Athletics
Nearing promotion as club celebrates 50th year

Buy photos » James Hart represents B&R in the relays. (s)

BROMSGROVE & REDDITCH Athletic Club seniors travelled to Telford for the Midland Counties AA Track and Field League Division Three meeting and continued their impressive momentum.

They went into the event top of the league by 86.5 points, clear of Tamworth who were followed by Stratford, Yate and Telford.

Knowing there was a good chance of promotion, the team was well motivated and results spoke for themselves.

The 100m A race saw the first four athletes all within 0.2 of each other, with B&R athlete Dewi Hammond 2nd in 10.8.

In the B race it was another 2nd place with Thomas Russell finishing in 11.4. Russell then went on to finish 4th in the 200m A race (22.6) and in the B Nicholas Freer ran 24.0 to finish 3rd.

The 400m races saw a 1st place for David Mould (50.9) in the A and a 2nd for James Hart in the B (52.6).

Martin Aspley-Davis took 2nd in the 110m hurdles (21.0) and Sam Moran 2nd in the B with 20.2. The 400 races saw Aspley-Davis take 2nd in 59.7 and Andrew Freeman 2nd in the B (66.4).

B&R athletes then went on to dominate the distance races as James Hood took 1st in the 800m A (1.58.2) and Sean Bowden won the B (2.03.9).

Bowden then also won the 1,500m A (4.24.4), with Andrew Freeman taking 2nd in the B (4.38.8).

In the 5k Garvin Moorhead took 4th in 18.32.7 and Damian Lewis 2nd in the B (18.36.3). The 2k steeplechase saw Simon Lanckham take 3rd in the A (6.59.7) and Mark Appleton 1st in the B (7.13.5).

The field events brought about another flurry of wins as Sam Moran came 1st in the long jump B (5.03m), whilst Thomas Russell gained 3rd in the A string (5.26m).

Sam Moran jumped a 2nd place leap in the triple jump A string (11.04), whilst Simon Lankham won the B string (10.83m).

James Hart won the high jump A competition (1.85) and Sam Moran won the B string (1.55).

Shot putter Richard O'Connor threw 8.71 in the A competition for 4th place and Harry Onions 7.82 for 3rd in the B string.

O'Connor then threw 27.96 for 2nd in the discus A and Martin Aspley-Davis 23.34 in the B for 2nd place.

In the hammer O'Connor was 4th with a throw of 32.14. Aspley-Davis threw 33.68 in the javelin A competition and O'Connor 20.21 for 4th place in the B string competition.

The women's competition was just as close. Jo Frost won the 100m A race in 12.2 and Elizabeth Tomlinson took 2nd in the B (12.9).

In the 200m A Romy Naven took 3rd (26.3) and Elizabeth Tomlinson achieved 2nd with the same time in the B race.

The 400m A race saw a 4th place for Isobel Billau (61.1) and 2nd for Megan Griessel (70.9) in the B race.

The 100m hurdles saw Thomasina Ball take 4th with a time of 20.6 and in the 400m hurdles there was a 2nd place for Ball with 81.3 and Mel Hepke won the B string in 92.5.

Distance runners also performed well. The 800m A saw Tamara Ball take 4th with 2.37.8 and Rebecca Selvey 2nd in the B with 2.46.2.

The 1,500m saw Tamara Ball take another 4th with 5.29.2 and Selvey 2nd in the B with 5.47.3, whilst the 3k steeplechase provided a 3rd place for Sally Hogan (11.09) and 2nd for Orianna Ball in the B (12.32.6).

Women's field events saw our athletes dominate the 1st places. Winners were Joanne Frost (long jump 5.33), Geordan Edmonds (long jump B 4.68), Isobel Billau (triple jump A 11.06) and Thomasina Ball (triple jump B 9.29).

The high jump saw Thomasina Ball achieve 3rd with 1.35 in the A competition and Geordan Edmonds 2nd in the B with the same height, whilst Melanie Hepke won the pole vault with a vault of 1.90.

Samantha Lloyd came 2nd in the shot putt A with 9.37 and 2nd in the discus A (30.68).

Geordan Edmonds won the shot putt B with 8.13 and Julie Wakelam took 2nd in the discus B with 20.90 and 4th in the hammer A competition with 22.37.

Samantha Lloyd achieved 4th in the B with 12.40 and there were two more first places in the javelin competition with Lloyd throwing 36.44 in the A and Isobel Billau 32.52 in the B string.

Finally, team-mates came together to try and give a strong finish to the competition. B&R won the men's 4x400m, came 2nd in the men's 4x100m and women's 4x100m and third in the women's 4x400m.

With one more fixture to go it is looking more and more likely B&R will reach promotion in this, their 50th anniversary year.

They finished with 1,051 points, with Tamworth trailing on 887.5, Stratford 836.5, Telford 760.5 and Yate 694.5.

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