens team is back in action on Saturday 10th July at Bromley.

  • Similarly our road runners have been busy over the last few days at the Downlander challenge last weekend and the 2nd Back in a Flash race on Wednesday 30th June – fuller report below;
  • Plans for the barbecue on 4th September are progressing well, further details are below.
  • The club has the opportunity to become a corporate member of the Swindon Leisure Passport, for further details see below.
  • A sponsored run/walk will be held at the track on Wednesday 21st July to raise funds for a clubhouse/cabin to be installed at the side of the track. It is currently planned to start this event at 6.30 with the under 11s, 6.45 for 11-18 girls and 7.00 for 11-18 boys but senior athletes and parents are more than welcome to join in on any of these sessions. Sponsorship forms are available at the track. More details will follwo in due course.
  • Best of luck to Keeleigh Chapman and Lillie Bellamy who are both competing in the English Schools Track and Field finals at Alexander Stadium, Birmingham on Friday 9th and Saturday 10th July.

Track Competitions

The senior mens team travelled to Hillingdon in west London on Saturday for the fourth fixture in this season’s Southern League. With decathlete Adrian Hemery making a comeback after a broken ankle, and all events covered, we were optimistic about our chances.

As it turned out, the team led the meeting for a large part of the afternoon, but following a few weaker events near the end, succumbed to the home club Hillingdon and finally finished in second place. Still, the score of 114.5 was the highest team points score away from Swindon for a long time and has helped to ease the relegation worries by moving them up to 16th in the 25 team league table.

For a full report read here., full results can be found here

The senior ladies competed at home with a team short of a few people owing to Glastonbury and other committments and although they finished 4th out of 4 they all covered virtually every event with everyone competing in multi events.

Special mention for Pauline Morgan – predominately a road runner – who came off the track judges stand at short notice to compete in the 3000m and who immediately after the race was back adjusting hurdles for the next race!! Also Beth Bermingham – a sprint hurdler – who collapsed suffering from the heat in the 1500m and Morgan Gascoigne who suffered from her asthma after filling in the 4×400m relay.

There were event wins from Becky White (100m A, Long Jump A, Triple Jump A), Morgan Gascoigne (100m B), Dominique Oughton (800m A) and Zoe Large (Discus B), new club records from Debbie Martin (Pole Vault 2.55m), Becky White (Long Jump 5.84m, Triple Jump 12.81m) and Naomi Saxby (under 20 ladies Shot 9.00m) as well as many other excellent performances – a real team effort!. Full results are available from this link.

The final results were very close – Harrow 91 pts, Yeovil 83 pts, Dartford 79 pts and Swindon 77 pts – as a result Swindon remain about half way in the table.

Paddy North – UK Trials

Individually Paddy North was competing in the UK Trials finishing 4th in his heat in a personal best time of 47.24s, a new club record and qualifying for the B final.

Barbecue

This is on Saturday 4th September, from 7.00pm – 11.00pm at Supermarine with the bar area and the outside barbecue both available to us. Tickets are £5 adult, £4 under 13 before the day (£7 and £5 respectively if purchased on the day). Tickets will be on sale from mid July.

Swindon Leisure Passport

Corporate membership will enable all members to get discounted rates on both the individual and family Leisure Passports. To qualify we need to find 5 new members to sign up. If you currently do not have Leisure Passport and are interested in getting one at a discounted rate or if you want more details of the scheme please contact Steve Connolly.

Once the Club has the 5 new members we can achieve corporate membership and thereafter any members who renews an existing passport can do so at a discounted rate.

Road Races/Multi Terrain

Downlander Challenge – congratulations to everyone who took part in this 10 mile multi terrain race in sweltering heat, notable successes were;

2nd Overall – Gary O’Brien
1st Female – Joanna Parkes
1st Vet 50 – Steve Connolly
1st Vet 60 – Mike Affleck
1st Male Team – Gary O’Brien/Alex Fisher/Martin Townsend
1st Female Team – Joanna Parkes/Alison Paddon/Alex Griffin

*Back in a Flash Race 2 *- again many of our members were out on Wednesday evening for the 2nd of the 3 races in this series – notable successes were;

2nd – Gary O’Brien
3rd – Heath Bampton, well supported by his two sons Alex and Callum 7th and 50th
8th – Matthew Raymond
22nd – Steve Connolly