INJURY and fixture clashes again left the Hertfordshire Phoenix Mens team short of athletes for their Division One meeting at Southend on Saturday, June 22.

Consequently, the team finished fifth for the fourth match in a row and, hovering one place above the bottom of the table, relegation is becoming a real threat for the newly-formed club.

However, with so many regulars unavailable, the opportunity was there for some of the lesser known athletes to take centre stage, and no-one did so more than Matthew Thurgood, who achieved a personal best in the high jump (2m) and triple jump (14.56m) to confirm his good form ahead of the Under-20 Championships this weekend.

His was one of few highlights for Phoenix, although the day had started well enough with victories in the opening events of both field and track James Trezona took the 400m Hurdles in 58.9 seconds, while Steve Maisey won the B string Hammer with a distance of 29.19m.

Maisey also ran well in the B string 110m Hurdles, taking second in 18.3.

Other notable performances came from Simon Wombwell in the 110m Hurdles (third in 17.7), Ben Solomon in the shot (pb of 10.25m) and Neilson Hall in the 1,500m (third in 4.13.6).

June 27, 2002 12:00