Monthly Archives: July 2012
Well done to Dave Howarth, first over the line in the historic 2012 Grevitt Handicap.
Well done to Claire Moyle coach of the Worthing Harriers Special Olympics Group, who had the honour of carrying the Olympic Torch as it passed through Hampshire on Sunday.
Her Olympic Torch will be at training on Tuesday 24th July at 7.30pm for those that would like a photograph with it. A once in a lifetime opportunity I think!
Greek themed attire is optional and it will be £1 per photo, all money raised going towards the funding of Claire’s Special Olympics group.
The Olympic ‘Real Relay’ headed to Sussex on Tuesday and it was the Harriers turn to take up the baton. A big thank you to local scribe Dan Thompson for the following write up which I think sums it up!
As a child, my grandad used to read Victor comic, and one of the regular strips was Alf Tupper – The Tough of the Track. Alf was the best runner in Britain. He was a working class chap, always doing welding jobs the night before a big race and fuelled by enthusiasm for running and portions of chips.
So for me, that is sporting spirit, I suppose; a passion and a fire to better yourself, a determination to do it whatever it takes, a willingness to have a go against the odds.
The Coca-Cola London 2012 torch relay didn’t have so much of that. Over 30 vehicles are touring the country, a procession of endless Met Police motorbikes and unmarked BMWs overwhelming somebody worthy from the local community. I watched it bustle through Worthing yesterday in the rain.
Thankfully, today a lady called Katrine Molden and a dozen runners from Worthing & District Harriers (exactly the kind of club Alf would have belonged to) have restored my faith in English sport. No mean feat when you consider Kat is Norwegian.
They’re taking part in The Real Relay. Where the official Torch relay has 8000 gold torches handcrafted, they have a homemade one with a GPS tracker. Where the official Torch relay has support vehicles and hundreds of staff, they have a nice lady from the Harriers with a cool box. Where the official Torch relay covers most of the country in the back of a coach, they run every metre of the same route, ten miles at a time shared between over 800 amateur runners.
And watching it in my hometown Worthing was a hundred times more exciting than the Coca-Cola procession yesterday. It’s magnificent; amateur in the best English traditions, Alf Tupper and the 1948 Olympics all over.
15.7.2012
Despite the throws cage being out of action for the rest of the season and adding to that the appalling weather we have been having there are still some good results and achievements from the throws squad.
Robert Duke again making the ESAA standard and in his final year decided to have a go at Shot and was unfortunate not to have archived his goal this time. However he has broken the U20 club record this year with a throw of 13.69m. Woody Cox, last year’s gold medallist at the ESAA went with the intention of throwing a 50m throw as he knew he would only get the three throws this year as the standard is now so high. Woody threw 50.56m and had a smile for the rest of the weekend. Edward Pillai our Javelin colleague first time at the ESAA pulled out a new Pb of 52.41m to the delight of his coach Caroline Garrett.
This weekend Imogen Marshall stepped up to the plate to see if she could put in another great performance to go with the already growing list of fantastic achievements she has had this season. As a first year U17 the list is impressive in the shot put alone. Starting the season with the new weight of 4k and a first competition throw of 8.37m has continued to build up her distant to 9.89m going into this weekend’s competition. The weather caught us all of guard as the sun was out so photos were taken to record the event. Imogen started with a good steady throw of 8.85m and progressed to 9.17m in the 2nd round. The third round Imogen raised her game again with a 10.07m and a new pb which put her into second place. The smile was as dazzling as the sun and stayed for the rest of the day. Imogen was in second place right up to the last round where she dropped to third place. As said the smile stayed and we had a new SEAA U7 Bronze medallist a new Pb and a grade 1 performance for which she received a silver plate.
Recently Imogen competed in the Regional Schools combined team championship for Sussex where the team won and they are now heading of to the English Schools Combined Event at Bedford in September where I am sure she will again prove to be a valuable member of the team. Watch this space.
Imogen Marshall’s Sister Eloise competed in the U20 SEAA last week at Crystal Palace in appalling conditions and yet still recorded her third furthest throw and finished 5th in the competition. For some strange reason Eloise likes the rain and her mother said ‘The rain was so heavy I could hardly make out who was in the throwing cage it was horrendous’
I did tell tell Eloise and her mum it was nice and sunny in Middleton 
The weekend brought a fantastic performance from the SAL team in the penultimate League match of the season. Team managers Alan Easey & Ali Duke headed to Harrow with ambitions of securing 2nd place in the match; so to come home with a win was a fantastic result and keeps alive hopes of remaining in Div 1 for next season.
SAL League 1 is proving to be an excellent level of competition for a club of our size, and we can now look forward to some final match drama on Saturday 1st September to retain our League 1 status.
There were the usual strong performances in the field, backed up with several first places on the track. Emma Perkins turned down a Diamond League invitation to compete for the club, winning the LJ (5.58m), HJ (1.75m), and 2nd place in the TJ (11.58m). It looks like the jumps cup is in the bag for another season for Emma. Laura Duke had another high scoring day with first places in the HT (46.75m), PV (3.00m), and with good points in her other 5 events remains on track to amass 100 individual league points for the season. Elsewhere in the field there were good performances from Jo Davsion HT (44.86m), Caroline Garratt Jav (36.15m), Alison Duke PV (2.60m) and Imogen Marshall HJ (1.50m). Resulting in just 6pts dropped in the whole of the womens field, well done ladies!
Highlights on the track were a 7sec PB for John Morrey to run away from the field on the final lap of the 1500m (4:15:04m), first places for Ella Brassington in the 200m (26.5s), Mark Burchett 800m (2:02.4m), Charlie Baldwin 400m (52.0s), Craig Baker 110mH (15.5s) and fantastic points from Becca Moore with 1st place in the 3k (10.42.4m), 2nd in the 1500m (4:58.5m) and a vital 2nd place in the steeplechase.
The match score remained tight all through the afternoon, and as the Harrow discus thrower pipped Richard Buckingham to first place with his final throw early calculations made it extremely close. However the match scorers had forgotten to include the women’s discus from earlier in the afternoon and when this was added the final result brought a winning margin of 4pts for the Worthing team, and a big smile from team manager and birthday boy Alan Easey.
Well done to the whole team, it was fantastic to see the high level of camaraderie and team spirit that club athletics is all about. More of the same at the final match!
