Stratford AC's ladies produce their best to claim second
STRATFORD AC’s ladies equalled their highest ever position of second at this year’s Veteran Track and Field League meeting at Stourport.
On a night when 12 new club records were achieved, the ladies team scored 14 more individual points than last year’s effort.
This was greatly helped by the efforts of debutants Gemma Smith, Sheila Lammas and Elaine Ledden, who between them contributed almost 20 per cent of the ladies’ total.
The men, although scoring less individual points than last year, were still able to maintain their third-place finish despite a depleted team.
Club records tumbled and Kate Sergent led the way with three in the W65 age group, the 100m, 2k walk and long jump.
Sergent had a fabulous night by also being the second highest points score for the club with 26 points and achieving 2017 UK top ten rankings for her age group in all of the events she competed in.
Debutant Robin Kindersley improved the M60 1500m club record by a huge 24.5 seconds, a performance that catapulted him in to a top-ten position in the 2017 UK rankings for his age group.
Top points scorer on the night for the club was Sarah Bland with 28 points with Paula Williams winning all of the three events she competed in.
Phil Brennan’s agreement to compete in the M35 400m on the night, despite him normally competing in the M70 category, summed up the team’s superb team spirit on the night.
His performance in this event saw him climb to seventh in the UK rankings.
Top scorer for the men’s team was John Boxall.
Tony Humphreys was brave enough to compete in the M35 high jump and hammer for the first time, scoring nine points in the process.
Brian Gravelsons was happy to achieve a season’s best of 13.7s in the 100m, only 0.5s off his best, given that he has not been able to train as effectively as he would have liked this season.
Another essential element of the night was the unselfish efforts of the officials provided by the club.
It often seems to be forgotten that without their generous support, these fixtures would not be able to go ahead.
The overall consensus of team members seemed to be that there was a wonderful team spirit on the night and everyone is now looking forward to the next fixture in Redditch on 7th June.
