Beecham's leap is perfect tonic
Newbury Athletic Club equalled their best ever league finish at the final Southern Athletics League meeting of the season in Carshalton, South London, at the weekend.
A small but spirited Newbury AC team finished fourth with 135 points, twelve points behind third placed Radley Athletic Club, securing a fourth placed overall finish in Division 2 West.
Long serving club member Matt Davies enjoyed a memorable afternoon following a difficult season afflicted by injuries.
Davies won both the sprint and one-lap A string hurdles races, added two points in the 200m and ran the club’s fastest legs in both relay races.
Helen Broadbridge concluded an impressive season with wins in the A string hammer throw and discus – her hammer throw of 47.61m meant she was crowned the best performing athlete of the fixture.
Craig Beecham meanwhile proved that age is indeed just a number, winning the A string long jump with a leap of 5.99m despite being double the age of his fellow competitors.
One of those competitors was under-17 athlete Ryan Cheng, who Beecham coaches, whose leap of 5.92m was enough for second place overall and the B string win.
Mike Robbins picked up Newbury’s other A string win of the day, winning the 200m steeplechase to ensure he completed his season unbeaten over the barriers.
Maisie Jeger had a busy day, running well to finish second in both the A string 800m and 400m, while Phoebe Ryder-Benson came home just behind Jeger to win the B string 400m.
Jeger and Ryder-Benson then formed part of Newbury’s strong women’s relay teams, finishing second in both the 4x100m and 4x400m.
Junior athlete Angel Nwokporo ran a personal best 14.2s to finish third in the ladies 100m.
There were a number of good results in the distance races – Sophie Bhatt finished second in the ladies 300m while all three Newbury athletes running in the men’s 5000m recorded personal best times, Matt Green finishing second in 15:44.7, ahead of Bernie Gerrard and Aston Howse, whose time of 17:38.1 earned him the under-17 club record.
Finally, the last four male athletes left in the venue clubbed together to form a makeshift relay team, picking up five valuable points to end a great season on a high.
