Luton
Athletic Club

Luton AC Report 28th June

Thrower Burrell shines as Luton AC slip out of Promotion places at Walton

Despite some great performances and a great team effort, Luton AC slipped to 6th place in the Southern Mens League Division 2 on Saturday. A disappointing 3rd place at Walton saw the team drop 3 positions in the league, one place below the promotion places, following late withdrawals,and unavailability and injuries to key athletes. Luton are now just half a point below Worthing in 5th place and a point below Ilford in 4th. Despite this setback, with 2 matches to go, including the home match at Stockwood Park, optimism is high that the club will still make it. On the day, Victoria Park won the match with 134 pts, Ryston Runners were 2nd with 108, Luton 3rd with 103, Walton 4th with 97 and Dacorum and Tring 5th with 90.

Luton and Ryston were neck and neck throughout the afternoon, but Luton's lack of sprinters on the day meant having to fill the relay teams with the middle distance runners, and momentum was lost at the end of the afternoon.

The consistency of the throwers has been a major contibutor for the clubs improvement this year, and Dave Burrell did not disappoint, winning 3 of his 4 events. Dave threw a Personal Best 11.70m in the Shot Putt, and seasons bests in winning the discus in 36.20m, and the Hammer in 44.85m. Dave also threw 40.70m to come 4th in a very high class Javelin competition. Dave was ably backed up by Ricky Rasmussen, who won his B string Hammer with 36.03m, gained a 2nd in the shot with 9.44m, and 3rd in the Javelin, with a season's best 35.94m.

Middle Distance athlete Tim Harris had a busy afternoon. He began with a runaway victory in his main event, the 800m, in 1m 56.8s. Tim then ran a Personal Best 51.2s in the 400m, and filled in the B string 200m, finishing 3rd in 24.5s. He showed his versatility in running a leg in the 4 x 100m and had the fastest leg of the 4 x 400m relay. Tom Best, recently returned from University, showed his undoubted talent in winning the A string 5000m in a fantastic 15m 32.8s, lapping all but 2 of the field in the process. Tom was ably backed up by Liam McNabola, who ran his first 5000m on the track to come 3rd in the B string in 19m 46.6s. Andy Johnson had a brace of 2nd places in the A 1500m with 4m 17.1s and in the 800m B string he ran an impressive 2m 3.0s. Peter Benedickter junior returned to competition following sickness to get 2nd place in the B string 1500m, with 4m 21.0s. Peter will be running 3000m the English Schools Championships at Gateshead on the 11th and 12th of July. Dad Peter ran a Seasons Best 59.3s in the 400m Hurdles, with Ben Cruise coming 5th in the other race in 66.4s. Peter senior then ran the final leg of the 4 x 400m relay, despite an ongoing injury to his leg, which restricts his training. The Benedickter family have struggled all week, suffering from the E-Coli outbreak, recently given a lot of media coverage.

The form of sprinter Darren Green has been a revelation this season, he has improved his Personal Bests many times throughout the year, and he achieved another double first with 11.0s in the 100m and 21.9s in the 200m. He was supported ably by Ben Cruise in the 100m, running a personal best 11.7s into a headwind for 2nd place. Ben then jumped 11.61m in the B string Triple Jump for another 2nd place, and ran a leg of the 4 x 100m relay. Craig Andrew scored a brace of 2nd places in the Triple Jump and Long Jump, and a 4th place in the High Jump with 1.65m.

Stuart Baird and Chris Green, making his first outing of the season, filled the steeplechase slots, with 4th and 5th places. Stuart also filled the missing 400m and Long Jump slots in the team, to gain valuable points.

Acting Team Manager Gerry Gough commented - "The inability to fill key events, such as Pole Vault and 110m Hurdles was the difference between 3rd and 2nd place in the match. We only had one specialist sprinter, which also meant losing valuable points in the relays. Despite this, the team spirit remains high, and with the return of key athletes for the last 2 matches we have the ability to move back into the promotion places at the end of the season."

Luton's next match will be at Stockwood Park, Luton, on the 12th of July.

Gerry Gough Acting Southern Men's League Manager. 29/06/2008