News August 2008

August Round Up
The final Div 2W Northern League match at Litherland had a disitinctly end-of-term feeling with the promotion and relegation issues virtually decided. A good turn out from the club secured second place on the day and third overall. Perhaps the 400m was the best result with Harry Doran(49.7) and Nathan Hilton(49.8) demolishing the opposition and then later together with Mark Grimshaw and Callum Burns recording a very useful 3.25.5 win in taking the 4 x 400m relay. Also Dean Matthews showed his promise in the Triple Jump(2nd with 12.09) beating coach Dave Street(1st B with 11.92). Elsewhere it was about scurrying about collecting points and none more so than Kirsty Longley who managed to win the 800m in 2.23.5, the 1500m in 4.59.7 and take second in the 3000m in 10.46.6. Her PB`s for the season now read 2.23.5, 4.53.0 and, as a result of a Stretford visit, 10.39.0). She`s ready for the winter! A big thanks to all our men and women for their enthusiasm and let`s hope we can see more of Jon Rice and Mark Hodge.

The England U17/U15 Championships were at Birmingham and the best performance came from Adam Thomson 7th in the U17 400m with 51.6 but recording a lifetime best of 49.61 in his heat. He now joins the exclusive but growing sub-50 club at the Edge Hill track. In the same age group Chris Hesketh was clearly off-form finishing 8th in the 1500m Steeplechase in what for him is a modest 4.40.66. He still remains prominent though in the national rankings. Another not at his best was Dave Forrester 7th in his 1500m heat with 4.10.65 some 8 seconds off his best time.

An Inter-Counties match was held at Hull and several LPS members took part. Jess Broady was our sole Lancashire representative 3rd in the U17 Discus with 25.83m and 6th in the Hammer with 29.70m. All our other competitors were Merseyside including Kirsty Longley 3rd Senior 1500m(5.09.7) and 4th 3000m(10.46.04). Also at Senior level we had Mike Jones 5th in the Javelin(39.98m) and Emily Carr 4th in the Javelin(31.80m) with Danny Higham was 4th in the 100m in 11.63. U17 Mike Carmona-Jones had a busy aftertoon(4th Hammer 38.56m, 3rd Discus 36.45m and 6th Shot 9.38m). But undoubtedly the star club performance came from Billy Williams 2nd in the U17 High Jump 1.80m. He has real potential at this event and is delighting coach, Dave McComb. The overall county positions were 1st Yorkshire(733.5 pts), 2nd Lancs and IOM(684), 3rd Merseyside(644.5).

Representing the North West at the UK School Games in Bath Adam Thomson was 5th in the 400m in 50.72 and Michael-Carmona Jones, nowhere near his best, was well down the field with 31.21m. At the Aviva Grand Prix meeting in Gateshead Harry Doran competed in the Spar Sprint invitation B 400m and recorded a satisfactory 49.05.

Report Charles Gains
Olympic Disappointment for Rimmer
Huge disappointment for Michael Rimmer Michael suffered the worst of luck at the Beijing Olympics contracting food poisoning at the GB team preparation camp in Macau. He looked distinctly uncomfortable in the first round of the 800m but nevertheless rose to the occasion winning in 1.47.61. In the semi-final he was never really in contention and struggled home 6th in 1.48.07. Afterwards he commented, `I felt terrible all the way around and the timing of the illness could not be worse…I just felt there was nothing in my legs. It was like running in sand’. This was particularly unfortunate as he was rounding into the form of his life after recently posting a personal best. He was due a sub-1.44 time which could have put him in contention with the final medallists. Sport is about the mix of `triumph and disaster’ and the club hope Michael will quickly recover from this experience and look to the next challenge, the World Championships in 2009. He has enormous talent and we are confident he will bounce back. We are enormously proud of this young man.

Report Charles Gains

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