Veterans march on
Published: 22 May 2017
In the second Vets match held at Horspath on May 15th, Oxford women maintained their hold on the veterans league, with a second successive win – though this time they had to share first place with Abingdon AC. With two matches gone and two to come, Oxford women head their division by 2.5 points from Abingdon in second place. The men were forced to take second place to Abingdon, and although equal with Abingdon on 15 match points, head the division by the slimmest of margins – one point in total points. The match was held in cold windy conditions, so good times were never on the cards. However there were some great wins for Oxford. Newcomer Karen Cove in only her second match won the W35 Triple Jump with a jump of 8.35m, Michele Wakefield won the W50 200m in 31.8s, Sarah Kimber-Nickelson won the W35 shot and discus (9.35 and 28.73m), Gwyneth Hueter pulled off a last stride win in the W60 200m (36.9s) while in the longer races Oxford dominated – Liz Barker had a 3 second winning margin in the W35 A string 800m (2:30.6), while Sarah Davies won the B string in 2:32.1. Liz went on to win the A string 3000m in 10:59.3 (a 6 second margin of victory), while Sarah took the B string in 11:22.4, a 19 second margin of victory. For the men, Graham Chapman walked away with the 2K walk, with a winning margin of almost 30 seconds. Returning from injury Manny Stone stormed to victory in the M60 200m (32.2s), and Dave Crossland took the M50 800m in 2:31.9. Gareth Davies won the M35 Triple jump with a massive 12.12 jump, almost 3m ahead of his nearest rival. The third match is at Bracknell on June 5th.
