A Monday evening taste of success (eventually)

(From Ingy)

Despite a bit of a loaded heat Matt Bailey got through to the 800M final, Matt was drawn with Tom (who qualified comfortably) and Lee Taylor, Gibralter's Bronze Medalist from Rhodes but ran a pretty well timed race and his 4th place in 1:59.18 got him through to the the 8 man final. Tom Qualified as heat winner.

Pretty good night of athletics for the Guerns tonight, Leo was up first against pretty good competition in the 400M Hurdles, was the yougnest in the field but still came away with a pretty good 5th - not bad for his first games.

Next up was Kylie, it would be fair to say expectations were high, but local(Aland) lass Hanna Wiss, drew on the support of the crowd and ...sorry in the time it's taken me to write this Steve Dawes has just sat down with 13 Euros worth of Burger an Chips...its put me off my thread a bit, anyway back to the planet..... Kylie got off to a good start but Wiss took it by about 3 Metres.

..still waiting for that Gold....

Next Lee Garlando, games legend and 4 times winner of 3000 sticks.....sadly not this time. Tom Wade (IOW) put in stong mid-race surge which Lee partly followed but the boy Wade has been on pretty good form this season and it wasn't to be. Silver and a double figure count of medals(7 in the chase alone)......for gods sake this starting making sense until he counted 3 more......its now a bakers dozen...or something like that.....quite a few anyway.


...getting late...still waiting for that Gold...

Cue Louise. Soon into the 10,000M it was pretty clear that it was between 5 runners, two Faroese (if that's right) a Western Isles Lass Cambell, Malme (1/2M Gold in Rhodes) and our Lou. After a good steady pace it all kicked off after a Decker/Budd like fall with about 12 laps remaining. Lou and Soerenson(Far) coming out worst and dropping 20 metres or so back. Oleson the other Faroese (I'm sticking with Faroese) in a Cram like way chose the fall (this will be lost on anyone who can't remember british running in the 80's) to break clear.

All sorts of Drama followed. Olesen wilted in the heat over the last 8 laps and what looked like an unassailable 40M lead over a fragmented group, was down to nothing. Louise patiently worked her way back to the group, hit the front with about 4 laps remaining, and sealed a victory, Guernsey's first track gold and a bottle of Bolly from Sir Geoff with a devastating finish.