On a night full of stars, HHH Women Vets finished 2nd at the SCVAC League match on 11 May, with only 9.5 points separating them from winners Serpentine. This narrow margin was achieved despite not covering three events, and is a testament to the team’s high level of performance.
It was a brilliant “welcome back” to Maria Clayton who took second place in the W35 A string 100m with 15.00 secs, improving her time from last year by .4 secs. Between shot put and high jump, Sharon St Luce and I managed 2nd and 3rd in the W50 and W60 100m respectively.
Great to see Penel Cummings again, victorious by nearly 3 minutes on the W35 2000m Walk, with a 10.53.8 pb to boot. Mandy Brown delivered another 5 points in the W50 event. We had double firsts in the 400m W35 race with A string Alexandra Shamloll and B string Patrizia Gnoato, with Mandy Brown taking 3rd in the W50. I was 5th (last) in the W60 although I did take 4 seconds off my previous/only time!
The whirlwinds Nicola Richmond and Nikki Sturzaker were joined by tornado newbie Ceri Diss in the W35 A&B and W50 1500m to deliver convincing first-place devastation all around. Not content with their conquests, our 4x400m relay “A Team” Patrizia, Nicola, Ceri and Nikki, left nearly 24 secs for us to twiddle our thumbs before second place came in – 4.59.3 was just under a second from our best time set last year.
In the field, Kathleen Moeller continues to hone her shot put skills, with pb after pb, presenting us with 4 points in W35 before collecting another 5.5 in equal 2nd at the W35 high jump. Sharon and I won the W50 and W60 shot put and on the way to the 100m race, got in a couple of high jumps: 3rd and 2nd respectively. Multi-talented Nikki came 2nd in the W35 discus.
Patrizia’s new-found talent for long jump was exploited with a 2nd place in the W35 event (with a new pb of 3.54m!) and “grasshopper” Sharon won the W50 with 3.63m.
Looking ahead to the next match on 8 June at Hillingdon, it feels as though this team is unstoppable. For the first time in many years we may have a full team – no gaps!
Watch this space!
Barbara Macanas
Team Manager
HHH Women’s Vets T&F
07801 149380
barbara@msatt.co.uk