BROMSGROVE & REDDITCH Athletic Club’s runners were in excellent form in the recent third of four fixtures in the Midland Veterans Track and Field League at the Abbey Stadium in Redditch.
In the men’s competition, B&R are now in joint top spot with Worcester, while B&R ladies are pushing their Worcester rivals hard and sit a close second.
Winning successes for the men were Pete Mould (over 60s 100m in 13.5 seconds and just outside his own club record), Martin Aspley-Davis (M35 400m) and Len Quartly walking his way to victory in the M60 2km walk.
Russell Hingley was just edged out of first place in the M35 100m by 0.1 seconds and newcomer Chris Gibbs performed a season’s best of 12.5 seconds.
The medley relay team of Hingley, Gibbs, Aspley-Davis and Andy Freeman (running 200m, 200,, 400m and 800m respectively) led from the gun and comfortably won by almost 100m.
Elsewhere on the track, Ian Keyte, James Adie and Richard Malin ran well in the 1,500m, as did Mike Neylon in the 100m.
Rob Mole, more comfortable with marathons, ran in the 100m and 400m and several other athletes stepped into events not in their regular training schedule to score valuable points and it all helped to draw B&R level with Worcester.
Adding to the club’s points total and equally impressive in the field was Vito Ricci who threw 24.91m to claim a win in the M40 discus and Neylon who secured third place in both the triple jump and long jump.
Clive Brown was busy all evening throwing the shot and discus before leaping over 1.10m in the M60 high jump to finish second, while Aspley-Davis competed in the triple jump for the first time and came away with a club record leap.
For the ladies, Jo Frost was again in dominant form and is unbeaten this season as she cruised to wins in the W35 100m and 400m.
Maximum points also went to Becky Selvey and Mel Hepke with wins over 1,500m in the W35 & W40 races respectively.
Debbie Ricci was narrowly edged into third place in the W40 100m and 400m but was part of the ladies’ medley relay team when joining forces with Frost, Selvey and Hepke as they comfortably won the evening’s last event as the quartet remained invincible in this season’s league relays.
Miriam Perry, with a club record in the hammer, and Julie Wakelam were in fine form in the field as both finished first in the hammer event in their age group, before Perry took second place in the discus and Wakelam third in the triple jump.
Polly Gerner was fifth in the long jump to go with her second placing in the 100m to earn good team points.
Back on the track, Peggy Bunn was third in the W70 100m with a club record, but then challenged herself by running the much longer distance of 1,500m for the first time and secured important team points in the W60 race and was rewarded with another excellent club record.
It all makes for a very competitive last fixture at Worcester as the home team and B&R do battle once again.
