Match 4 – 13 July 2016
With a narrow margin of 2 points, HHH Women Vets won the fourth match of the SCVAC Mid London division: HHH 111, Serpentine 109, Hillingdon 98, ESM, 73, Metros 22. This third win out of four matches (an improvement on 2015 when we only won two) takes HHH women through to the finals for a second year running (and jumping, and throwing!).
Final results:
HHH – 472 event points, 23 match points
Serpentine – 461 event points, 20 match points
Hillingdon – 438.5 event points, 17 match points
ESM – 257.5 event points, 12 match points
Metros – 60 event points, 8 match points
British Airways – 23 event points, 2 match points
We stuck to the strategy of covering all the events at Perivale on 13 July, despite only nine athletes being available: sheer teamwork and effort ensured maximum points. Mandy Brown improved her hammer pb again – with the heavier weight! – by 1.15m at 15.26m, taking 4th place in the younger W35 age group. Sharon St Luce came 2nd in the W50 – her first hammer event this year and a pb of 20.31m to boot – and I won the W60.
From the cage we cheered on the 800m racers: Nikki Sturzaker W35A, Natalie Zara W35B, Gillian Wheeldon W50 and Claire Steward W60 – crucial 2nd, 2nd, 3rd and 2nd places with, despite injury, a season’s best from Nikki with 2:31.5. Natalie beat her previous pb with 2:52.8 and not to be outdone, Gillian did the same, beating her pb from 2012 with 3:02.2. Claire equalled her season’s best with 3:18.4.
W35 Patrizia Gnoato sailed over the high jump bar in 1st place and juggling high jump and javelin, Sharon took 2nd in the W50. The points were accumulating …
Patty interrupted her reign at the high jump to win convincingly in the W35B 200m, while courageous Nikki came 3rd by only 3/10th of a second in the A string. Team player Gillian covered the W50 gap, taking 3rd and Claire Steward gave a season’s best of 39.9, 3rd in the W60.
Cutting short her attempts at high jump, Shazza still managed 3rd place against the W35s with the heavier javelin, allowing me to win the W50s.
A big welcome to the team to Kate Crawford, setting a pb of 11:44.1 in 3rd place in the W35A 3000m. Natalie (only 3.7 seconds behind Kate) left 41.6 seconds of fresh air between her and 2nd place in the B string. Mandy took one for the team in the W50 and delivered 3 much-needed points, and Claire set a 13:30.9 season’s best in 2nd place in the W60.
Three season’s bests in the long jump: only 4cm kept “gazzella” Patty away from 1st place in the W35 with 3.75m, Sharon made sure she won the W50 with 3.48m and I came 3rd in the W60 with a distance that does not bear mentioning.
Nikki Sturzaker: “So there I was taking a photo of the gorgeous sunset and some gazelle leapt past…”
The evening was rounded off nicely with a win in the 4 x 100m relay. Patty, Gillian, Sharon and Nikki brought home the baton in 61.5 seconds, the third best time we’ve had since records began (three years ago)!
It has been an exciting season with the other teams providing great competition in all events. In order to cover the more substantial timetable and give a good account of the Mid London division at the finals, we need to gather ALL of our Women Vets together in the same place (Ashford) at the same time (4 September) – something I haven’t been able to do this season!
Please get in touch if you (or someone you know) is 35+ years and would like to contribute to this fun, competitive women’s team.
Imagine what we could accomplish if we were operating at full strength!
Barbara Macanas
barbara@msatt.co.uk
07801 149380