ATHLETICS: Ipswich Harriers had to settle for second place in the Southern Women's League fixture at Mile End Road, London.They were narrowly beaten by Southend who finished on 174 points, to Ipswich 167, Dartford 157, Eton Manor 108 and Medway 23.

ATHLETICS

Ipswich Harriers had to settle for second place in the Southern Women's League fixture at Mile End Road, London.

They were narrowly beaten by Southend who finished on 174 points, to Ipswich 167, Dartford 157, Eton Manor 108 and Medway 23.

The four under 15 girls, seven senior ladies and proud team manager worked extremely hard to achieve the result by taking 14 first places in the senior section and eight in the Under 15s.

Each athlete in the younger age group did the maximum allowable events and all four came away with a new personal best performance to their credit.

In the hurdles under 15's Kerry Fuller and Hayley Todd both won their respective legs and have a new time of 12.5 and 13.2 respectively.

Maximum points came from the 100 and 200ms when Nicole Sadler and Emily Beckett covered both events giving Nicole a best 200ms time of 26.0s.

These four girls also ran the 4 x 100ms relay showing the others a clean pair of heels when they came across the line in 54.4s to Southend's 57.7s.

Out on the field Beckett returned her pb when she sailed the discus out to 17.75ms and Sadler had her second pb of the day in the shot with 4.46ms.

Under 17 Louise Morgan had brilliant runs in the 100 and 200ms winning both A strings and taking her 200ms time down to 26.2s.

In the B strings of the 200m and 400ms Sarah Plumb came first, Vicky Tunaley won the A string 400ms, Louise Gregory the 800ms and Laura Anderson the 3000ms.

Kirsty Thorndyke and Louise Gregory took top points in the triple jump with Thorndyke's leap of 9.23 being her best. Amy Wilson covered the shot, javelin and discus for three more wins.

In both the 100 and 400ms relays Ipswich came home first, winning the 4 x 100ms with three seconds to spare and in the 4 x 400ms ten seconds ahead of the field.

The Harriers once again had to travel to Bury St Edmunds to host the Southern Men's League meeting.

The atmosphere and strong bond which has developed between the team is very commendable bearing in mind the extremely tough season that the few have had to put up with from this very high standard of Division One competition.

Although Ipswich had to settle for last place those that took part worked so hard and the club cannot expect much more from them.

Steve Hicks had a busy time when he took on some of the toughest events, covering the 5000m, 3000m and 800m. From the 400m Sean Foster ran a good race to finish third. A blanket finish saw the first three athletes times at 51.3s (PB).

Michael Fuller goes from strength to strength in his events, taking best performances from the high jump with 1.70ms, triple jump 11.24ms and lowering his 1500ms time by nine seconds to 4.25.3s.

Neil Gillingham also returned a best from the triple jump with a leap of 11.11ms and leapt 5.15ms in the long jump.

In the throws Liam Smith (under 17) now has new marks in both the discus and shot with 23.67ms and 8.49ms and at the pole vault, Justin Read raised the bar to a new 3.20ms.

Ipswich travelled to St Ives for the East Anglian League and numbers were low, especially on the female side.

But the senior men excelled by filling every event on the team sheet and never finishing out of the top three places.

They have had a brilliant season in this league and on this occasion turned their hands to different events.

Neil Gillingham covered the 100 (1), 200 (1), hurdles (2), triple jump (2), high jump (1), 1.50ms pb, shot (3), discus (3) and javelin (3).

Michael Fuller 100 (1), 800 (1) pb 2.08.6, 3000ms for the first time (2) in a time of 11.42.1s, hurdles (1) 23.3 again his first time at this event, high jump (1), discus (3) pb of 15.06ms, javelin (3) and hammer (3).

Liam Rutter ran the 400ms in 54.8 (1) and the 3000ms for his first time (2) 11.39.5s, long jump (3), triple jump (1), shot (3) and hammer (3).

A first timer for Ipswich was Craig Chudlow, who had a very good day with a win from the 200ms in 26.9s, another first in the 400ms 60.7s, second place in the 800ms with 2.16.7s and in the long jump was third with 4.05ms.

Martin Bennett in the under 17 section finished second in the 100ms with a pb of 11.9s was first in the hurdles with 23.3s and won the shot with 10.49ms.

Scott Stannard was placed first in the discus and hammer and took a second place in the javelin.

Sean Foster won both the 200 and 400ms and was third in the long jump with a leap of 5.28ms, Liam Smith had three first places in the shot, discus and hammer and Rob Jarvis had pb's from the 100ms where he finished third in 12.5 and second in the 200ms in 26.5 and on his first go at the hurdles was second with 19.3s.

Lawrence Smith (under 15) was the overall winner in the javelin with 33.05ms and ran the 800ms in a pb time of 2.26.3s for a third place and in the B string of the 800ms Matthew Harrison was the winner.

Duncan Macrosson had a first place in the long jump and two seconds from the 100 and 200ms with his 200 time of 25.2s being his best and from the B string 200ms Matthew Byam was another to win his race.

Steven Welton won the B string of the 400ms in a new time of 58.6s and Tom Stewart in the shot also had a pb of 6.97ms for a third place.

On his first outing as a Harrier Max Nijhawan ran the 100ms in 13.8s and did 3.90ms in the long jump.

Louis Jones (under 13) came away with two firsts, running the 100ms in 13.5 and the 200ms in 27.8s for two more pb's and in the B strings Ben Blaxill also ran two firsts and two pb's times at 14.4 and 29.4. Sam Osbourne in the 1500ms ran in a time of 5.01.3 for a first place and pb.

Tom Dawes leapt 4.11ms for a pb and another first place from the long jump and in the non-scoring section of the same event Blaxill had a best of 4.02ms.

Senior lady Sarah Plumb took second places from the 200ms, 400ms and javelin and was fourth in the shot, and Ervenette Lassus was first in the high jump with a pb of 1.35ms, took another first in the shot, was third in the javelin and fifth in the discus.

Lana Rogers (under 15) was first in the hurdles with a best time of 12.9s (PB), took the long jump win and was third in the 100ms in a new time of 13.8s. Katie Barker was second in the long jump and third in both the 100 and 200ms with pb's in both timed at 13.7 and 28.2 respectively.

Under 13 Charlotte Cordy won the 100ms, was second in the 200ms in a pb time of 30.00s, had another pb in the long jump with 3.41ms and Lois Rutter was first in the 100 and long jump second in the 200ms. There was not a final score available at the end of the match.

AT the English Schools Championships held in Nottingham there was some good results form the Suffolk athletes.

Tom Sharland from Ipswich Harriers was the gold winner in the senior boys 3000ms in 8.19.05.

Matthew Barnes Smith was second in the Inter boys 3000ms in 8.47.3 which takes him to the Schools International in Scotland.

Jermaine Bernard, senior boy, brought the bronze medal home from the long jump with 7.07ms and in the same event De'Onte Green for the junior boys and a pb leap of 6.15ms and also took bronze.

Other Ipswich athletes who had best performances at the event, were Inter boys, Ben Higgins 200ms 22.22s and Alex Wold junior boys 800ms in 2.07.85.

Junior girl Nicole Sadler ran the 200ms in 25.77 and Laura Dowsing the 1500ms in a new club record of 4.39.58s.