M&M take promotion to the final match

A closely-fought match in the Southern Athletic League fixture led to a secondplace finish for Medway & Maidstone. The result leaves them going to their last match with a chance of a promotion to Division 1. They were up against local rivals Tonbridge, Ashford and league leaders Ipswich. In the men’s events, the everpresent Lewis Heffernan took victory in 400m hurdles A (57.4sec), the 110m hurdles A (16.3), the triple jump A (12.45m, PB) and legs in the winning 4x100m and 4x400m relays. He added a personal best of 5.93 for third in the long jump. Andre Wright was just pipped in the 100m A in 11.1 where Rory Kuypers won the B race in 11.5, before then reversing that in the 200m A with a 21.9 victory. Reece Dimech repeated that in the B race in 22.8. Adam Thompson was a convincing winner in the A 400m in a quick 49.6 and Tewelde Menges was another runaway winner – in the 3,000m A in 9min02.7sec – with Tom Collins repeating victory in the B race in 9.23.5. Collins went on to finish second A in the 3,000m steeplechase in 10.33.0. Andrejs Safars was the winner of the B 400m hurdles in a PB time of 1.0.01sec. There were high jump victories for under-17s Johnny Berry (1.80, PB A) and James Butcher (1.63, B). Newcomer veteran Darren Collins was second with 35.20 in the A discus. Another veteran, Clive Thompson, was victor in the B hammer with 25.11. Max Eldridge (under-17) made his debut for the team and had a 35.22 PB with his first attempt in the senior javelin and another PB of 2.35 in the pole vault. There were again some strong performances by the ladies. Grace Adeleye (under-20) was first in the triple jump B in 9.29. She also contested the shot put for second place in 7.65 but her best performance of the day saw her launch the hammer to a PB of 41.18 for first A. Also contesting the hammer was under-23 Jess Blake, again achieving a brilliant PB of 39.69 to take first B. She also claimed first place in the discus (21.78). Vanessa Hannam (V45) clinched first in the shot put in 9.85 and the discus. Emma Giles took first in the 100m B and jumped a season’s best 4.99 to take third in the long jump. Eleanor Callaghan Inge (under-20) took first place in the 200 B (26.9) while the 800m saw another strong performance for under-17 Charlotte Young, in 2.21.9, and a season’s-best for V40 Bernadette Harrop in 2.44.3, both taking second places. Claire Wilkins won the 1,500m steeplechase B in 7.18.5. Great points were taken for M&M V40 5,000m ladies with second place in what was Kerrie Clarke’s second track race of the season in a time of 20.23.9. Jenny Fowler, in what was her first track race for several years, took B first in 21.19.8.