Red Hot Weather and Red Hot Performances!

The third senior league match saw us once again over on the East coast as we travelled to Hull, on what could be classed as a day great for sunbathing at the beach. The only issue is we had a full day of athletics stood in front of us on what must be one of the warmest days of the year.

The team were feeling positive pulling up to the stadium and for good reason, a second-place finish at match 2 had put us right on the heels of Harrogate in the league positioning as we currently sat in third place.

The day started with success in the field as Glenn Aspindle vaulted his way to a new Personal Best in the Pole Vault whilst securing our first victory of the day. The pairing of Jake Darby and Connor Bell both threw Seasons Best in the men’s Hammer to help get Spen off to an early start and that was reinforced by Megan Ascough who added a third place in the women’s Hammer to the points tally.

By the time the track has begun, Team Spen had already racked up a nice start to the day – but it wasn’t going to end there.
In the Women’s 400m Hurdles Molly Waring claimed the first victory on the track in a SB time and that result would be matched by Soraya Crodden as she won the B race. The pairing went onto run the 100m Hurdles where Soraya claimed a second place in her second fastest time of the year and Molly won the B race in a PB time.

Molly went on to equal her PB in the High Jump as she jumped to a second place finish, an almost SB’s in both of the Long Jump and the Javelin. Soraya took her great results in the hurdles and added a victory in the 100m in an equal SB time as well as picking up points in the Long Jump (Result Pending). Megan Ascough’s positive start in the Hammer was only reinforced by her other results claiming a victory in the women’s Shot Putt, a second place in the Discus with an SB throw and a forth place in the Javelin with another SB throw to complete her day with a 1,2,3,4 positioning.
Holly Martin was on form as she cruised to victories in both the 100m and 200m sprints. A well fought race by youngster Summer Haynes in the 200m lead to a second place finish and a PB time, before having a first go at High Jump in competition to jump to a second place in the B.

The strength of the Spen women’s results was to be matched by the Men as Glenn Aspindle made the 110 Hurdles look easy with a SB time and a another victory, before a big SB throw in the Javelin to nicely put him back over 50m claimed yet another victory and the spring in his step pushed him to a PB in the High Jump. The performances in the field continued as Jake Darby following his SB throw in the Hammer, he maintained his recent form in the Discus and Shot Putt to claim two more fourth place finishes before a massive PB in the Triple Jump and completed the day with a victory in the B 110m Hurdles. Connor Bell also added to his earlier Hammer Throw with two more fourth places in the B Discus and Shot Putt nearing an SB in both.
In the Sprints, Tyler Cossins managed an impressive PB run in the 100m as well as equalling his PB in the 200m, before having a switch up in events and trying out the High Jump for the first time and finishing with a third place finish. Also in the 100m was James Bell who ran his third fastest time of the year before almost jumping a PB in the Long Jump and then having a first attempt at throwing the Senior weight Javelin an managing an impressive distance.
Jack Barrowclough joined the team for the first time and did a great job in the 200m smashing his PB by over 4 seconds, before another PB in the men’s 800m race and then a first attempt at the Long Jump in competition. In the most challenging event on the track with the day’s heat was the 5km, Joe Sagar ran a tactical race to ease his way to a victory in the baking hot conditions, while Henry Carter claimed a victory in the B race with a strong run in the heat.

The team spirit was not to end their either as the women’s 4x100m team of Haynes, Waring, Martin and Crodden managed to successfully navigate the baton around the track, but not only that, they went on to win it!

The men’s 4x100m team had a last minute reorganisation as the Javelin overran, so youngster Jack Barrowclough stepped up and ran in the team as Cossins, Darby, Bell and Barrowclough also successfully got the baton around clean.

We also managed to get another men’s 4x400m team out and this time it meant business as Aspindle, Sagar, Cossins and Darby found another gear to see off Hallamshire to finish second.

A well fought team effort as it was not only battling against the opposition teams but the unusually roasting hot weather. The incredible efforts of all secured yet another second place finish!

So from starting the day off in third place in the league and trailing points on Harrogate, Team Spen leap frogged Harrogate and now has the points advantage in our favour as we now sit in Second Place! But it’s not done there, with one fixture to go and our own home fixture its all to play for and we need one final effort!

FINAL FIXTURE:Saturday 6th August at SPENBOROUGH!!!