Team Kennet

The Team Kennet men headed to Basingstoke on Saturday for the penultimate Southern Men’s League match of the year. The squad was one of the strongest to date and, despite the mercury touching nearly 30 degrees, hopes were high amongst the team.

In the throws, the team welcomed back Simon Briggs for his first competition of the year and he didn’t disappoint: he won the Hammer A-string competition in a new club record of 36.08m, threw an impressive 9.96m in the A-stirng Shot Putt and finished the day with a solid third place in the B-string discus. Graham Chambers provided solid backup to Simon with a second place B-string in the Hammer and two fourths in the shot and javelin. Simon Scholes was the third Kennet thrower who threw two season’s bests in the javelin and the discus to add valuable points to the scorecard.

The track events started with Richard Knape cruising to an easy win in the A-string 400m hurdles. In a style the team has now become accustomed to, Richard then went on to demonstrate his athletic versatility with two further first places in the A-string 110m and the B-string long jump.

Kennet’s strength in hurdling was accentuated with James Moorcroft, whose talents are normally reserved to events without barriers, providing a further win in the B-string 400m hurdles. In more familiar territory, Moorcroft went on to add a further B-string win in the 400m and a creditable second place in the B-string 1500m.

The younger members of the squad also took their chance to shine today: Under-17 athlete Peter Saunders jumped 6.10m in the long jump for a well deserved second-place A-string and rounded this off with an excellent run in the 100m and a win in the B triple jump. Fellow U17 Alex Roue showed his strength and stamina work has paid off with a win in the B-string 200m.Aiden Marshall put in another strong run in the face of stiff competition to earn valuable points with third-place in the A string 200m.

U17 middle distance specialist Michael Randall as usual didn’t disappoint with a strong 800m and 1500m to finish third and second A-strings respectively. Competing in his first match of the season, Luke Conway also ran an excellent 800m for first B-string.

U20 Tom Milburn demonstrated that his talent as a distance runner is really starting to shine: in a highly competitive A-string 5000m race, Milburn finished fourth and he then went on to demonstrate his strength with a third-place in the A-string 3000m steeplechase. Mark Shepherd provided excellent backup in the 5000m with a second place finish.

The match had been tight all afternoon, and the result was down to the 4 x 400m relay. Despite the “dream team” of Luke Conway, Neale Marlow, James Moorcroft and Richard Knape managing a new club record of 3:36.8, they where pipped to the line by the athletes from Andover to finish in second place.

Team Kennet missed out on the match win by one point, scoring 102 points against Andover’s 103. This is the fourth second place Kennet have managed in a row, and raises the team to fifth in the league table. The final match is on 31 July in Portsmouth.