Athletics: Chelmsford at their best

Poor turnouts in the last two meetings have seen the club fall in to the relegation zone, and Chelmsford's opposition on Sunday was Ipswich, one of the league's top teams, West Suffolk and St Albans.

To give Chelmsford a chance of avoiding relegation, an overall win or second place was needed and the match had a close and dramatic finish.

Before the last race of the day, the under 17 boys 4x100m relay, Ipswich had a lead of four points and only had to finish the race to win the match overall while Chelmsford was the only other team to contest the event.

Ipswich's relay team had a good lead coming up to the second change over but they changed over the baton before reaching the change over box.

This led to a disqualification leaving Chelmsford to pick up the four points which tied the match at 344 points each.

West Suffolk was in third place and St Albans were fourth.

Both Chelmsford and Ipswich gained 3.5 match points in what was the host club's best performance in Division One of the EYA League for some years.

The match had been led by the home club for a large part of the day, who had increased their lead in the 1500m races and were then pulled back in the 200m and relay events.

In the Under 13 girls, Cara Russell won the 1500m A string, taking 10 seconds off her personal best, and Emma Greenshoes won the B string.

Good points came in the 800m races as well as personal bests from Sarah Jarvis and Nicola Stables.

Natalie Unsworth finished second in the B string hurdles and third in the 200m.

Clare Marsh, in her first competition for the club, was second in both the shot and discus events. Emma Bryne, Leanne Colman, Amanda Dodd and Megan Williams also competed.

In the Under 13 boys, maximum points came in the 400m from James Moore who had earlier fallen in the hurdles.

Maximum points also came in the 800m from Ben Davies (A string) and Stephen Parkhurst (B string) in his first race for the club.

Full points were again gained in the 1500m from Matthew Missen, in his first race for the club, and Alex Stratton, and also running in the race was new club member Billy Stables.

Benjamin Ferriby won the 200m A string race and John Medevit won the B string event.

Mark Soame ran a good non-scoring 100m in 14.7 seconds and other members of the team were Luke Allen, Ben Bishop, Ben Chow, James Court and Martin Watson.

In the under 15 girls, Danielle Tattum won the 1500m and Hollie Smith won the 800m.

Catherine Howe was second in the high jump and other team members were Tara Chow, Hannah Mackenzie, Lottie Robinson, Cherelle Whiteman and Anna Wilson.

In the under 15 boys, Matthew Harttigan won the 800m and discus.

In the 1500m second places were gained in the A and B string from Robbie Smith and John Ferguson, who gained a personal best time.

Sam Mason also ran and gained a good personal best.

Sean Wright was second in the 400m and Sam Leech was also second in the B string.

In the under 17 girls Laura Winter and Marney Lamb gained maximum points in the 1500m.

In the 800m Sam Cavanagh and Emily Newlyn both gained second places, while Jenny Hudson won the B string 100m and was second in the hurdles.

Jemma Mackenzie was second in the B string hurdles race and the 100m events.

The final league meeting will be at Stevenage on August 8 when a similar turnout and performance is needed.

On Saturday the final fixture of the Southern Mens' League will be held at Medway for Chelmsford's Division Two team and Salisbury for the Division Six team.

Again this is an important fixture and both teams will need full support to retain their present status.

Over she goes . . Chelmsford Athletic Club's Catherine Howe displays the style that saw her finish second in the under 15 girls high jump event at Sunday's Eastern Youth Athletics meeting at Melbourne Park.

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