Crawley Athletic Club

Three Crawley athletes competed in Nyiregyhaza, in the North East of Hungary, and performed well in hot and humid conditions: for some of the track events the temperatures were over 35 degrees, while the marathon took place in very humid weather, which broke into torrential downpours just after the race had finished.

Adrian Haines competed in the V40 1500 and 800 metres, and suffered misfortune in both finals. The 1500 was a straight final (Adrian had hoped for a qualifying heat to sharpen his racing form) and with 16 athletes crowding the lanes, contact was inevitable. The second lap saw Adrian boxed in : 400 metres later he sprinted clear to recover 20 metres and join the leading bunch. The effort left him short of speed in the final stages, and he finished 4th.

In the 800 metres, he qualified comfortably 2nd in his heat, and in a final which comprised 12 athletes, Haines ran intelligently to avoid being boxed in, and moved onto the leader’s shoulder at the bell. Down the back straight he looked a sound medal contender, but disaster struck at 600 metres, the Czech runner cut in sharply in front of him, Adrian had to step out into the second lane, and he was clipped from behind by the German. He tumbled heavily onto the track and his chance of a medal was lost. After the race he was philosophical and positive, and he is sure to bounce back stronger for the experience.

Wally Hill and Dave Beattie, in the V55 and V60 age groups, were pleased to be in the same team for once, with 10 year age groups for the Marathon team competition. In pre-race discussion they agreed that times would be at least 15 minutes slower than usual due to the heat, and they paced their efforts to finish 1st and 2nd scorers for their team, in 3:16 and 3:30. Unfortunately, the fastest GB runner “blew up” after a strong first 15 miles, and finished outside the scoring 3. This mishap cost the team bronze medals, as Robert Wilson is normally sub 3 hours and he struggled to finish in 3:38 eventually. Wally and Dave were both 5th individuals in their age groups, and were satisfied with their effort in the conditions.

One amusing footnote – a very officious gentleman in a red cap was patrolling the track races and pulling out athletes who looked as if they were suffering in the heat. The GB team named him “Doctor Death”. Several athletes had completed 20 laps of the 10,000 metres before their red faces and understandable perspiration caused him to rule them “DNF” – much to their annoyance. The marathon was run on an out and back course which we covered 3 times, so I made sure I grinned cheerfully whenever I ran past Doctor Death!

Crawley Athletic Club Senior Men stormed into the final of the 10 in 100 Cup with a 21 point victory over local rivals Brighton and Hove Athletic Club in second place. The format of the competition entails ten events being completed in 100 minutes.

An unfortunate fixture clash with the final being on the same day as the last Southern Women’s League match meant few competitors took part for the Crawley women’s team.

Luke Sargeant sped to 22.76s to take a comfortable victory in the 200m and team manager Chris Minn added maximum points from the high hurdles with 16.22s.

In the field Neil Mansbridge threw 50.64m to clinch first place in the Javelin while under20 Matt Lasis propelled the Senior implement 44.47m for second place in the Hammer.

Second places also came for Chris Johnson 1min54.90s in the 800m, Matt Sinclair 49.79s in the 400m, Steffan Mitchell 11.29 in the 100m and for the medley relay squad running 2min28.27s for the two 200m and two 400m legs.

The longest track event the 3,000m saw Scott Harris run 9min3.34s to take third place while in a high standard Triple Jump competition James Hollins claimed third spot with 12.41m and Gerald Manville cleared 3.80m for fourth in the Pole Vault.

Crawley Athletic Club took victory in the match with 86 points to Brighton’s 66, equal third placed were Southampton and Kingston on 63 points.

For the Women Steph Smith took victory in the Pole Vault by nearly a metre clearing 3.50m and clocking 13.57s for third spot in the 100m.

Multi-event star Jo Rowland clocked 15.73s in the sprint hurdles for second place and finished third in the Javelin with her best effort of 35.79m.

Running the third leg for Great Britain, multi-talented Seb Rodger was part of a bronze medal winning team in the World Junior Championships held in Moncton, Canada.

On a warm sunny Sunday Crawley AC hosted the final match in the series of four, competing against Horsham and Epsom & Ewell.  With a strong team present, a win was predicted and this did not disappoint.

