Sunday, April 14, 2013
A day in the bright fresh air.
A couple of nights when I woke up far too early combined with eight hours of being in the wind and sunny air have tired me out. I can hardly stay awake.
We were timekeeping at an athletics meeting.
One never knows how many officials there might be, just as we never know how many athletes will turn up.
It was a very good day for the Crawley club - well over 400 athletes came to compete.
This number with accompanying parents and siblings and others filled the place up.
It is a long time since I have seen the track so busy.
The meeting was longer than planned, just because we needed more races and therefore, more time than the original programme allowed for.
I should have had a team of 5 timekeepers, but I had to part with one.
The man who provides the cameras, computers etc to give electronically recorded times was without an assistant. I had to let somebody go; it was important that the advertised electric timing was functioning well.
And don't worry, I am not going to bore you again with details of how many hundredths of a second inaccurate I was. One of the timekeepers went home with all those results in his bag.
And I know that I was not being very accurate today.
Tiredness and the need to concentrate on reading the race knocked my abilities.
The very first race was impressive.
In Sussex we have a star in the making at 400 metre hurdles.
Today, he ran 50.55, very close to that magic 50 seconds which would take him into the ranks of a world class athlete. Seb Rodgers has already competed as an international at a number of events - he had thought of himself as a decathlete, but last winter decided to concentrate on 400 hurdles.
A good start to the meeting......and on it went, with eagerly contested races for all those hours.
It was warm for much of the day. I sat out with bare arms ..... Spring really did happen today.
What a contrast with the weather two weeks ago, when we all sat at the track in many layers of clothing.
We were timekeeping at an athletics meeting.
One never knows how many officials there might be, just as we never know how many athletes will turn up.
It was a very good day for the Crawley club - well over 400 athletes came to compete.
This number with accompanying parents and siblings and others filled the place up.
It is a long time since I have seen the track so busy.
The meeting was longer than planned, just because we needed more races and therefore, more time than the original programme allowed for.
I should have had a team of 5 timekeepers, but I had to part with one.
The man who provides the cameras, computers etc to give electronically recorded times was without an assistant. I had to let somebody go; it was important that the advertised electric timing was functioning well.
And don't worry, I am not going to bore you again with details of how many hundredths of a second inaccurate I was. One of the timekeepers went home with all those results in his bag.
And I know that I was not being very accurate today.
Tiredness and the need to concentrate on reading the race knocked my abilities.
The very first race was impressive.
In Sussex we have a star in the making at 400 metre hurdles.
Today, he ran 50.55, very close to that magic 50 seconds which would take him into the ranks of a world class athlete. Seb Rodgers has already competed as an international at a number of events - he had thought of himself as a decathlete, but last winter decided to concentrate on 400 hurdles.
A good start to the meeting......and on it went, with eagerly contested races for all those hours.
It was warm for much of the day. I sat out with bare arms ..... Spring really did happen today.
What a contrast with the weather two weeks ago, when we all sat at the track in many layers of clothing.
