Posts Tagged ‘Masters’

Ashford's superb veterans squad

ASHFORD AC’s Veteran men’s team had a fantastic day at the Southern Counties Veterans AC final held at the Julie Rose stadium on Sunday.
Ashford made the final for the very first time, courtesy of finishing the season second in the Kent League Division 1. This in itself was a huge achievement as the team’s main aim was just to survive in the top division.
The final was a high quality contest with teams from Basingstoke, Epsom and Ewell, Herts Phoenix, Oxford City, Herne Hill, Crawley and Blackheath & Bromley; all winners or runners up in respective Southern Counties.
The usual format of Veterans matches is 3 or 4 track and field events are held over 6 evenings over the summer months; however the final contested a full 17 events over one full day. This really tested Ashford’s small squad and was made even more difficult when several key athletes suffered last minute injuries. Ashford’s men have a great camaraderie and their excellent team spirit saw no fewer than 14 club records over the day.
In the V35 throwing events Jon Ward returned to a more familiar role following his exploits in the London Triathlon. He set a new club record in the hammer to finish third with 39.26m, won the shot with 12.03m, took third with a season’s best in the javelin with 35.82m and finished second with 37.94m in the discus.
Wayne Howe recently rejoined the club and made an incredible debut by smashing all four V50 throwing records. Wayne lived up to his confident predictions by winning the discus in 34.50m and finishing second in hammer 34.31, javelin 39.06 and shot 9.30. In the two V60 throwing events there were also two club records with club founder member David Fox achieving 9.40m to take bronze in shot and Mike Ward finishing fifth with 25.23m in javelin.
The jumping events are usually Ashford’s strongest with several county and national champions in the four disciplines.
However, due to a recent injury the UK Vet 60 No1 Mick Goodall was unable to compete in the pole vault or high jump, or so it seemed. Top pole vault coach Derek Laws stepped forward with team captain Steve Langford to score vital points finishing 6th and equal 3rd respectively. An extremely disappointed Goodall then amazed everyone by attempting to clear 1.10m, the minimum V60 height in the high jump. He cleared the bar to score a point but then continued heroically despite his obvious agony to eventually clear 1.40m and won the event.
In the younger age groups a very busy Peter Davey won the V35 high jump in 1.65m. Steve Arnold had a crash course in training during the week and surprised even himself by finishing third with 1.40 in the V50.
Les Wood, still recovering from a long term injury, performed courageously to finish third in the Vet 60 long jump. In the V35 long jump Davey came third with a fine 5.82m and Langford, also carrying an injury finished a good runner-up in V50 with 5.05m. The pair doubled up for the triple jump with Davey achieving a V35 club record 11.65m to finish a fine second and Langford performed well to get third with 10.34m.
On the track Ashford’s men again performed well with an incredible three club records being broken in the 400m events.
Guy Van Damme from Zele AC competes for Ashford as a second claim member. Guy works in the UK but he and fellow team member V60 Etienne Uytterschaut made the long trip over from Belgium for the final.
Van Damme broke the V45 400m record with 59.2 secs to claim second in the V35 B race following Davey’s 55.4 secs also finishing second in the A race.
Steve Arnold then broke the V50 record adding vital points with 62.7 secs and finally Etienne ran 81.1 secs a club record for V65. This was even more incredible as only 50 minutes earlier he had smashed the Vet 65 and V60 records in the 1500m with 5:34.5.
Kevin Williams impressively won the V50 1500m with 4.48.8 just outside his own club record despite suffering with his Achilles.
Danny Green and Ian King both ran well in the V35 race securing vital points finishing sixth and third respectively. Green and Williams doubled up later in the 3000m finishing well in 10:23.3 and 10:39.6 for vital points.
The sprint events proved successful with more valuable points with Davey was narrowly beaten into second with 12.1 in the 100m and Charles Whitmore ran close to his pb with 13.5.
Langford scored well with 13.4 and Wood a fine second with 14.2 in the V60. Davey and Whitmore were again in action in the 200m finishing third 24.4 and 4th 27.5 with Arnold adding more points with 28.5 in the V50. The quartet of Davey, Arnold, Langford and Whitmore later broke to 4×100m record with 51 secs despite some shaky baton changes.
In the 800m Van Damme and King ran excellent tactical races to finish fourth with 2:17.7 and second 2:32.5 in V35 category. Team manager Paul Wheeler was a last minute stand in for the V50 event and despite a lack of track training surprised himself by breaking the pre-2010 club record with 2:33.9 to finish seventh.
One of the toughest events is the 2k walk. Ashford’s Peter Walkden competing as a V35 and Gary MacDonald V50 made a real race of it with the pair powering to the finish with Walkden narrowly winning and breaking MacDonald’s club record in the process. Walkden finished a fine third with 11:26 and MacDonald 11:29.2 to take second place.
In the final event the 4×400m relay Whitmore 65.2, Arnold 64.2, Langford 64.8 and Van Damme 60.2 ended fine brilliant afternoon to finish fourth in 4.14.4.
The final result saw a very strong team and last years winners Herne Hill retain their title with 294.5 points. Ashford gave Blackheath & Bromley a real run for their money narrowly leading the Kent League champions at one stage.
However Blackheath eventually proved too strong to finish second with 272 points followed by a jubilant Ashford in third place with 250.5 points, over 70 points clear of the fourth placed team in a historical and truly memorable day for Ashford’s veteran men.