Due to a double booking at the English Institute of Sport it was back to Woodbourn Road as usual but with the superb weather who wanted to be indoors and what an evening we had! A late start, fine performances, honest endeavour, drama, officious officials and lots of fun.
The first race saw the bizarre sight of the officials berating the spectators for obscuring the finish line but no-one took any notice as they officials weren’t wearing blazers. After looking at the times, it is understood that certain competitors wished that the track hadn’t been visible at all. Will somebody please explain to our International Track Athlete and Life Member that races over 400 metres do not start “on your marks, get set, go”.
Apparently much mirth was made at Dave Beech’s demotion to the B race although, as we were to later discover, he was injured at the time. Indeed, his performance demonstrates that he would have been better off resting rather than punishing himself further. Get back soon Dave, the club needs you.
The Blue Riband event (is it called this as the air was blue after the athletes exertions?) gave us food for thought. The winner’s time of 5:13.9 compares to the current world record of 3:43.2 whilst his fine marathon pb of 2:47.45 set recently compares to a marathon record of 2:04.55. His marathon pace was therefore 74% of world record pace whilst his mile was run at 71% of world record pace. This clearly demonstrates how soft the world mile record is. Or it might be that Colin had trained specifically for the marathon and was therefore better prepared for the longer distance?
The 100 metres followed with the A race won in 13.7 seconds. Keeping that up for another 1509 metres would seen a time of 3:40.5 for the mile again illustrating how soft that world record is.
From the frisky behaviour of the eggs during the egg and spoon race it is clear that the Free Range variety should have been used. We would also question the claims that these were edible after they had rolled across the track several times. There were no times for this race as the timekeeper was laughing too much.
The greatest drama of the evening was in the sack race with the disqualification of not one, but two, cheats, including the daughter of our own Dave Beech, for failing to hop across the finish line – falling over the line didn’t count. One questions the official’s motives after one was heard to say how much he “… enjoyed …being able to disqualify athletes and throw his weight around as …. being in a position of power and influence …. is what it is all about”.
The evening was rounded off with a quite futile 4x100m relay with athletes press ganged from the spectators to make up the teams. Again there were no times for this event as the timekeeper demonstrated why he sits on the side giving orders rather than competing himself.
Thanks to Dave Campbell and Dave Beech for their efforts in trying to keep order and to all the athletes for giving their all. For those who want to renew their relationship with lactic acid, there is a track group which meets at Woodbourn Road every Thursday, start 6.00pm.
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