The day began with the usual classy hurdling display from the Crawley athletes.  In the U13 age-group Tamsin Campbell won with 13.1 (pb) and Alison Crocker was 4th with 13.9.  David Bishop's hurdling technique has improved rapidly, enough to beat his team mate Andrew Cowie into second place, with times of 13.1 and 13.2 respectively.  In the U15 age group Keiron Cunningham came back from long term injury issues to produce a personal best of around one second with 13.4 while Justin Tarrant finished close behind him in 13.9.  The girls Beth Crocker and Demi Hide were neck and neck to the finish line, both given 12.9 but with Beth given 2nd and Demi given 3rd.

The 800m races produced outstanding results for Crawley - U13's Matthew Boxall and James Kinnear both producing pb's to finish 2nd and 3rd with 2.31.9 and 2.32.9 each while Sophie Mansfield dominated her race as usual for a win in 2.32.3.  Under 15's Paige Clark and Ben Golding (both 1st year U15's) won their races with 2.26.6 and 2.17.0 respectively and U17's Abigail Ashbee-Simmonds and Tom Mulligan did the same with 2.22.6 and 2.14.0.  In the longer races the U13 girls Lauren Callaghan and Libby Moody displayed their strength by coming 1st and 2nd with 4.06.0 and 4.24.5 each, Libby running her first race at this distance and discovering she quite enjoyed it!

The short sprints then followed - U13 girls Elise Haworth and Stephanie Shackel finishing 1st and 2nd in the 75m with 10.6 and 11.1 and U17 men Chris Brownlee and Dominic Durrell doing the same in the 100m with 11.5 and 11.7.  There was also a good win for U15 Joel Buckett with 12.7.  In the longer sprints there were wins for U13 Elise Haworth in the 150m (21.2) and U15 Ben Golding in 200m (26.8) with Matthew Warren close on his heels in 2nd place with 26.9.  In the 300m/400m races Crawley also had good results with wins for U17 Jessica Cook in the 300m (45.3) and Joel Buckett in 400m (pb of 55.7) and 2nd for U17 Tom Mulligan with 55.8.

Out on the field there were also many first places.  U15 Michael Turner had a particularly good day with 1st in shot (11.07), discus (30.00) and javelin (34.49).  Other throwers out in front were U15 James Lasis in hammer (45.83), U17 Luke Johnson in javelin (37.04), U13 Munroe Ritchie in shot with a pb of 7.86, U17 Levy Smith in shot with 12.47 and U13 Rebekah Dunt in javelin with with a good pb of 18.74.

The jumpers were also looking strong, with U13 David Bishop winning his long jump (4.55), U15 Beth Crocker also first in long jump (4.62), closely followed by Demi Hide on 4.59 and U15 Matthew Warren winning his long jump with 5.24.  High jumper Keiron Cunningham was the only competitor but jumped a good 1.50 while triple jumpers Morgan Hilton and Poppy Weeks both won with 11.78 (personal best for Morgan) and a very impressive 10.66 for Poppy.

The relays, as usual, finished the afternoon with a climax, with wins from the both the U13 teams in the 4 x 100 - boys (Munroe Ritchie, Scott Devlin, William Varcoe and David Bishop) in 55.7 and girls (Stephanie Shackel, Sophie Mansfield, Lauren Callaghan and Elise Haworth) in 56.5.  The U15 boys team (Joel Buckett, Justin Tarrant, Matthew Warren and Ben Golding) won in 51.2 while the U17 team (Tom Mulligan, Levy Smith, Dominic Durrell and Chris Brownlee) were just pushed into 2nd by one tenth in 46.6.

The remaining three relays - 4 x 300m for the U17 women and 4 x 400m for U15 boys and U17 men all produced wins for Crawley.  The girls (Charlotte White, Jessica Cook, Shannon Wheatley and Gabby Kent) finishing in 3.15.6, the U15 boys (Joel Buckett, Jason Shackel, Thomas Brightwell (replacing an injured William Thompson) and Jacob Sayers) winning in 4.22.0 and the U17's (Tom Mulligan, Morgan Hilton, Chris Brownlee and hurdler Griffin Shiel) all running a fast leg to win with 3.56.2.

The final league position for Crawley AC is 3rd out of 9 teams.  Brighton will be promoted as the division winner but Horsham, Crawley and Ashford all finished on the same league points but the final difference being a mere approx 20 match points between each team.