Wallasey's Barbara Banks has been selected for her first track international at Warsaw in the 1,500 metres. The news put the local athletic club's competitors in fine spirit for the first Merseyside League meeting at Woodchurch at the weekend.
Competing with Wallasey in the league, which has three meetings, were Wirral A.C., Waterloo Harriers and Warrington A.C.
Wallasey's best chances seem to be in the men's section, where they were only beaten by Waterloo last season.
With heavy rain and a cold wind, conditions were far from ideal for good track performances. However, there were several personal bests and some near misses.
Highlight of the meeting was a tactical duel between Barbara and Wirral's Jane Perry in the 1,500 metres. On this occasion Barbara, who was using the meeting merely for training, failed to shake off the Wirral girl in the early part of the race and being forced to succumb to her superior finishing sprint. Barbara's time of 4 mins. 31.8 secs, was however, excellent in the conditions and with the lack of preparation she gave to the race. Only an hour later saw Barbara do a personal best in the 200 metres!
In the youths' 800 metres, Pete Martin made a personal break-through in coming third in a field of 12. With a previous best of 2 mins. 19 secs., Peter worked his way through the field to finish in 2 mins. 8.5 secs. Still with the middle distance men, the seniors once again put in polished performances with Dave Lockley third, Bob Warburton fourth and Phil Wealthy sixth in the 1,500 metres, and Bob Brimage fourth and Phil Wealthy sixth in the 3,000 metres.
In the sprints the best performance came from Susan Carter in the 400 metres for intermediate girls, where she came a fine second in 65.1: secs,, after leading for most of the race,
In the field events successes were few despite the poor quality of entries. None of the field event specialists were pleased with the performances although Alan Cheers and Mike Teahan did manage to win the senior long jump and high jump respectively.
Vice President: We are pleased to announce that club President Ramsey Hewson has been elected to the vice-presidency of the Northern Counties A.A., the club can always be assured of being well represented.
Today the club has been invited to compete in an inter club at Stretford, and tomorrow will he competing in the Melbourne Trophy meeting at Kirkby.
Ends
Source - Wallasey News - Saturday, 02/05/1970 by P.M.W.
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