Team Isle of Man turned in an excellent performance to finish second in round two of the Northern Track and Field League recently.

Competing in the Western Premier Division, and despite still being short of several key athletes (but stronger than in round one), they narrowly pipped Wirral AC to the number two slot in the six-team contest behind winners West Cheshire AC.

The match took place at the historic Bebington Oval, Wirral famous for being the setting of several scenes from the film Chariots of Fire.

The primary aim for many of the team was to continue preparations for the NatWest Island Games in Guernsey, and with no fewer than 20 debutants in this year’s athletics team for the Games, this was a key fixture for many of them.

With that in mind it was very encouraging to see many personal bests set especially by some of the younger athletes.

One of the best performances of the day came from Sam Perry in the men’s 1,500 metres. Working well with the two Blackburn Harriers athletes in front of him, he produced an excellent time of 4min 03.7sec, more than five seconds inside his previous best and a run that will give him plenty of confidence going into his debut Island Games.

Aimee Christian was another to run a new personal best with a time of 69.1s in the 400 metres hurdles, and Macy Hillier was not far behind with 70.2s.

Catherine Perry’s time of 61.5s for the 400m took almost one second off her previous best, and to demonstrate her all-round ability she was also close to her best in the discus.

It was encouraging to see James Margrave returning close to the form that won him a high jump bronze medal in the 2019 Island Games, and his best jump of 1.95 metres earned him three unsuccessful attempts at his first two-metre clearance.

Several others recorded new personal bests, including both Laura Dickinson and Becky Watterson in the 800 metres with 2:29.7 and 2:30.3 respectively.

A good day for Laura continued with a new best in the 3,000 metres with 11m 02.2s.

All-rounders like Kyle Martin who contest several disciplines are key figures in these matches, and the latter came away with a new best in the discus (28.35 metres), and an equal pb in the pole vault with 3.20 metres.

Molly Phillips was in good form with a new best of 28.6s for the 200m and an equal pb of 13.7s in the 100m.

Each club is required to supply a variety of officials to oversee all the events, for which extra points are awarded, and Team Isle of Man was very well represented in that respect. Moira Hall took a few minutes out of her busy schedule to compete as the B runner in the women’s 1,500m and set an IoM record for the women’s 70 age group.

After a warm and muggy day, the threatened thunderstorm arrived as the concluding four relays began around 4pm. The competitors in these events, along with the officials, took a real drenching as the lightning flashed.

The women’s 4x400 relay produced controversy as both Team IoM and Trafford AC were disqualified before the event had started. In the case of the Manx team it transpired to have been because of a misunderstanding between the officials.

After lengthy discussions it was decided to let both teams run a separate race, and the results were added to those of the two teams who had run earlier.

l Many thanks go to team manager Petra Atchison for all her hard work in organising the trip, and to the officials who travelled with the team.

Final results were: 1, West Cheshire AC 388 points; 2, Team Isle of Man 365.5; 3, Wirral AC 362.5; 4, Blackburn Harriers 308; 5, Trafford AC 296; 6, Sale Harriers 242.

next match on sunday

The next match takes place at Witton Park, Blackburn this Sunday. This was originally scheduled for the following weekend, so Team IoM is grateful to the league organisers and the other five competing clubs for agreeing to bring the match forward one week to avoid a clash with the Island Games.