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John Wild Takes National Title 25th September 2005
John Wild
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Masters thrower John Wild has had little mention this summer, his name has appeared in the results after all four Northern Senior T&F League meetings having scored many of the points which helped RZH to promotion but, in mostly his own words, there’s been quite a bit more.
Old Fart Takes National Title - John Wild finished his last major competition of the season where he started it in Milton Keynes. The first major championship was on the 19th June and, while the north was having flash floods and hailstones, he contested the BMAF Weight Pentathlon in temperatures of more than 30 degrees C and came away with the silver medal. The last major of the season was been the BMAF Weight Decathlon on Saturday 24th September. The Decathlon is usually done over two days (by the soft continentals) but us Brits squeeze it all into one long day, competition started at 10am and finished at 6.30pm and John went one better and won gold - his first National title!
Sandwiched in-between was the usual array of Northern Senior T&F League meetings, North East Masters where John won all the five throws and the BMAF T&F Championships where he took Bronze in both the Javelin and Heavy Hammer. There was also a memorable trip to Hungary where he took part in the 5th World Throwers Club Championships - three days of throwing a variety of standard and non-standard implements. During the trip John collected two gold, three silver and two bronze medals and produced a lifetime best throw in the Heavy Hammer. He also took part in and came 2nd in the Ultra Stone - a 50kg stone lifted above the head and putt into sand - in memory of a well know German thrower, Erwin Kollmar, who during his life had been instrumental in having many of these training drills recognised as events in their own right.
John is the epitome of Athletics in this country. He won’t see his fiftieth birthday again, spends hours in the Gym on strength work and more hours honing his technical skills “in the field” (mostly by himself although he is never shy about giving advice to aspiring/perspiring throwers), he pays his own way to every competition, home and abroad, and has never had a bean in sponsorship or expenses and is still producing the goods - PBs and winning performances. He has two more local competitions including the North East Vets Multi-throws Championships (a bit like a weight pentathlon) before a two-week break and then he starts winter training for what he and we all hope will be another successful year in 2006.
Sunderland Harriers Centenary Year X-C Relay and Races 24th September 2005
On the same Saturday, six Club runners journeyed north to Farringdon School to compete in Sunderland Harriers Centenary Year X-C Relay and Race Fixture. A perfect day for the first X-C meeting with clear skies and firm grass underfoot. Ben Purkiss-McEndoo was the first off in the Under 11 Boys race; he finished 22nd but wasn’t downbeat about being nearer the back than the front - he took a leaf from his Dad’s book of positive thoughts, knowing he’d still be an under 11 next year and declaring he’d put things right. The Club entered a Veteran Men’s team in the Relays and found themselves in the most competitive of races. Jon Orange ran first leg and covered the 1.7 miles in 9:05, unofficially the 2nd fastest Vet time, and put the team into 6th place overall. He handed on to Ian Scott who ran his leg in 9:53, a top ten time but the team slipped to 8th, down 2 places. Chris Peacock ran the third leg and is just pleased to back racing at this level less than 12 months after major surgery to a foot: he ran 10:21 and had a terrific battle, finishing just behind Andy Minster of Hartlepool and Alistair McDonald of Morpeth but ahead of Tony Wallet of NSP, but the team slipped 2 more places to 10th overall. The last leg was down to Shaun Purkiss-McEndoo and, with a time of 10:11, he too had a race-and-a-half, initially overhauling Tony Ward of Morpeth and Alan Hyde of Blaydon before being out-sprinted down the home straight by Vaughan Hemy of NSP. The team finished 9th overall from 33 complete teams and 3rd place amongst the Vets. Last to run, but never least, of the Harriers was Rosie Adams in the Under 15 Girls race; she finished 13th from 34 runners and her time of 12:00 for the same 1.7 miles shows she’ll be a real contender when the NYSD season gets underway.
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