The preceding fortnight has heralded the arrival of the track season for Wallasey Athletic Club's athletes. Meetings at Wigan, Stretford and St. Helens have been attended with reasonable per-formances at each venue.
At Wigan, in very blustery conditions, the first event saw Keith Simpson make his debut at 400 metre hurdles, clocking a respectable 64.2 seconds.
In the 800 metres Dave Pendleton finished in 2 minutes 7.2 seconds, while over the same distance Paula Simpson clocked 2 minutes 41.3 seconds in the under-13 race.
The glorious weather at Stretford brought with it some fast times in the sprint events. In the 100 metres Emma Derwent recorded 13.6 seconds, Adele Gibbon 14.2 seconds, and Joanne Johnson 14.3 seconds, all at intermediate age group.
Even better performances were recorded by newcomers Diane Senogles and Claire Jones, both of whom won their heats in 14.5 seconds, and Sarah Graves; 15.3, at under-13 level.
In the 1,500 metres Collette Winstanley had an excellent run, finishing in 5 minutes 28 seconds, thus knocking four seconds off
the previous week's efforts.
Also making his first ever performance for the club, was Lee Davies who clocked two good times at 100 and 200metres - 13.3 and 26.8 seconds respectively.
Again the only two senior athletes to do battle were Dave Pendleton, who ran 400 metres in 55.8 seconds, and Keith Simpson, who ran 3,000 metres in 9 minutes 40 seconds, both of these events being won by British internationals Alan Slack and Dave Lewis respectively.
Keith Simpson later went on to clocks 25.2 seconds for 200 metres a personal best. Also achieving this feat at the same distance were Emma Derwent; 27.9; Joanne Johnson, 29.4; and Adele Gibbon. 29.8.
Moving from the track to road racing at Haigh Hall over five miles first Wallasey runner home was Keith Simpson, who has had a busy fortnight, in 27 minutes 49 seconds, followed by Dave Walton 28:12, Graham Beggs 28.29, Nick Burke 28:52, and Mike Garbutt 29:06.
Wallasey A.C. 10k Championship was won predictably by Robin Jones while in Yorkshire, Lynne Kennedy who is studying at Huddersfield Polytechnic, has recently won a 10 mile road race
and Paula Simpson was chosen to run in the 1,500 metres for Merseyside Schools against Dublin on Saturday at Kirkby.
Ends
Source - Wallasey News - Wednesday, 06/05/1987
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