Despite losing a toe spike from her left shoe and having to wait for over 1½ hours, the time it took for three qualifying jumps, Phyllis Edwards, of Wallasey Athletic Club, still finished in 5th position in the Northern Counties long jump championships at Victoria Park, Warrington, last Saturday.
A cold, gusty wind did not help performances but after a 17ft. 3 ins, opening jump, Phyllis could only manage a further ¾ in., although five of her six trials were over 17ft.
It is significant that of the six finalists, only two improved after the first effort. Much of the blame for this must lie with the officials in charge of the event for showing a lack of consideration for 14 of the competitors whilst the remaining two were engaged in sprint heats, semis and finals.
Earlier, Hilary Owen had run a spirited 100 yards heat in 11.9 seconds, and was leading at 60 yards, but lack of training told and she finished third with the same time as the winner.
Barbara Banks finished in 5th place in her heat of the senior 880 yards and so, like Hilary, was eliminated on her first run.
Alan Keating, Mike Teahan and Dave Lockley all did personal best performances in their various events at the Liverpool Parks & Gardens championships on Tuesday evening.
Alan Keating ran the half-mile in 2m 5.9s to finish in fourth place only just behind Doug Hanna of the club, who was third in 2 m 4.1s. Both Alan and Doug have qualified for the final of the senior half-mile.
In another heat of the senior half-mile Barry Smith and Mike Teahan failed to qualify for the final although both runners completed the distance in faster times than Alan and Doug in the first heat. Mike did a personal best time of 2m 4s. finishing in 6th place. Barry was fifth in 2m 3.8s.
Dave Lockley's personal best in a senior two-mile team race. Dave who is still only a youth did the excellent time of 9m 48.5s, Johnny Jones, Mike McNamee and Dave Adair made up the team their times being 10m 8.5s, 10m 54s and 11m 1s respectively.
Mike McNamee had a tremendous duel for second place in the junior mile. Mike just failed to make second place, finishing the distance in a time of 4m 43.9s in third place.
Phyllis Edwards again jumped well to win the women's long jump with a distance of 17ft 2ins.
David Adair finished sixth in the youths' 220 yards in 27s.
Today, the club has a fixture at Blackburn in an invitation inter-club meeting.
The club championships and photograph have been, brought forward to June 25th.
Ends
Source - Wallasey News - Saturday, 11/06/1966 by YELROM
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