British Athletics League National Division One, Match 2, Gateshead
It's hard graft in windy Gateshead
The Weather
The Thursday before the match saw the Gateshead area struck by storms so severe that seasoned travellers reported conditions worse than the most severe tropical downpours. TV news showed pictures of the Tyne Bridge being struck by lightning and cars submerged under four feet of water. As the team headed towards Newcastle it was not known whether the match would proceed.
Game on
Last year thirteen brave souls journeyed to Gateshead. This year an expanded team of sixteen took to the stage. With no specialist vaulters or high jumpers and Paul Ogun and David Wellstead doubling the long and triple it was left to Mark Allen and Andy Boudrie to step in and harvest a few precious points in the vertical jumps. The throws squad was also reduced in numbers with Mark Allen, Matt Richards and Aaron Crawford covering the four throws. Matt has been injured since May and was delighted with a second placing in the hammer in his first outing of the season.
Head winds gusting
The track started with the sprinters suffering from head winds gusting up to 5m/s. With no chance of good times it was a case of chasing points. Greg Cackett raced to a clear win in the A100. Wade Bennett Jackson couldn’t repeat his match 1 win in the B100 and settled for silver. Clearly he was struggling and it turned out he hadn’t trained since the previous weeks Olympic trials and was carrying a hamstring niggle. This showed in the A200 where he finished fourth and nearly scuppered the sprint relay as he struggled on the first leg. Fortunately Greg Cackett put the brakes on and, unlike the UK’s men’s squad at the Euro Champs, the baton passed safely to finish in third thanks to Greg, Cameron Webb and a storming home straight by sprint hurdler Gary Wilson.
Late surge
The track events contributed the majority of the points thanks to fine 400’s from new member Andrew Boudrie and Ciaran Collins. Steve Davies added strength winning the A 800 and A1500. The latter race saw an epic lead out by TVH’s Darren Hall who gave 100% but still couldn’t resist the late surge of Steve closely followed by Paskar Owor who won the B event. Paskar gained more valuable in the 3000 backed by Will Cockerell who had travelled up on the day to be our first steeplechaser to toe the start line this season. It was pleasing to see JC run a season’s best in the 400H in windy conditions.
Hero of the day - Mark Allen
So, once again a small team mixed and matched to gain every point. Hero of the day was Mark Allen who managed six events (The League limit is seven so there is room for improvement!). The point spread between teams is closer than ever this year and just a few extra athletes would have made a huge difference. We seem to have said that after the first match. With match three taking place at Copthall on the same day as the Olympic cycling road race there may be trouble ahead!
100m: 1 G Cackett 10.62/-1.3; 2 W Bennett-Jackson 10.94/-2.4; n/s 7rA C Webb 11.66/-1.6; 6rB G Wilson 11.20/-1.0. 400m: 4 A Boudrie 48.60; 5 C Collins 50.41. 800m: 1 S Davies 1:54.13; 5 P Owor 1:58.10. 1500m: 1 S Davies 3:54.80; 1 P Owor 3:57.90. 3000m: 2 P Owor 8:26.70; 8 W Cockerell 9:39.87. 110mH: 3 G Wilson 15.28/-5.0; 4 J-C Roghi 16.88/-2.1. 400mH: 7 J-C Roghi 55.93; no B competitor. 3000mSC: 7 W Cockerell 10:32.70; no B competitor. 4x100m: 3 Belgrave H 42.33 (W Bennett-Jackson, G Cackett, C Webb, G Wilson). 4x400: 4 Belgrave 3:20.82 (A Boudrie 49.1, C Collins 49.8, C Webb 51.9, M Anukam 49.6). HJ: 8 A Boudrie 1.70; 1 M Allen 1.50. LJ: 2 P Ogun 7.04/w/2.8; 5 D Wellstead 6.27w/4.5. TJ: 3 P Ogun 14.12/-0.8; 4 D Wellstead 13.61/1.3. PV: 8 A Boudrie 3.20; 8 M Allen 2.00. SP: 7 M Allen 13.42; 7 M Richards 7.68. DT: 7 M Allen 45.38; 8 M Richards 16.84. JT: 2 A Crawford 58.66; 4 M Allen 42.43. HT: 2 M Richards 58.59; 2 M Allen 48.36. Full Results (Excel)
Match result: 1 Thames Valley H 308.5; 2 Herne Hill H 293; 3 Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow AC 285; 4 Gateshead H&AC 270; 5 Belgrave H 267; 6 Cardiff AAC 260; 7 Enfield & Haringey 257; 8 Harrow AC 245.5.
League positions after two matches: 1 Herne Hill H 14 (589); 2 Thames Valley H 11.5 (573.5); 3 Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow AC 11 (552); 4 Enfield & Haringey 10 (564); 5 Cardiff AAC 9 (531); 6 Belgrave H 7.5 (532); 7 Gateshead H&AC 6 (507); 8 Harrow AC 3 (493.5).
Top left: Andrew Boudrie races the flat 400 metres. Top centre: The 1500 metres gets under way with a strong pairing of Paskar Owor (11) and Steve Davies (1). Top right: 250m to go in the 1500m - Steve Davies is about to pounce and Paskar shows no sign of a hamstring niggle picked up in the 800m. Bottom left: Wade Bennett-Jackson gets caught out by Greg Cackett's take-off speed in the sprint relay but Greg braked hard and they got away with it. Bottom centre: Ciaran Collins on long relay duty. Bottom right: Gary Wilson faced a 5 metre per second headwind in the sprint hurdles. Photos by Bill Laws.
Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.