One week down and there are enough nervous managers out there to sink a very small ship. The gods of your choice were smiling on Olympic Park last night, providing conditions which gave athletes an opportunity to shine. No messin’ around this week:

To the mens report:

With no walkers, steeplers or pole vaulters in sight, the task of winning the finals was always going to be difficult for the men. The depth of talent in our remaining events gave TMT enough of a glimpse to think that all would be fine. However, as you learn after doing the rounds a few times, things don’t always go your own way. Number one sprinter Justin Lewis pulled out due to injury pushing Carl Moorhouse to the first heat. A sluggish start left Carl a little behind the leading pack who only took 10.39 seconds to complete the race. Carl finished mid-field in a race with many under 11 seconds. Disco Stu was asked to do everything except Pole Vault last night and was promoted to number two race, against equally stiff competition. Coming in from the brink for the 3rd race was Nfa, who showed superb strength to edge out the Box Hill opposition in heat 3, dipping under 11 seconds in the process. Overall, not a bad result, but one which could have been better.

The 1500 was looking to be a bright light for us, with both Zac and Clint moving into good late season form. Running in a large field the two boys combined with Dane Frey to represent a pretty formidable team. After the gun, nobody seemed keen to take the lead until Clint decided to take the rhythm, with Zac sitting on his shoulder, the Box Hill runner and Julian Marsh from APS close by. Dane settled mid field and kept himself up with the leading group for the first half of the race. 800 out, the leading boys went for home, leaving many fine runners in their wake. Clint and Zac on numerous occasions looked to be slowly reeling in the two up front, however Marsh showed his strength in the finish, six metres clear in a tick over 3:50. Zac crossed the line in 3rd, with Clint looking a little worn after his big pb last Thursday. Back in the pack, Dane did a fine job to fight on a cross in, yep you guessed it, 4:02ish. Valuable points all round.

Over in the Jav, Tommy Farr, the littlest of big boys, warmed up against ex Baysider Nic Baltas and that evergreen Furberman. Tom would probably be the first to say that his season has been mixed, but he should be happy with his throw of 56 metres, one of his better performances for the season. Furbs, being the competitive man that he is, managed to get up on the last throw and beat our Tom by 5 centimetres into 4th place.

The mens relay was a little down on recent from due to event clashes and injury. A hugh thanks must be made to Paul Harlond who came in for us specifically to run a relay. With Carl leading off, followed by some sharp work with the best relay changer in the business, Disco Stu, we looked the goods down the back straight. After that, however, our opposition in Box Hill and Essendon brought out some of those sub 11 runners, leaving the boys to finish in fourth place, with Matt Woodruff anchoring the team whilst in the middle of a Triple Jump competition. Matt had a few disagreements with officials over whether he was allowed to complete his competition, but did well again to score more valuable points.

Unable to entice Zane Holland to take 7 therapeutic dips in the spa and relaxation resort located at the 150 metre mark, Team Manager Tim was left to watch things turn sour as Tim Ewan, on his way to a certain maximum point event fell with two hurdles to go. Tim fell across his opposition (who wouldn’t) in order to prevent them from finishing, leaving officials to decide that the event be re-run next week Tim-less. Training partner Kyle was pretty quick to whoop and holler at what a cool stack Tim had as he replayed it over and over in Roy’s video recorder. Heat two saw a marked improvement in Bayside’s fortunes as Nfa took out the points, although he seemed than less impressed with the finishing time.

Most team managers at this point would elect not to go and ask such hurdlers to come back and run a 400 metres with 15 minutes notice, Tobby Sutherland decided he wasn't right after the warmup. But Tim aint most team managers. Whilst he didn’t have much luck, he did find Evan on a 40 minute run around The Tan and managed to ensure a full Bayside contingent in the last event of the day.

It’s sometime easy to forget that when your number one runner pulls out, everyone else has to step up to the plate. Luckily, our seasoned veterans knew all about finals. Disco Stu looked very strong for 350 metres but then found that his other work through the night had wasted his reserves. Stu finished 5th in heat one, Brenno running in Heat Two, making it one place higher on the imaginary podium, although he again looked like he may have marginally missed the 50 second barrier. A sweaty looking Ev took thirty metres to be reminded that one lap of the track and one lap of the tan are two different thing. With a cheer squad they urged him on down the home straight, however Megan Boyes timing indicated that he may have just missed the qualifying mark (Boysey was on the mark again - with Ev missing by .19 of a second.)

In summary, a reasonable set of result, which unofficially leaves us in about 4th place at present, although we will lose out again on the hurdle re-run next week. All things going well, it is fair to say that we could have easily been in the top 3 and not too far away from the yellow jersey. Looking the goods are Box Hill and APS at the top. It leaves you remembering that team athletics is a funny sport. Hopefully, there’ll be many more smiles next week.

Mens Team Scores

1 Box Hill 230
2 Aps 220
3 Athletics Essendon 168
4 Bayside 146
5 Ringwood United 141
6 Ivanhoe - Yarra 137

The women fared much better than the men, although still experienced a severe case of ups and downs. The downs started early, with management unable to contact Megan Peters, probably our most regular walker and points scorer. Megan not only scores points in an event with few competitors, she scores big points. Alas, we went without last night.

It didn’t matter much when you saw three Bayside tops cross the line first in the 100 metres. Good conditions with fluctuating wind conditions saw Katrina Steward cross the line in a legal 11:97, followed 12 seconds later by Emma Cochrane, also in legal conditions. The only illegal wind reading was given to Tamsyn, who finished in first place with 12:29. Gotta love our sprinters.

