Full advantage taken by hosts
Southern Men’s League
MEDWay & Maidstone athletes took full advantage of the home fixture at Medway Park, Gillingham, to win the Southern Men’s League, Division 1 East match on Saturday, writes Alan Newman.
The victory was comprehensive with an 82-point cushion over nearest rivals Harlow aC. The hosts’ tally was 265 points from Harlow (183), Bexley (165.5), Thurrock (165.5), Luton (113) and Milton Keynes (83).
M& M dominated the track with 13 individual wins plus both relays. Ben aboidun (11.3 and 23.3sec) and promising under-17 Michael Watson in 11.6 and 23.3 – personal bests – cleaned up in the 100m and 200m sprints.
Reece Dimech (50.5 PB) topped the 400m times and there were middle-distance successes for andrejs Safars (1min 57.8sec) and James Hogg (2.00.8) in the
800m and adam Gilbert (4.00.7 PB) and Ben Tyler (4.03.0) in the 1,500m. Endurance runners also excelled, with Tom Collins (16.04.9) and Mark Wilkins (16.06.5 PB) taking maximum points in the 5,000m and Collins (10.32.0) also winning the 3,000m steeplechase.
Dean Oakes (19.8 PB) won the B 110m hurdles in a faster time than alex Beech (21.0) ran for second a-string. Collins (1.05.9) added second-place points from the 400m hurdles.
Father and son, Dean (3.50m PB) and M60 Paul Oakes (2.80) took full points in the pole vault and there were further successes in the horizontal jumps for James alcock (6.21) and Darren March (5.92) in the long jump and March (13.59) and alcock (11.77) in the triple jump.
Dean Oakes (12.76 PB) won the shot and was second (33.45) in the discus and Stuart Earl threw the javelin 38.68 for another win, with Paul Oakes (28.29) second B-string. The meeting concluded with resounding victories in both relays. Dimech, abiodun, Watson and alcock (45.2) carried the baton home three seconds clear in the 4x100m and Dimech, Tyler, Safars and Gilbert (3: 29.6) were over 12 seconds ahead in the 4x400m.