On a night when only the top 3 women’s teams and top 4 men’s teams would proceed to the second week, the pressure was always going to be from the first event. While the women’s team was able to field athletes in every event on the night, the men’s team had some holes and looked like they would struggle to make it through.

It was a slow start for the girls with Georgie Power and Sandy Nichols both finishing 4^th in their heats of the 100 metres. Cathy Marshall placed well in her heat of the 100 and the triple jump. But the difference came with the distance events. First, Kerri Jorgensen, Heidi Riordan and Erica Sigmont took maximum points for the club by finishing 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd: this was followed by Wendy Muldoon easily winning the 5000M Walk and Jocelyn Keage leading from start to finish to take out the 3000M Steeplechase.

While this was going on Larissa Tourchinskya was scoring points in the Javelin and Shot Put, with Fiona Buchanan taking second in the Pole Vault.

At the end of the night the combination of some outstanding distance running and the clubs ability to compete across every event gives the team an 8-point buffer going into the second night.

Eastside 167

Athletics Essendon 167

Ringwood United

The evening started in disastrous fashion with Ashley Rowan slipping at the start of first 100 heat and failing to qualify, however Tim Williams ran strongly to finish second in the second heat and then Lane Harrison finished fourth in the third heat to recover a few points. We had no competitor in the Javelin, however we filled the triple jump for the first time this season with Julian Yeoh jumping 12.92 for fourth place. Stephen Hooker jumped an equal P.B. in the Pole Vault of 5.20m to win on a count back in a high standard competition.

In an exciting series of 1500M races, Michael Jones was just outsprinted by Justin Rinaldi to finish second in a P.B. of 3.55 in the first heat, while dale Bickham ran a sensible race for fourth place in the second heat.

The 4 by 100 team of Ashley Rowan, Tim Williams, Lane Harrison and Mohammed Zeed ran a great relay, which included a brilliant change between Ashley and Tim to give the team a comfortable victory.

Graeme Olden and Kynan Dawes managed to take 2^nd and 3^rd in the steeplechase, but survival until the next week was going to come down to placing well in the 400’s. Without our top 3 400 runners it was up to Marty Duke, 18 year old James Fildes and Peter Knott to do the job. Against strong opposition they managed to take 5^th, 4^th and 3^rd in their heats to do enough to get Box Hill through to the second week.