Gotta love Jeanette too. Trying to keep a muscle weary body from doing something drastic before her competition in Sydney next Saturday, Jeanette came out and took the glory in the Triple Jump with another 12 metre leap, before retiring to the cheap seats for the night.

Good news also in the 1500. While we usually shy away from personal congratulations at Bayside (unless they happen to be directed to me), it is an appropriate time to wish Anna Thompson our best at the World Cross Country Championships to be held in Switzerland next week. Anna flies out on Saturday and showed that she is in great form with an all the way victory in the 1500, breaking 4:20 and having half the straight on her nearest rival, Victoria Mitchell from Ringwood. Kudos also to Karen Thorp who ran a solid race to finish third in 4:33:20. Karen lost touch with the front two after a couple of laps, but slowly started to ree them in. Completing the trilogy of quality (George Bush can have that one too if he likes) was Kate Seibold-Crosbie, who had to remind her legs that speed work and endurance work are two very different things. Kate finished in 4:38.

The relay saw Jeanette withdraw at the last minute, leaving Tessa Densley to step up and take the third leg. Off the back of a solid 5 minute warm up, Tess showed her class after receiving the baton from Tamsyn taking off and handing to Emma Cochrane. With Katrina leading off, the girls finished in a season’s best time of 47:52. First Place, what else?

Our resident ghost, Natahsa De Niese (nobody had ever seen her, yet everyone knows she’s there) finished third against strong competition in the Jav. Tash threw 41 and a half metres and would have needed another 6 metres to improve her placing. Also in the throwing areas, Bec Neilsen left her biggest performance for the biggest occasion. Our state champion decided to break her pb for the third time this season, cracking 14 metres for the first time and stamping her authority on the event. Interesting to note that the result came after a rare defeat at interclub last weekend. No doubt a sign of a true competitor.

The hurdles saw our fortunes fall and rise again. After a strong relay, Tess found herself a little edgy on the blocks, breaking not once but twice and giving the officials little chance but to wave the red flag. Nervously following on from this was our state league rookie, Natalie Johnstone, who has been leaping over the low hurdles at interclub meetings all season. On the advice of Coach Nicky, Nat came in and took up the high hurdle challenge (a bit like the pepsi challenge but not as much burping). Anyway, she did herself and the team a great service by finishing second in heat two, running 15:66 in the process. No doubt we will be seeing more of Nat next season.

The steeple was another highlight last night. Never before has it been so easy to land two hurdlers for a finals event. Normally it is necessary to entice folk with pizza or hot dog rewards or sometimes both but this time, there was no need. Melissa Jones has been promising all season that she’d save herself for the steeple on finals day. With the good form she has shown on the flat, it was no coincidence that she’d dip under 12 minutes. Bigger surprise was probably that our other State League rookie Sarah Grahame was finishing marginally ahead of Mel, allowing us to finish 2nd and 3rd for some valuable points.

The 400 finished the night off well, providing the cheer squad (thanks to all those non competitors who turned up) with some additional chances to yell. With Tamsyn pulling out of the event at late notice, Emma Cochrane was generous enough to move into the second position, with Katrina moving up to first. On the line, Katrina was issued with last minute instructions from Coach Nicky to stay in touch. It wasn’t a request for a phonecall later. Jennifer Marshall from Melbourne Uni went out hard like she always does and with Anne Fearnley and Sandra Porter filling the other lanes, Katrina was always up for a challenging contest. 150 out, Marhall was clearly in front with Fearnley and Porter digging deep. In what was probably the most courageous effort for the night Katrina dug deep, gaining ground on all three runners in the last 50. They crossed in a blanket finish, with Katrina only a half metre off first and taking second place in 55:16 a pb?. Sprawled all over the track, she was justly applauded by the Bayside crew for her efforts. Heat Two saw a similar commitment from Emma Cochrane, who never looked like catching Katie Moore of Ringwood, but grabbing the first prize in the last stride. Emma definitely ran a pb, finishing with 56:90ish and showing everyone what a talented athlete she is. I’m convinced there’s a heptathlete waiting to jump out. Our third runner was the ever reliable Tara Gleeson. She was left off the pace in the first hundred but started reeling them in over the last 150. Tara finished in a tick under 60 seconds in fourth place a great result overall for the 400.

Womens Team Scores

1 Bayside BAY 198
2 Ringwood United RWD 155
3 Athletics Essendon ATE 124
4 Melbourne University MUU 112
5 Box Hill BOH 107

At the end of Day One, our girls are 43 points in front of Ringwood in second place. A surprise third is Essendon with Melbourne Uni and Box Hill rounding out the placings. It’s important to remember that we were 40 points up on Melbourne Uni at the same point last year and managed to lose all of our lead in the space of two events. So no complacency please. Management of both the mens and womens teams will be left to make some hard decisions again this week. Please keep in mind that nothing we do is perfect and we are simply trying to do what is best for the team. A big congrats to all those involved in last night’s session. It was great to have a bit of team atmosphere in there and hopefully we can get a few more onlookers next week.

Finally, we will be making the annual pilgrimage to Zorba’s at the end of next week’s session for some quality pizza and souvlaki on Bridge Road, Richmond. No doubt Jeanette will be issuing challenges on the video games and the rest of us will be left to decide who ordered the chicken with double garlic. All athletes, friends and family are welcome. At this point next week, we will hopefully have some news about a more formal end of year function most likely a Sunday lunch in one of those alcohol establishments.

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Results are here.

The last Report was Round 12.

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