Rugby & Northampton travelled to Coventry for the second round of the Midland League on Sunday. The ‘Mondo’ track has a reputation for fast times so most of the clubs top sprinters made the journey in search of PB’s, and they weren’t disappointed! After their strong 2nd place in the opening fixture at Gloucester the team were looking to go one better and consolidate their push for promotion back to Midland Division One. After a long afternoon of competition R&N came away with a decisive victory over Gloucester by a massive 60 point margin.
Kyle Ennis provided the highlight of the day as he won the 100m in a new Club Record of 10.44 secs, having already won the 200m in 21.13. He then anchored the 4x100m relay team to victory in a time of 42.55 secs, nearly 50 metres ahead of second placed Wolves! A feature of the day was the number of A&B string victories, starting with Amelia Birkett & Gigi Woodward in the Pole Vault, Woodward’s PB was one of three which she recorded during the day, straight afterwards she won the 400m Hurdles. This was quickly followed by Alfie Bowers (PB) and Charlie Barker taking the double in the men’s race. In the 110m hurdles took his second pb in as many weeks as he won in 15.65 secs. The first of the sprints was the 200m where senior debutant Bailey Swift teamed up with Ennis to dominate the B race in 22.33 secs, whilst in the 100m Jaime Nalus won the B string in 11.53 secs. The final double came in the Women’s High Jump where another debutant, Georgina Forde-Wells took the A string whilst Amelia Birkett underlined her versatility by taking the B string. Forde-Wells also took the Triple Jump with a new PB of 11.53m
There were also other A string victories thanks to Hayley Murray in the Hammer and Duncan Birtwistle in the 3000m Steeplechase.
In the throws John Moreland & Kevin Murch had a busy day, covering 3 events each along with Fenton Bishop Timmings & Glyn Hollingswoth, whilst for the ladies Lily-Mae Pursey, Annabelle Pask & Parisse Linton Shaw did the honours, all of them securing valuable points in good quality competitions. In the men’s jumps Bradley Whitehead & Winston Rose scored well in the Long Jump, supported by Ben Lole in the Triple Jump. Whitehead also recorded an impressive PB in the Non-scoring 100m race.
The day was rounded off by the relays where the club won 3 out of the four events. In the women’s 4x100m Mary Beetham-Green ran a storming leg to bring victory as hosts Coventry Godiva were Disqualified. For the men the quartet hadn’t competed together previously so can surely go a lot faster with a little baton practice!. The ladies team rounded off the day by winning the 4x400m, leading from gun to tape with the fastest time coming from Woodward on the last leg. The busy day had taken it’s toll on the men’s team and in spite of a great effort on the anchor leg from Sam Whittaker they could only finish 3rd, just missing out on a clean sweep!.
After 2 matches this leaves R&N tied with Gloucester at the top of the table, with Coventry a distant third. The next match is at Rugby Athletics track on Saturday 6th July which will be a very busy day as the club also have National League fixtures at Kingston Upon Thames & Yeovil
