Athletics
Plenty of drama before Tamworth triumph

THERE was an interesting build-up to the competition at Tamworth on Sunday for the victorious Bromsgrove & Redditch Athletic Club squad.

Andrew Freeman, who heads up the senior track and field team, got injured on the Tuesday during training which resulted in a fractured elbow which will rule him out of competition for a number of weeks.

To fill his place, former B&R member Sam Moran rushed back from university and renewed his membership just in time so the team were not short of athletes.

The drama did not end there though as Martin Aspley-Davis became a father on the Saturday evening to a baby boy, but he still arrived to compete on the Sunday. Many congratulations to Martin and Claire.

The team’s commitment was rewarded, however, as they won this second fixture in the track and field season with 352 points, ahead of second placed Tamworth on 289.5.

There were some great performances from team members which included first place from Dewi Hammond in the 100m and second place from Thomas Russell in the B string race.

Hammond and Russell also took second places in the A and B races of the 200m.

In the 400m A string David Mould took third (PB of 50.4), with James Hart also third in the B string. New dad Aspley-Davis was fourth in the 110m hurdles A string and new recruit Moran came fourth in the B race.

In the 400m hurdles Aspley-Davis came second in the A event and Moran was second in the B string.

In the endurance races James Hood and Sean Bowden not only took first places in the A and B races in the 800m but also in the 1,500m.

The 3,000m saw Damien Lewis take fourth in the A and Gavin Moorhead fourth in the B race. Mark Appleton finished second in the 3,000m steeplechase with a PB of 10.55, taking a massive 20 seconds off his previous best.

The field events saw Calvin Scoltock finish fourth in the pole vault and first places were then achieved by Sam Cater in the A string shot putt and Richard O’Connor first in the B string.

In the discus O’Connor won the A string with a new PB of 31.66 and Cater won the B string. Cater then finished second in the hammer A event and O’Connor won the B string.

Cater also competed in the javelin and took second place and Aspley-Davis was third in the B event.

The women also competed well, with Daisy Johnson second in the 100m A, Elizabeth Tomlinson second in the 100m B, Romy Naven second in the 200m A and Tomlinson second in the 200m B.

In the A string 400m Jo Frost was first and Melanie Hepke fourth in the B. In the 400m hurdles Izzy Billau was second in the A event and Hepke came second in the B races.

The women also completed well in the distance races as Sally Hogan finished third in the 800m A race and Tamara Ball won the B string.

Hogan was second in the 1,500m A race and Katie Plummer first in the B race. Ball also raced in the 3,000m A and finished second, as did Amy Lam in the B 3,000m race.

The field events saw Frost take first in the long jump A and Tomlinson fourth in the B string event.

The triple jumps saw Billau finish second in the A and Juie Wakelam fourth in the B event, whilst high jumpers Billau and Hepke both finished third in their events, with Hepke winning the pole vault.

Shot putter Samantha Lloyd was second in the A event with a PB of 9.29 and Frost came third in the B.

Lloyd also came second in the discus A, as did Wakelam in the B event. Wakelam and Lloyd also took on the hammer competitions and there was a fourth place for Lloyd in the B event and fifth for Wakelam in the A string.

Lloyd won the javelin A competition and Wakelam was second in the B event.

The club finished third in both the men’s and women’s 4x100m relays and in the 4x400m races the men were second and the women first.

Regional sport »