Boston and District AC move up to joint third in North of England Track and Field League

Boston and District Athletic Club have moved up to joint third place in the North of England Track and Field League following the third of this season's matches at Doncaster.

The Gold Tops raised their points total from 313 achieved in the second match in the series at Derby last month to 33.

BADAC finished ahead of Derby AC, Grantham AC and Chesterfield & District AC to claim third place, their highest position in the 2021 campaign.

Most productive was the challenging men's 110m hurdles where John Fulcher won the A race in 21.2 secs and James Roark took maximum points in the B event, recordinng 23.1 secs.

The men's 400m hurdles resulted in one point short of the maximum possible as Steve Barnett crossed the finish line first in the A race in 69.7 secs and Aidan McClure took runners up position in the B race ( 83.2 secs).

The same points were harvested in the men's triple jump with John Fulcher earned the A victory with 11.52m and Steve Barnett secured second position in the B event with a leap measuring 10.00m.

Two of the women's triple jump, Louise Hirst stamped out her authority in the A event and secured first place points with a leap of 10.54m.

Megan Reid cleared an improved 8.45m for second position in the B contest.

The Women's hammer throw was another productive event for Boston with Helen Tooley raising her performance to 23.96m to secure second place points in the A competition and under 17 Georgia Ward providing good support with 21.36m for victory in the B event.

Megan Reid summed up the team ethic in finishing third in the pole vault and clearing 1.80m for the first time, and cleared 1.30m in high jump for third place.

She combined Georgia Ward, Louise Hirst and Hannah Hardwick to claim third place points in the 4x100m relay (63.0 secs).

Georgia pushed her performance with the 4k shot up to 7.39m to claim third position in the A competition and Helen Tooley was second in the B event with a putt of 6.17m.

Corinne Bailey was third in both the A javelin (18.82m) and A discus (15.14m).

In a competitive 400m race Louise Hirst clocked 65.5 secs in fourth place.

Emma Penson amassed the greatest number of female points on the track, running the B 100m, B 200m, B 400m, A 800m, A 1,500m and the A 3,000m (14mins 32.4 secs) and also secured maximum points for the team in the A 400m hurdles.

Making her debut for the Gold Tops, under 17 Hannah Hardwick made a very encouraging start at senior league level, recording 14.1 secs for fifth position in the A 100m and added sixth place points in the A 200m (31.3 secs) before securing second position in the B long jump.

In addition to his two victories, John Fulcher finished fourth in the A 100m (11.7 secs), sixth in the A 200m (28.4 secs), fifth in the A 400m (67.9 secs), third in the A long jump (5.65m) and fourth in the A high jump (1.60m) to complete a liberal points scoring match.

Steve Barnett also put in a full contribution with a second in the A pole vault (2.70m), fifth in the B 100m (13.1 secs), fourth in the B 200m and runner-up in the B long jump (4.45m).

Aidan McClure put in his usual big shift over the longer races on the programme.

He secured third in the A 800m (2 mins 34.1 secs), fourth in the B 400m (81.7 secs), fifth in the 1,500m, the 3,000m steeplechase and 5,000m A race and the B javelin (23.78m).

James Roark also made a big contribution across a range of events.

In addition to his win in the B sprint hurdles, he was first in the demanding B 3,000m steeplechase, third in the A discus (27.42m), fifth in the A shot (8.64m), B 5,000m) and A hammer (21.87m).

Nigel Bilton finished third in the B hammer with 19.27m and also claimed third in both the B discus (22.25m) and the B hammer (19.27m) and added sixth place points in the A Javelin (24.57m).

The final North of England League match is on Sunday, August 1 at Lincoln when the Gold Tops will be striving to build on their third position.