It’s not often that we travel to a new venue during our track and field season, but Sunday saw the Bingley team in action in the tranquil setting of Mount St. Mary College, Spinkhill. The weather was ideal for the sprinters, jumpers, and throwers, but the warm and breezy conditions were less than ideal for the distance runners. Our team, as ever, was made up of a mix of under 17s, under 20s, seniors and vets. All of whom acquitted themselves well against some tough opposition in Division 3EC, including some of our medal winners from last months Yorkshire Championships.
The team battled hard to finish 3rd, 20 points behind Doncaster and 10 points ahead of Newark. Chesterfield won the match, and Grantham came 4th. This puts us 3rd in the League behind both Chesterfield and Doncaster with 2 matches to go. There were some notable contributions to the points tally, but the highlight of the day was Jess Mayho’s performance in the women’s hammer. Jess threw the 4kg implement 56.40m smashing her own personal best and Club record by 3m. This now puts Jessica 5th in the Under 23 Rankings and 14th overall in the UK Rankings. Acting as a field official during that competition was a pleasure, carrying the hammer back to the circle from beyond the 50m every time Jess threw.
Amy Howard our temporary women’s team manager threw over 40m herself in the b string event, just one of her 7 performances during a long day. Collectively the men’s team track athletes dominated proceedings, winning the A string races in the 100, 200, and 400 sprints, the 1500m, 3000m steeple chase and the 5km. The relay team bounced back from a fall in the 4 x 100m,with three of the four team members returning to win the day’s finale, the 4 x 400m by 10 seconds. After a day in the sun, many members of the team now turn their thoughts to individual performances and regional, national and schools championships, before returning to action in the next match at Wakefield on 7th July.
Our thanks as always go out to the team managers, officials, coaches and athletes who contributed to an enjoyable and successful day.
Keith Daniel