Triple Jump 4th Elliot O'Neill 15.45 (windy ?)
Discus 9th Roger Skedd 39.83
Javelin BRONZE Dorel Greta 67.13
Cheshire Join the
Elite
At wet and windy Bank Holiday weekend at Bedford saw possible the best ever
performance by Cheshire at the Inter Counties Track & Field champs. Despite only
having a relatively small team, Cheshire collected a total of 4 medals - gold
and bronze for the men, and 2 silvers for the women. These helped Cheshire to
win the men's Middlesex/Surrey Trophy, and gain to promotion to the top division
of counties for possibly the first time ever. Almost matching them, the women's
team - comprising just 4 athletes - finished second in their division of 30+
counties, narrowly missing out on promotion to their top division.
Star amongst the men was UWIC student Elliot O'Neill, who competed in the two
horizontal jumps. On the Sunday, as the reigning BUSA champion, he was
disappointed to finish in 4th place in the triple jump - albeit just 20cm off
the gold - having led in the early rounds. However, this turned to joy on the
Sunday, as he was the only jumper to retain his focus right throughout the whole
competition, and snatched victory in the final round with a leap of 7.38m, just
1cm below his personal best, in a high quality field which included Phillips
Idowu.
Also leaving it late was javelin thrower Dorel Greta. Despite being unable to
use his favourite javelin, his final round throw of 67.13m was enough to grab
third place, less than a metre behind the winning throw. Throwing as a
non-scorer in the same event, Dave McKay also had a tremendous competition,
finishing in an excellent 5th place.
Two other Cheshire men also finished 5th. Decathlete Roger Skedd, twice broke
his 110mH pb, having already finished 9th in the discus, and is looking to
continue this good form this weekend when he competes for Great Britain in IAAF
World Combined Events Challenge in Arles.
Not quite so happy though was Matt Barnes, a former NoEAA 1500m champion, who
was caught out for pace at the end of a pedestrian mile race.
Star amongst the women was 110m hurdler Katie Read, who set the track alight in
her heat into a 1.5 m/s headwind, setting a time of 13.68 - an improvement of
over 2/10's of a second over the PB she set the week before at Loughborough -
before finishing a fine second in the final.
Also collecting a silver medal was another UWIC student, steeplechaser Emily
Brown, to add to the one she won at BUSA, despite having recently missed a
fortnight's training with a calf injury.
Busiest athlete of the weekend was sprinter Lucy Evans, who had 5 races.
Unfortunately, by the time of the 100m final, despite a good start, tiredness
began to tell, and she faded to 7th place.
Men:
100m 6th heat 4 Steve Butterfield 11.33 (-0.4 m/s)
6th heat 2 Darren Scott
11.24 (-1.0 m/s)
200m 3rd heat 2 Darren Scott
21.75 (no wind taken)
8th s/f 1 Darren
Scott 22.00 (no wind
taken)
6th heat 4 Steve
Butterfield 22.20 (no wind taken)
Mile 5th
Matt Barnes
4:22.53
110mH 3rd heat 1 Roger Skedd
14.47 (+1.9 m/s) (PB)
5th final Roger Skedd 14.46 (-0.1
m/s) (PB)
400mH 4th heat 2 Andrew Hopkinson 55.39
3000m walk 15th Tony Bell
16:17.48
Long Jump GOLD Elliot O'Neill
7.38m (no wind taken)
Triple Jump 4th Elliot O'Neill 15.45 (windy ?)
Discus 9th Roger Skedd
39.83
Javelin BRONZE Dorel Greta
67.13
5th
Dave McKay 62.89
Middlesex/Surrey trophy:
1st CHESHIRE 38
2nd Warwickshire 32
3rd Gloucestershire 26
Women:
100m 3rd heat 2 Lucy Evans
12.01 (no wind taken)
4th s/f 1 Lucy
Evans 12.08
(no wind taken)
7th final Lucy
Evans 12.20
(no wind taken)
200m 2nd heat 2 Lucy Evans
24.79 (-2.2 m/s)
5th s/f 1 Lucy
Evans 24.53
(-0.9 m/s)
2000m s/c SILVER Emily Brown
7:21.68
100mH 1st heat 2 Katie Read 13.68
(-1.5 m/s) (PB)
SILVER
Katie Read 13.86 (-0.1 m/s)
Triple Jump 17th Hannah Hewitson 11.06 (no wind taken)
Essex Shield:
1st NE Counties 43
2nd CHESHIRE 27
3rd West Wales 24
Full report can be found on
www.ukathletics.net.
Full Results
Adrian Thiemicke
Cheshire Team Manager