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- By Adam Richardson solentateam@hotmail.com, Team Manager
- Note: You can get a bigger versions of all these pictures from the Photo Gallery, click on BML 4: Abingdon, 01/August/04. These pictures were taken by Darryn Campbell & Ben Richardson.
League: British Athletics League : Division 4
Solent A Team Match 4
Match 3 - Abingdon - 1st August 2004
Team: Team Solent A Team
Match: 4
Location: Kingston
Date: 1st August 2004
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On a scorching day in Abingdon, Herne Hill Harriers and Crawley turned up the heat sufficiently to ensure Team Solent's promotion hopes dried up. Solent finished a very creditable 3rd in the match and 3rd overall in the league behind the aforementioned clubs.
Despite Solent fielding the strongest team of the season, the other clubs also raised their game in the most competitive match all year. This coupled with the fact our sprinters were not firing on all cylinders meant that we had to settle for a place otside the top two. |
 Steeplechase: Robertson takes the water jump However we did manage to turn out a full team for the first time this year and there were a lot of positives to draw from the match. It was really good to see many of our 'star' athletes on show with Angus MacLean, Dan Turner, James Parker and Kieren Kelly all putting on a red and white vest and competing for the team.
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MacLean obliterated the field in the 5,000m, while Kelly put out a massive throw of 15m74 to not only beat training partner Gary Sollitt, but also ensure maximum points from the Shot Putt.
There was another double win in the high hurdles, where Ben Richardson rounded off the good work that Lee Tindal had done in the 'A' string. In the 4x100 relay where the magic quarted of Richardson/Berry/Buller/Wall claimed their third league win of the season.
Gavin Hodgson remained unbeaten in tall four matches in the 'B' string 400m hurdles, while Pete Brend wrapped up another victory in the 400m 'B' string (both athletes having only turned up 20 minutes before their races). |
 Long Jump: Chris Bull goes out to 5m94 The welcome addition to the squad of Chris Bull resulted in a marked improvement in the triple jump where for the first time this year we managed to finish a position other than eigth Dan Turner returned to the squad to jump 1m95, but that was only good enough for 3rd place.
Chris Buller had another busy day picking up good points in the pole vault, long jump, high jump, 200m and 4x100m relay. |
 800m: Russell Osborn tracks the leader John Beattie, accompanying Iain Robertson, gave Solent something we have not had all season - a 'B' string steeplechaser. Fellow under 20 Owain Jones also ran well in the 5,000m to finish 3rd in the 'B' string.
In the middle distances Russell Osborn and Alex Wall-Clarke have made a huge difference to the team by being omnipresent at all four meetings this year. They were joined by British League debutant Mark Campbell and James Parker, but despite good performances from all 4, points were harder to pick up than they had been in previous matches.
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Elsewhere in the throws, a good improvement by Andy Waters in the hammer to 34m was tainted by a misfortunate 3 no throws in the discus. Young Jake Lewis made his British League debut to pick up some good points alongside Anthony Llewelyn in the javelin.
On reflection, it has been a very pleasing season for the mens 'A' team. After dropping from the upper reaches of the British League, the team has rebuilt itself and is now pointing in the right direction. With the momentum that we have created during the season, we should be well placed to start off next season with a bang.
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| A big thank you to everybody who competed this year - I hope you enjoyed the season. |
Adam Richardson (& Terese Swain) Team Solent A Team Managers (Fake and Real Team managers respectively - well you should have mentioned me in the report Adam!!! Avoiding coming to the match completely so we wouldn't have the pleasure of throwing you in the steeplechase jump!) |
