BAL Division 2, Match 2: Norman Park, Bromley
In this second British League match Toby Sandeman continued his domination of the sprints. Again easily winning the 100m he powered through the final leg of the 4 x 100 relay to ensure TVH's victory. It is no surprise that last Tuesday he was selected to represent Britain in the under 23 match in Eastern Europe on the 18th July.
Overall the club finished in a similar position to the first match of 4 and are only 1 point behind the joint League leaders. Again veteran Steve Whyte was the star of the field events with three 2nd positions in the Shot (14.29m), Hammer (57.32m) and discus (44.93). He was ably supported by Gavin Cook in the discus (30.51) and Hammer (47.73m).
Matt Morsia was TVH field event man of the match with his first over 14m Triple Jump for a long time (14.27m) and long jump of 6.85m, while in the Javelin we had two men throwing over 50 metres, Duncan MacDonald (54.66) and John Harvey (50.19), both season’s bests. The 440m ‘B’ event witnessed an impressive personal best of 49.31sec for Edmond Amaning, who is still under 17. This with a strong relay leg earned him the track man of the match.
In the 800m a welcome return by Neil Dougal produced a fine 3rd in 1:52.76 in a fast race and was well supported in the B event by Louis William trimming half a second off his best in 1:57:11 . Both athletes ran well judged races in what turned out to be the best event of the day. Another returnee, this time from injury was Andrew Hennesey. Warming up with a comfortable 4th place in the B string 400 hurdles he went on to finish 3rd in the 3000 steeple chase (9:25.04) and astonished himself with an aggressive 3.35.81 1500. Paul Whitelam, making his debut for the club, showed considerable promise with another sub 4 minute 1500 (3:59.18). While off the pace he accelerated through in the last 200 metres overtaking a number of other competitors.
In the 500m both Chris Smith (15.40.23) and James Sumpter (14:44.37) ran well in the hot conditions, though both still have to fully recover from their London marathon runs. Delroy Mitchell proved to be the Clubman of the day, doing the Pole Vault, High Jump and 400 Hurdles before being allowed to do his real event the 400m as part of the 4 x400 team who finished a fine 3rd after Lloyd Kings 48.2 final split.
Overall by finishing 4th in this match TVH are well placed to challenge for promotion as they are second only 1 point behind 3 Clubs. The next match at Leeds on the 1st August promises to be close and tense.
This match report was provided by Thames Valley Harriers who train at the Linford Christie Stadium.
July 7, 2009