The Crawley men’s and women’s team both filled third places in their Division two matches of the British and UK Women’s League matches at Watford and Bedford on Saturday.
The men’s result match was an extraordinary close battle with less than fifty points covering the first six teams with Harrow totalling 333 points, Thames Valley Harriers 320, the Crawley team 310, Kingston Poly 302.5 and Notts 285 with Nene Valley and Gateshead well adrift.
There were many season’s and personal bests for the Crawley men but few individual winners.
All-rounder Richard Reeks made a welcome return to the team and produced a fine victory in the 110 hurdles in 14.87s notched up a fine third place in the javelin throw with 48.96m cleared 1.90m for fourth place in the high jump.
Scott Devlin recorded a personal best and English Schools standard when winning the “B” pole vault by clearing 4.20m after Leigh Walker had taken second place in the “A” event with 4.40m.
The Lasis boys, Matt and James, notched up four victories and one personal best in the Hammer and Discus events with Matt winning the hammer throw with 62.35m, with James taking the “B” throw with 53.21m while James won the discus throw with 47.07m and Matt the “B” discus throw with a personal best effort of 42.19m.
In the 100m Jason Hussain clocked a season best of 10.77s when being squeezed into second place while Stefan Mitchell notched a nippy 11.03s for second place in the “B” race.
It was also a close match for the women’s team at Bedford where less than forty points coverd the top six teams. The home club massed 207 points to Harrow’s 200 and the Crawley team’s195 in third place.
Milton Keynes was not that far behind on 182 while Newham scored 177, Havering 171, City of Glasgow 144 and Reading 97.
Kim Baptiste had another fine run in the 100m winning in 11.99s but she was squeezed into second place in the 200 metres while Holly Turner faced defeat in the 400m at the hands of Newham international Victoria Ohurougu clocking 57.25s to the winner’s 55.71s.
Crawley’s Surrey star Hannah Brooks was the only other “A” winner taking the 800m in 2:15.4s and she then ran a nifty 1500m to finish second in 4:42.78s.
There was another second place in the pole vault for Livvy Connor where she cleared 3.40m.
The shot putt saw a repeat of the Sussex championship when Longhill School teacher Leanne Buxton who had earlier ran a nippy 65.98s for fourth place in the 400m hurdles competing for Bedford. In the shot event Buxton putt 11.53m for second place with Laura Duke, who was equal first in the “B” pole vault with 2.10m putt11.34m for third place. Duke had also thrown 41.79m for third place in the hammer throw.