Strong season opener for TVH’s Vets

Allan McSween started it off in a hotly contested M35A 100m race to claim second place by just .1 of a second with a time of 12 seconds flat.

Bai Bai Conteh then smoked the opposition with an emphatic win in the M35B in 12.3s.

In the field Greg Bennett threw a new M35 Discus PB with 23.7meters putting him a close 2nd place in a tightly packed top 3 (all throwing 23meters).

Delroy Mitchell totally outclassed the field in the M35A 400m, winning by over a 3 second margin in 54.7 seconds.

Christian Neilson started his return to competition after injury with a 5th place 75s 400m in the M35B race.

Having just joined the club Maurice Quirke got straight into action with a 6th place M50 400m of 67.5 seconds.

Jim Blakemore ran as a non-scorer in the M50 400m for time of 69 seconds.

A controversial 2000m walk saw the last three finishers not being given a time – this wasn’t an issue for Paul Woodgate though as he finished third M35 in 14 mins 25 seconds.

Back on the field Bai Bai Shot Putted 9.08meters to take second place M35, just 3cm back of first.

Jim Blakemore stepped into the circle for an extremely valuable M50 4th place 7.06 meters.

Greg Bennett long jumped a fairly distant 3rd place in the M35 with 4.63meters.

The 1500 is a popular event at the Vet meets and the men were split into two races; M35A/B first followed by M50/M60 & Non-scorers.

Christian Neilson and Paul Woodgate ran in the M35 with Paul (5m21s) 6th scorer for the A-string and and Christian (5m36s) 4th scorer in the B-string.

Jim Blakemore backed up his 400m and shot put for a hard earned 6th place M50 1500 in 5m42s.

To finish the night the men’s 4x400m was lead out by Bai Bai who quickly opened out a massive lead which was then squandered by Greg when he tripped at the 300m mark, rejoining grazed back in second place, handing over to Allan who clawed back some meters on leg three so when Delroy started the final leg it looked possible on the back straight that he might reel in the 1st place Hillingdon runner, but had to ease off due to complaining hamstring and settle for an eventful 2nd place.

All this amounted to a TVH total of 79 points which placed us equal 5th with Highgate Harriers and just 4 points (1 more scoring event) behind the 4th place Ealing Southall & Middlesex so please encourage your fellow TVH vets to get involved.

Big thanks to all who gave their time on a Monday evening to compete & support and I hope to see you all at Perivale on the 4th of June for match two.