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Page 20 — December VetrunnerTRACK AND FIELD SEASON GETS UNDER WAY IN STYLEOCTOBER 16Our track and field season for 2003-2004 opened with a healthy number ofparticipants. This was despite beingrather cool for this time of year and theclock was still to be changed to daylightsaving.As with the club’s handicap events,track and field newcomers will beallowed some leeway before they have tobecome financial members of the club.This is to comply with our liabilityinsurance.The evening kicked off with the firstof the 3000m races on the card with 34competitors, 26 male and eight female.A great first outing in the vets track fornewcomer Sarah Fien with a very smart10.34. Although not breaking ElaineCooper’s W35 9.51 it was still a greatperformance with only three bettertimes posted in the men’s divisions, thebest of them was Dale Moore with a9.52.Winners in the other age groupswere M35 Phil Coggins, M45 MichaelLeahey, M50 Andrew Sutcliffe, M55Geoff Moore, M60 Richard Hilhorst,M65 Tony Booth, W40 Amanda Ruffin,W50 Cathy Montalo and W55 MargaretMcSpadden. Looking at these resultsone sees a fair number of the winnershave moved up an age group.Next up on the track were the1000m Walk and the 60m sprints. Atthe walk M40 Lachlan Wilkinson isback in action with a pretty smart4:49.9, the best of the four malecompetitors. For the women Lisa Wilsoncompleted the two and a half laps in5:04.0. Other age group winners wereM35 Phil Coggins, M45 EwenThompson, M60 Robin Whyte, W40Prue Bradford, W55 Raine Thompsonand W60 Val Chesterton.In the short sprint 16 came to thestart line to try their luck. For the malesthree got under the eight second mark,Stephen Jones 7.2, Craig Edwards andKen Gordon both ran the distance in7.6.For the ladies newcomer W35Carmel Porter posted the best time with8.9 only four tenths adrift of the besttime set by Marlene Reid. Other agegroup bests came from M45 NickBlackaby, M65 Ray Bramwell, M70Jack Thackray, M75 Rad Leovic, W40Jo Feriechs, W50 Maureen Rossiter andanother newcomer W65 ConsieLarmour.A fair few of the sprinters lined-upfor the second sprint, the 400m, thoughas usual it was the case of somecompetitors moving up and otherGetting serious. Pam Faulks has joinedone of the many club training groups thatare available for all athletes.middle-distance runners coming down.The outcome saw M45 John Mortonwinning his first run for the season in56.1 ahead of M40 Stephen Jones, M30Craig Edwards and M45 Phil Whiteboth clocked 57.3. Other good times, aswell as age group wins, came from M50Ken White, M55 Will Foster, M70 JackThackray.For the women in the one lapperthere was quite a contest between W45Marlene Reid and Vicki Matthews withMarlene winning with a 1:09.1 fromVicki’s 1:09.8. W30 Cecilia Schiegel,W35 Carmel Porter and W65 ConsieLarmour all posted wins.Three mixed teams contested the4x100m relay. Although there were norecords the team of Jack Thackary,Marlene Reid, Carmel Porter and AlexLloyd were easy winners in a very smarttime of 58.4The first of the field events, thehammer, was on at the lower field. M70George Mencik dominated the men’sevent and Jayne Hardy similarly thewomen’s. George got in a mighty heaveof 40.68 and Jayne an even better 45.03.Other age group wins were seen byM35 Greg Harris, M45 Steve Wallace,M50 Alex Turbin and M55 Ray Green.Age group winners in the ladiescompetition were W45 Sharon Gibbins,W55 Trish Thomas, W60 Jan Daviesand W65 Mary Wahren.The discus and javelin wereconducted on the main arena. Greatthrows and duels were seen by AlexTurbin and Ray Green, in the end Raygot up by a mere three quarters of ametre with his heave of 39.45. The twobest throws for the women came fromthe usual pair of Jayne Hardy andSharon Gibbins with Jayne some fourmetres ahead at the final throw. Oneconsolation for Sharon is that she hasmoved up to the W45 and no longer hadto pay second fiddle to Jayne in the W40age group. Other age group winnerscame from M30 John Donovan, M35Greg Harris, M40 Craig Wisdom, M45Steve Wallace, M60 Robin Whyte, W50Carmen Carlon, W55 Trish Thomas andW60 Jenny Bourke.In the javelin the only record of themeet went to Kerry Boden and it wasquite a good one that had lasted for over12 years by Trish Thomas 25.62 thatwas set in 1991. Kerry is anotherathlete that has moved up an age groupand her first effort of 29.56 easily brokeTrish’s 1991 mark. As usual JayneHardy was away out in front, as far asmetres are concerned, with a 32.73 totake the W40s honour. Other groupwins went to W55 Trish Thomas andW60 Jen Bourke. For the men RayGreen was again involved in a tighttussle for the best throw of the evening,this time with David Haggith and thistime around Ray had to play secondfiddle with his 29.20 to David’s 31.75.M30 John Donovan, M35 Greg Harriswith his third win for the meet, M40Craig Wisdom, M45 Steve Wallace andM60 Robin Whyte, also saw age groupwins.There were three jumps on offer onthis the opening night of the 2003-2004season, the pole vault and the long andhigh jumps.At the pole M30 John Donovan wasthe only jumper to record a mark. Thenin the long and high jumps he made itfour wins for the meet. Multiple agegroup wins also went to M40 CraigWisdom with his performances in thelong and high jumps. M45 NickBlackaby got his second age group win,as did M50 David Haggith with his highjump effort. M65 Ray Bramwell hadthree age group wins with his effort atthe long and high jumps added to his60m effort and M70 Rad Leovic wonboth the long and high jumps.For the women Vicki Matthewsfinished a mere two centimetres aheadof Sharon Gibbins with her effort of 4.06in the long jump. Then in the high jumpwins went to W40 Jo Freriechs, hersecond age group win on the night and