SCVAC Masters League report, 18th May ’26

Words: Andy Del Nevo

Croydon Harriers had a very successful first  Masters Athletic meeting at Kingston on Monday the 18th May.  The men’s team held off a strong Epsom squad to finish second behind Hercules Wimbledon.  Wins came in the Men’s 1500m M35A with Phil Symonds winning in 4;46.91, who later ran in the relay team and Andy Del Nevo in the M50 Pole Vault, clearing 2.1m, making two wins from 2 different meetings this year.  He also competed in the Hammer and Triple Jump, picking up two 3rd places and scored the most points on the evening.  Jim Eccles had a busy night competing in the Pole Vault, Discus and Hammer, finishing with a two seconds and a third.  Mike Smalley also had a busy night, competing in the 100m, 400m, 4 x 100m relay and Triple Jump, with a second and two thirds.  The team was supported with Ian Harrington and Rohan Mckensie, both making their debut in the team, Scott Miller, Colin Oxlade,  John Millington, Terry Lapins and Ian Statter.

The women’s team, managed to have one of their biggest turnouts, for many years with eight athletes competing and managed a very credible 5th place out of the nine teams. The best placed finisher was Dionne Simmonds, in second place in the Women’s 100m, with hard fought third places for Nicola Ashitey in the Hammer, Melisa Spence in the Discus and Linda Oxlade in the Hammer.  Angela Leahy and Celina Frankson, made their debuts in the team and were supported by Tamara Townsend and Keren Wheeler, who fell at the end of her race and had to retire injured from the rest of the evening’s fun.  The women’s relay squad had a hard fought battle in the final event of the evening, just losing out to Kingston, in third place by 0.1 seconds.