Next Graded Meeting: 13th August
The next open graded meeting will be held at Ashton Playing Fields on 13th August.
UKWAL: winners and division 1 champions
A terrific team performance coupled with some late cancellations due to torrential rain saw Woodford Green with Essex Ladies win the final UK women’s athletics league fixture of the season at Wigan and with it the division one title. The team had come into the match lying in third place in the division, but with a gap of three points to the top two moving up the table appeared unlikely and dependent on weak performances from not only hosts Wigan and District Harriers but also Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers. Ultimately Woodford won the match, 6.5 points ahead of Southampton who had gone into the match behind WGEL only on countback, with Swansea 3rd and Wigan 4th. Wigan’s fourth place meant they finished second in the division on countback, while SBH’s sixth dropped them back to mid division. Crawley finished seventh in the match ahead of Harrow who, like SBH, faded as the season went on having finished ahead of Woodford in the opening fixture.
Final league table (subject to scrutiny)
1 WGEL 19 553.5
2 Wigan 19 551
3 Southampton 18 533
4 SBH 17 524
5 Swansea 14 479.5
6 Harrow 9 421
7 Herts Phoenix 7 383
8 Crawley 5 381
Anna Clark: won both the 800m and 1500m
BAL Premiership Fourth Round
Woodford’s men’s team contested the fourth and final round of the BAL Premiership at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium on Saturday. A stronger team (but far from full strength) performed at their best level for this BAL season to finish a more than solid fourth on the day, with 298 points, behind Birchfield on 396, Newham 342, Shaftsbury 319, and ahead of Sheffield 251, Harrow 246, Blackheath 190 and Cardiff 116. That meant holders Birchfield again won the Premiership title with 31 points from Newham 29, Shaftesbury 21, Harrow 19, Woodford 16, Sheffield 14, Blackheath and Cardiff each on 7. Three weeks ahead of the British Championships and at the same venue, the standard across the board was high, with Woodford performances led by “A” string wins for Youcef Zatat, Cameron Fillery and Will Grimsey, who also set a new personal best.
Will Grimsey: a PB of 2.22m took him to 3rd on the UK ranking
Track & Field News
Several Woodford athletes were in action at Manchester over the weekend at the Inter-Counties Championships which incorporated the England Championships There were no Woodford winners but there were medals for Youcef Zatat, Will Grimsey, Jack Lawrie and Bonne Buwembo.