North Down had three athletes in a very wet London on the first day of the Woodford Green decathlon. Peter Glass had a good first day and finished in 4th with 3501 points from 11.32 sec at 100m, 6.82m at long jump, 12.17m at shot, 1.83m at high jump and 53.29 sec at 400m. The wet fan made the high jump dodgy and nobody bettered 1.89m. In 7th place on 3395 points, Tom Reynolds had 11.43 sec at 100m, 6.56m at long jump, 12.39 at shot, 1.71m at high jump and 53.77 sec at 400m. Brendan McConville chose not to risk his vulnerable ankle at the high jump and took a token attempt, enabling him to remain in the competition in a mentoring role. However that was as good as it got as on the second day things fell apart.
The bug which had been spreading among the officials reached Tom on the second day and he failed to show. As a result of the long jump and hurdles, Brendan’s ankle flared up and though he vaulted 4.60m that was it. Peter had a good hurdles but the pole vault was a killer. He had cleared 3.80m with ease in the warm-up and came in at that height. However the bar had taken forever to reach 3.80m, the adrenaline had gone and recent vaulting practice has been non existent. Three no heights and that was the hat trick.