And Clementine scores three personal bests at Guildford
NEWBURY AC travelled to Surrey on Sunday for their latest fixture in a seemingly up-and-down Southern Athletics League so season for the team.
Delays in both the track and field events left everyone wondering if they would make it home in time to watch the football, but after some nervous final events with the main focus on outscoring closest competitors Ashford, Newbury were finally declared fourth on the day.
Home club Guildford & Godalming won the match with 261 points, followed by Swindon Harriers (256), Walton AC (250), Newbury (200), Ashford (189) and Ealing, Southall & Middlesex (167).
With the two local clubs fielding strong teams, Newbury found the competition tough, but that didn’t stop some excellent team performances.
Not for the first time this season, Newbury’s most fruitful points scoring came across the hurdle disciplines.
Matt Davies got off to a strong start in the men’s 110m hurdles, showing efficiency over the obstacles to stretch clear of his peers and take a comfortable A string win.
Dan Tuttle was neck and neck with his rival for the first half of his B string equivalent, before a fall for the Ashford athlete made Tuttle’s job much easier, and he eased off over the line to complete maximum points for Newbury.
Jacob Rainier joined Davies for the 400m hurdles, and despite his self-confessed “messy” technique over the hurdles, he still completed the lap in an impressively quick time to take a dominant B string win.
Men’s captain Mike Robbins enjoyed an unusually quiet day, and reaped the rewards of having fresh legs in the 3000m steeplechase, where after running alongside his Guildford & Godalming opponent for the first lap, showed superior technique to gradually pull away to take the A string win.
In the field events, Newbury were down on numbers, but showed true quality to maximise points wherever possible.
Sophie Livingstone had a busy day in all four throws, but it was her favoured hammer that gave her her best result, scoring full points with an A string win.
Henry Dargan made his first outing of the season for Newbury, picking up where he left off last year with another throw over 40m to take first place in the A string javelin.
Dargan also matched his PB on his way to second place in the B string high jump.
The reliable Jacob Woods took a comfortable A string victory in the 400m, while U17 Josh Norton continued his rapid improvement over the season to match that result in the 1500m B string, narrowly missing out on lowering his own U17 club record.
Woods and Norton teamed up with fellow U17 Ethan Robertson in the 4x400m relay, the team led off by Rainier, for a strong second place finish for an inexperienced quartet.
There were some fast times for Newbury’s young sprinters.
U17 Tom Eastwood took over half a second off his PB in the 200m with a time of 24.57s, while also recording his fastest ever 100m earlier in the day.
Emelia Lunn took a similar chunk off her own 200m PB to record 27.78s, and U20 Matt Carter lowered his 800m PB to 2:04.48 on his way to second place in the B string.
However, athlete of the day went to Clementine Barry, who recorded three PBs over 400m, 200m and 100m, breaking the 13s barrier in the latter for the first time.
