British Athletics League, Gateshead – TVH Ranked 3rd overall

Gateshead has always been the venue of good results for the Valley team and the traditional weekend away was dampened only by the squally and heavy rain. As usual the club spirit shone through and there were a few individual lifetime best and season’s best performances.

The team result was a good one as the team finished 4^th in the match but moved up to 3^rd as other teams took points from each other.  Again this league has proved to be very competitive, although Woodford Green and Glasgow have pulled out a healthy lead. The Valley are now sitting in 3^rd place with the other 5 teams no more than 3 points below.

The TVH Track Man of the Match award was won by Edmund Amaning, who has returned from a spell of warm weather training and racing in the USA and is hoping to make his mark this season in the England Commonwealth Games team. Edmund’s winning time in the 100m of 10.77 is even more impressive as it was in cold and wet conditions and into a 1.4m/s headwind. His 200m winning time of 21.38 in similar conditions was into a 1.0m/s headwind but his last leg of the 4x100m really demonstrated his class as he ripped through the field to bring the team home in 4^th place in 42.64.

 The TVH Field Man of the Match award was again won by a thrower but, whereas the first match award was presented to 18 year old Jamie Potton-Burrell this time it went to club stalwart and world veteran record holder Steve Whyte for his combination of high-scoring Hammer (50.81m for 3^rd), Discus (40.33m for 6^th) and Shot (12.74m for 7^th).

 The TVH Club Man of the Match award was won by Stanislav Vilga on his first team debut. “Stan the man” came in as a late replacement for Jack Phipps, the Valley’s leading Pole Vaulter and came away with a creditable 3.00m in awful conditions for an unexpected 2^nd place in the B event. Seeing Ogo Arochirionye was unable to get to the High Jump as his Long Jump overran Stan happily agreed to jump and was rewarded with a lifetime best of 1.60m on a cold, wet and slippery runway to finish 4^th in the B event and then stepped into the team at 110m hurdles to replace injured Mike Bartlett to pick up 2 valuable points.

 Edmund Amaning was backed up by club stalwart Jason Commissiong who was surprised to find himself in front at 60m in the 100m B race but slipped back to 6^th place in 11.51. 17 year old James Olasunkanmi continued his good form as he claimed 4^th place in the 200m B event in 22.67. Edmund, Jason and James combine together with Jehvaun Senior to finish 4^th in the 4x100m relay in a quick 42.64.

 Lloyd King made a welcome return to the team following a spell of training and racing in the USA. Sadly he suffered in the bad conditions and limped home in the 400m in 51.36 before having to seek medical attention and withdraw from the 4x400m relay. Delroy Mitchell ran a well judged race in the B event and was rewarded with a 2 second improvement over his match 1 time with 51.22 and also ran a good 4x400m split later in the afternoon.

 With the 2 leading 800m runners missing this was always going to be a tough event but Kieran Sexton stepped up to the mark and again showed great determination and grit to finish 4^th in the A race in 1:56.83, which is very close to his best time ever but he then came back to run another gritty race in the 1500m to pick up 4^th place in 4:07.50. Rob Russell, better known these days for his 10km and half marathon exploits came down from Scotland to cover the 800m B race but found himself short of pace over the 2 lap sprint but claimed a valuable point in the process.

 Mohamed Mohamed (Mo Mo) won the 3000m in the first match but stepped down to the 1500m in Gateshead. However, he found the opposition tougher in his more favoured event but ran a creditable 4:01.01 for 3^rd place in the A race. He finished his afternoon off with a run in the 4x400m relay to help the team and get some speed work in.

 Mohamud Aaden, who finished closely behind Mo Mo in the match 1 3000m found himself in complete control of the 5000m as he gradually applied the pressure over the last 4 laps and simply ran away from the field. He was rewarded with a fine winning time and lifetime best of 14:28.84. Mo Aaden was backed up by Mark Haskett in the 5000m B race who finished in a solid 15:34.58. Mark has suffered from repeated Achilles injuries that have forced him to move up from his favoured 800m and 1500m events and is now making his mark in the longer track races.

 Jason Commissiong followed up his 100m race with an outing over 100m hurdles and finished 5^th in the A race in an impressive 16.15 into a headwind of 0.7m/s. Jason also filled his busy afternoon with a 44.09m Javelin to finish 3^rd in the B event and ran a leg in the 4x100m. As mentioned earlier Stanislav Vilga covered the B 110m hurdles running 23.36 in his first outing over the 3’6” barriers.

 Chris McAlister made his first appearance for the club in the 400m hurdles and ran well to hold 5^th place in a high standard race. As a young athlete developing in this very tough event we are sure to see big improvements from him over the rest of the season. Chris also ran an impressive 4x400m leg to round of his day.

Jonathan Mann found that nothing was going his way in the 400m hurdles B race but held on grimly for 6^th in 58.23 before also coming back to run a solid 4x400m relay leg.

 Sean Renfer found the tough conditions to his liking as he paced himself well and cruised around the 3000m steeplechase to finish a fine 4^th in a lifetime best of 9:56.15 and taking over 10 seconds off his previous best time.  Bashir Mohamed made his debut for the first team and also his first time over 3000m steeplechase. Better known as a 800m/1500m runner he gamely agreed to try this new event and was rewarded with a 5^th place in the B race in 11:02.04 but there is clearly much more improvement to come for him over the summer.

The Pole Vault was held in truly awful conditions in the first match and it was little better today. Mike Bartlett cleared 4.00m to finish 2^nd in the A event and Stanislav Vilga reached 3.00m as previously reported. Unfortunately Mike jarred his knee and was unable to do the 110m hurdles; hence Stanislav’s outing over the high hurdles.

 In difficult conditions Ogo Anochirionye jumped 6.62m in the Long Jump for 5^th place and Nav Childs was 3^rd in the B event with 6.38m. Nav then reached 14.37m in his more favoured event, the Triple Jump for 3^rd place and Stephen Edwards was just 2cm short of winning the B event as he reached 13.73m. Both distances were big improvements on the distances achieved in the first match and there is clearly more to come from both Triple Jumpers.

 With the Valley’s leading High Jumper, Barry Pender, taking an enforced break Stephen Edwards and Stanislav Vilga cleared respectable heights (1.75m and 1.60m respectively) for a valuable 11 points between them.

 With team stalwart, Steve Whyte, in improving form in the 3 heavy throws he beat emerging young start Jamie Potton-Burrell in the Hammer by 41cm (50.81m to 50.40m) for 3^rd and 1^st respectively. The Discus saw Steve improve his first match distance by almost 2 metres with 40.33m in the A Discus for 6^th and by 37cm in the Shot with 12.74m 7^th place. Ali Mortimore backed up Steve in the Shot but was struggling with a back problem that limited his mobility and he was down on distances finishing 7^th in both the Shot and with 11.07m and 31.95m respectively.

 Jon Harvey also improved his match 1 distance in the Javelin with 49.46m for 3rd place in the A event with Jason Commissiong surprising some of the specialist throwers to snatch 3^rd place in the B event with 44.09m

 Team Manager, Paul Oppe said “I feel greatly relieved to have weathered the storm in this match as we had a number of key athletes missing. We have the big advantage over the others Southern clubs in that we have great team spirit and always travel well and punch above our weight. Woodford and Glasgow have a big advantage in the league now and Gateshead made the most of home advantage to get ahead by 4 points on the day but we beat all our other rivals have climbed up from 5^th to 3^rd in the League standings. There are 2 matches to go and I am determined to hold onto our 3 place position. ”

 TEAM RESULT

Gateshead

League Table