August 2003

Juniors Ladies complete season 17 August.
Our Junior ladies completed their season at Robin Park on Sunday with a 4th place which left 3rd them overall. In a strong league Wigan always seemed to strong for the rest of the competition.
Katy Green ran 14.40 and 29.10 in the 100 & 200, and then did 67.50 in the 'B' 400. Nicola Gunderson ran 65.00 in the 400 and 2.29.00 in the 800 then did a 'B' 200 in 30.30 Kerri Massey picked up vital points in the field with 15.65 hammer throw, a 24.34 discus, a 31.16 javelin and a 6.81 shot putt. Debbie Sephton recorded a 10.03 triple jump and the did a 1.50 high jump.

Another Good Night for Young Athletes 12 August
On another warm evening a number of LPS young athletes made the short journey to Trafford for the popular Grand Prix Meeting. A problem with the electronic timing part way through the evening left us only with hand timings. In the NoEAA Under 20s 3000 Kiera Vogel won the silver medal in 10:24:20, It is a remarkable achievement when you put it into perspective that Kiera is still only about 90% fit, although she knew she would be up against some extremely good athletes she was determined to put all her best efforts into it. Kiera was extremely disappointed not to have won, but when you take into account that she has hardly trained over the last 8 weeks, and has run two high ranking 3000m races and finished with gold and silver medals its a great achievement . Hopefully with those results behind her, Kiera we will be able to look forward to an injury free and successful cross country season.

Michael Rimmer was running in A 800 race and finished 4th in 1:49:4 (hand timed pb). In the B race Adam Clancey recorded 1:58:62 and Steven Donegan ran 1:59:49 both pbs. Quite a pleasing evening to have three young athletes under 2 minutes. In the 1500 Ben Jones finished 8th in a top quality field to record 3:57.51.

Another pb for Michael Rimmer 6 August Mike Rimmer

Michael has done it again! Within a few days of setting a PB at 400m he travelled to Solihull for the BMC series. Running against some very talented senior athletes he was dragged to another PB in the 800m of 1.49.53. Clearly he is in very good shape indeed and a sub-49 posting could be in the offing. Maybe at the next Stretford meeting? Results

Reg picks up titles at Barcelona 5 August
Club stalwart Reg Armstrong now fast approaching V/65 status travelled to the world police and fire championships in Barcelona. his aim was to compete in at least three events to justify his journey.
He ran in and won the 5,000, 10,000 and 1500 in the vet 60-64 category. The competition was not high as Reg expected but after all you can only beat who turns up and Reg did just that.
Reg joined Sefton Harriers in 1957 and although he moved out the area on a number of occasions over the years he always re-joined and has been with the this time since the early 1970s. Always available to help at club events reg is a person who puts back into the sport. Results

World Champion Keria 4 August
Another success for LPS ladies Kiera was represented Gt Britain in the Catholic Schools World track and Field Championships in Salamanca Spain on the 23/07/03.Although the temperatures were above 38*c (100*f) when Kiera ran, she devastated the field to win by over 20secs in 10.31, a new CBP by 6 seconds. Her name now goes into the record books alongside other such as Marion Jones and Kelly Holmes.

It is a remarkable feat when you take into consideration that Kiera has had a run of niggling injuries over the past two years, and right up to the actual race had trained only once in 5 weeks.
Report Eddie Williams

I wonder if this news of Keria will make it into the Liverpool Echo??

Ladies 4th at Trafford 3 August
Our Ladies completed their season at Trafford with a 4th place on the day which left them 5th overall. Katy Green once again did the sprints 13.9 100, 'A', 28.6 200'B', and 64.9 400'A', backed up by Anna Caunce 14.2 100 'B', 29..0 200 'A', Maria Barret did the 800 'a' in 2.33.1 and Zena williams the 'B' in 2.38.6. Kiera Vogel won the 1500 in 4.48.4 and Maria Barret was second in the 3000 in 11.16.0.
On the field Natalie Walsh throw the discus 'A' 28.87, the hammer 'B' 18.85 and throw the shot 6.77. Debbie Janson throw the discus 'B' 25.85, then did a throw of 25.44 in the hammer 'A' and a shot putt of 8.48. Jerri Massey throw the javelin 31.43 'A', while Anna Pennington throw the 'B' javelin 26.48 then did a 'B' long jump of 3.57. Anna Caunce jumped 4.70 in the 'A' long jump.

Jon Rice turns in quality Decathlon 4 August
UK junior steeplechase international Jon Race turned his had to the decathlon at Hexham on the 3rd & Jon Rice (Mr Cool)

4th of this month. Jon who has always shown he has an all round ability, doing hurdles and high jump in both National and Northern league fixtures has been focusing in on the decathlon this season and made the journey to Hexham to test himself in full competition. The results was quite promising with a score of 5453 points. (LPS club record is 7707pts by Alex Kruger) Jon will be encouraged by this performance and we hope to see him win a international vest at multi-events to go with his steeplechase vest Results

A Team 4th at Derby 3 August
Still under strength LPS travelled to Derby for the last Division 1 match. Steve Rogers was a very welcome addition to the team and won the Pole Vault somewhat unexpectedly with 4.30. He also threw a 53.47 Javelin in 3rd spot and gathered useful points elsewhere. LPS's star though was Michael Rimmer who nonchalantly strolled to a 1.54.8 800m victory then turned his attention more determinedly to the 400m. He was under a little more pressure here but it was another victory in a PB of 48.4. Looking on Phil Taylor was a little relieved that he didn't quite beat his best of 48.37! The injured Phil was, however, was gaining useful 100m and 200m points. Evergreen Merrik Bousfield was first in the Shot B event but was particularly chuffed with his second best ever 35.28 throw in the discus. And what can you say about Sammy Rashid only narrowly missing out on second place in the 5000m? A club full of Sammy's and we would be winning major relay and cross country titles!

Unfortunately the missing bodies cost us dearly and we finished 4th on 331pts behind Derb(412), Gateshead(364) and Blackpool(344). But look at the final points...

Derby 31

Gateshead 22

Leeds 22

LPS 21

Blackpool 17

Manx 15

Hull 9

Rotherham 7

So near and yet so far! Nobody was in Derby's class but we can take the rest given full support. Ah, well, there's always next season.
Report Charlie Gains

B Team clinch victory at Warrington 2 August
LPS went in to the final B match at Warrington virtually assured of promotion but sealed it comfortably with a 360 pts victory over Warringto(322). There were a string of winners (trust I have them all!) Paul Jamieson(100m & 200m A), Chris Watson and Andy Donaldson(800m A & B), Tom Wade(1500m B), Jimmy Boardman(5000m A), Joe Cooper(400H A), Mark Barrow(110mH A), Chris Fairclough (Jav B), Joe Cooper (TJ A) and veteran Dave McComb (PV A).

Some of these performances would have been very useful at Derby!
Report Charlie Gains