Humberside Multi Events Championships - 25th and 26th September 2010

Images and Report courtesy of Matt Hammond

Dan beats Dan to claim the title

The final track and field County title of the season saw Scunthorpe and Districts athletics club members Daniel HUGHES and Daniel HARMES battle it out for the Humberside Decathlon crown.

The event was been held at Doncaster during the joint Humberside and Yorkshire multi events championships. On arrival the athletes were treated to dry but very cold weather that would be more in line with running a cross country.

Dan HARMES made the decision to compete as a senior man rather than an under 20 athletes so he could compete directly against Dan HUGHES who was competing in his first multi events competition for several years after specialising in the 400m Hurdles for last few seasons. The first day proved to be a close affair, with HARMES taking the advantage in the 100m and Long Jump, before HUGHES fought back with wins in the shot putt and high jump. So going into the final event of the first day the 400m the two were running neck and neck on points. So it was no surprise when the pair could only be separated by the thickness of a vest with HARMES,  claiming the win by just 0.2 of a second , But HUGHES led the points race by just 1 point  with 2640 points against HARMES 2639.

Unfortunately the second day saw the conditions get even worse with the cold weather been joined by the rain, this meant any best scores would be hard to achieve but both athletes were concentrating on this unofficial club championship. HUGHES took the advantage on the second day with an expected victory of nearly two seconds for the hurdler in the 110m hurdles race. The turning point was then the discus when HUGHES was facing disaster after two no throws in the first two rounds knowing a third bad throw would see him score no points and hand victory overall to HARMES, but the HUGHES supporters were able to give a big sigh of relief when he got his third effort out of the cage. This then seemed to encourage HUGHES who matched HARMES in the Pole vault where HARMES had expected to make up ground. The competition was nearly all over when HUGHES launched a new personal best of over 40 metres in the Javelin and finished the job off by beating a dejected HARMES by nearly 30 seconds in the 1500m.

Both athletes will now head into a well deserved rest before starting their winter training knowing they have made sure Scunthorpe and District stay at the front of Humberside athletics having taken GOLD and SILVER.

Also competing on day one was Jacob HAMMOND who was the only entrant in the Humberside under 15 boys Pentathlon, so had to look to the Yorkshire athletes to keep him company. It was to be a very mixed day for Jacob who stumbled badly after hitting the second to last hurdle in the first event and nearly fell as he crossed the line but then recovered with a new personal best in the shot putt. He then had a poor Long Jump only recording 4.37m after going into the event hoping to push out towards 5 metres. Again he was to recover with a new best in the High jump when he had first time clearances at every height from 1.33m up to 1.48m and could have jumped even higher when he twice seemed to clear 1.51m but took the bar of with his calf’s on the way down. Despite the mixed day Jacob knew a good run in the 800m would earn him a new points best but the cold weather and tiredness got the better of him when he failed to break 2mins 30 sec and just missed his best score for the season. But had the consolation of winning another county title this season.

Another athlete who didn’t relish the cold was Georgina OCONNOR  who competed on day 1 of the under 17 ladies Heptathlon but was disappointed with when all of her performances were well down on what she has achieved this season and decided to pull out rather than risk injury on a very wet second day.      

Humberside and Yorkshire Multi events championships-Doncaster 20/09/10