Wallasey Athletic Club now knows that two of its members have been selected to compete in the English Schools Track & Field Championships at Birmingham on Friday and Saturday July 9 and 10.
They are the ladles' captain Janet McGee and the intermediate captain Francesca Phillips respectively. They compete over the 800 metres and 400 metres hurdles. The only officially named reserve also belongs to Wallasey Athletic Club and he is Peter Doyle. In his event, the 800 metres, the competition to fill the three places allowed is tough and his slightly slower time at present lost him the place.
Janet McGee and Peter Doyle have also been selected to compete in the European Catholic Schools Championships in Milan, both in the 800 metres. Past champion Janet is hoping to win again in a superior time while Pete will be hoping to make a double for the club in his first outing.
Except for the above announcement, there has been little activity over the past few days with individuals rather than teams taking to the track and road. The Noctorum Championship saw Pete Jones pull out the usual season's best for his 800 metres, fourth in 1 min 57.6 secs, but the recurring leg trouble caused him to miss out on his better event, the 400 metres.
The following day Francesca Phillips and Neil Henfrey ran for Merseyside Schools in an inter-county event at Kirkby. Fran finished second in a disappointing time for her 400 metres hurdles, but she ran reluctantly, needing really to prepare herself for the more important English Schools event.
Neil had no thoughts of this on his mind and his fourth place for the 400 metres In his ever-improving time of 58 seconds was quite pleasing all round.
Running in the same meeting but forgotten by Merseyside for the schools, was Lynne Kennedy. She was asked to run in the 1,500 metres and the 800 metres but wisely declined the former and ran a very satisfying 2 minutes 23 seconds for third place in the latter.
Earlier in the day, the Knowsley Half Marathon was run, starting and finishing at the same venue at the above inter-county event. Showing a very good return to running fitness was club veteran (over 40) John Lynch who finished in 24th position overall and was fourth to finish in his age group.
Next Sunday sees the senior men's team travel to Hull for the second of their three Northern League matches. The stronger team should return even more pleased than they were after the first round and are certainly looking for a first or second place.
For anyone wishing to contact the Wallasey Athletic Club with a view to joining then we will be pleased to welcome you to any of our training nights, Monday, Leasowe Leisure Centre; Tuesday, St. Georges School, Leasowe Road, or Wednesday, Woodchurch Track (by the baths). On all days we meet around 7 p.m. to start training around 7.30 pm.
Membership is open to anyone over the age of 11 but the club is anxious to recruit older members, i.e. from 15 and over, male and female.
We never take a holiday like the schools! Or the seasonal sports clubs, as our sport covers all seasons of the year - cross-country running, road running and track and field are all catered for.
We cover events for all age groups from 100 metres up to the marathon and compete regularly and train regularly whatever the weather.
Ends
Source - Wallasey News - Saturday, 03/07/1982 by DOUG HANNA
Ref 1957