Central Park, Dartford Friday Aug 6, 2021
The second and final “vets-only” open meeting to make up for this year’s cancellation of the Kent vets league, was hosted by Central Park Athletics (CPA) at a blustery Dartford track. Seven club members competed in both track and field events. Unfortunately, unknown to the track athletes, the photo-finish system failed to work, so all the track results are manual times.
Dom Fiore must have been the happiest Harrier at the end of the night as he knocked off 13 lucky seconds from his previous PB, set five years ago, to finish in 5:15.9 in the mile race.
Sally (left) and Susan in the Mile race
Susan Dixon and Sally Carr were also in the same mile race as Dom, finishing in 6:02.7 and 6:59.4, respectively. Susan’s time puts her in 2nd position in the W55 national rankings. Both sisters were competing in their maiden track mile.
Wole (400m & Triple Jump)
The 400m was the first race on the track. Due to a significant number of no-shows, the three scheduled races were condensed into a single race featuring six athletes, which saw Wole Odele run a solo effort from lane 5, to finish first in 58.1s, over 4 seconds ahead of field.
Wole also went on to win the triple jump, equalling his season’s best of 10.42m, set at the last Southern Athletics League (SAL) meeting in Sutcliffe Park. Wole remains top of the national rankings for both 400m and triple jump for the M55 age group.
Natalie (Discus & Shot)
Natalie Mann and Paris Hunt competed in the discus and shot-put competitions. Natalie recorded best throws of 18.14m and 7.35m, for discus and shot, respectively.
Paris (Shot & Discus)
Paris’ previous attempts at both throws have been with the heaviest implements in the SAL, so this was his season debut with the lighter weights. He recorded best throws of 26.5m and 7.73m, for discus and shot.
The final event was the 200m-200m-400m-800m medley relay, which is traditionally run at the final league match. Men’s TM, Mark Ashby, had entered a Cambridge Harriers team, but unfortunately, 2 of the team were no-shows. A sprinter from Paddock Wood was recruited to run the first leg and Edmund Adigwe’s 13-year old son, Obi, was given the green light to run the second leg with Wole and Edmund completing the squad.
The squad recorded splits of 26.8/32.7/62.7/2:06.8 to finish behind a Dartford Harriers team who set a new Masters club record of 3:59.3.
Results
Full results available at https//www.thepowerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=420802
All pictures by Mark Ashby
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