UKWL Premier Division, Match One
The story from the UKWL held at Birmingham was similar to that for the men’s BAL team. Due to the fixture clashes, certain events were weakened, but there were some fine individual efforts with Sarah Claxton’s 100mH victory probably the best, but also several others, as well as game team spirit, but also sadly injury woes, as misfortune struck Vicki Barr. The team finished a solid 4th with 193 points, 0.5 of a point behind Sale in third but only 5.5 points behind 2nd placed Windsor as hosts Birchfield also won the women’s match with 231 points.
Sara Claxton, the Beijing Olympic 100mH finalist, whose form has been steadily improving during the season was a comfortable winner of the “A” string with 13.38 secs (+1.7), and was ably backed up in the “B” string by Stephanie Gaynor who placed 2nd with 14.05 secs (+0.9). Like the men, the women 400m hurdlers found the strong back straight headwind tough, and many high standard athletes found their times affected. For Woodford in the “A” string, Nusrat Ceesay was 5th with 60.24 secs, and in the “B” although winning, Tracey Duncan was held back to 61.56 secs. Over 100m it was pleasing to see Elaine O’Neil back in action, and she placed 3rd in the “A” string with 12.04 secs, whilst in the “B” Azaria Francis was 4th with 12.27 secs (+1.3). Vicki Barr who was due to compete over both 400m and 200m, sadly was injured with a hamstring tear, whilst warming up shortly before the 400m start. This meant that “B” string 400m athlete Katie Skelding had to move into the “A” event, where she placed 7th with 58.37 secs (a time which would have been 4th in the “B” string), but there was no time to find a ‘B” string replacement, leaving valuable points lost. Gamely not long after the 400m, and in Vicki’s absence Katie stepped up to the “A” 200m where her 25.58 secs (-0.4) was 8th. Filling that “B” string slot at short notice long jumper Kitty Eleyae also recorded 25.58 secs (+1.2) for 7th. Kitty had earlier long jumped well, and placed 2nd with a latter round effort of 6.06m (+1.2), a distance achieved when taking off from behind the board, suggesting much further improvement as the season progresses. In the “B” event, heptathlete, Gemma Weetman won with 5.69m (0.0), and was later also busy placing 5th in the shot with 11.41m and 7th in the javelin with 30.57m.
Plenty of other good field points were gained; in the triple jump, Hannah Franskon, just got the better of Stephanie Aneto as her 12.64m (+0.1) placed 3rd in the “A”, with Stephanie’s 12.58m (+1.2) winning the “B”. the high jump saw Moe Sasegbon place 2nd in the “A” with 1.70m and Ayamba Akim also 2nd in the “B” with 1.65m. The pole vault saw Louise Shortland 6th with 3.40m, and in the “B” Kirsty McIntosh was 2nd with 3.20m. In the other throws, Myra Perkins made her debut and in a good standard hammer competition was 5th with 54.59m, as Lucy Marshall placed 3rd in the “B” with 52.01m. Lucy also gained valuable “B” shot points with 10.59m for 2nd. In the discus, Hollie Redman threw a good 40.85m for 4th and was backed up by Elycia Metaxes-Belt who was 6th in the “B” with 33.20m. Hollie also gained useful javelin points as she placed 5th in that “B event with 23.20m.
The middle distance events like those in the men’s fixture were hit by the Watford BMC clash, but all Clubs were affected to some extent. In the A” 800m Emily Moss who has been out injured for some time placed 5th with 2m19.61 secs, but in the “B” race Katherine Foy took victory down the home straight in 2m18.55 secs. Katherine also later showed her great team spirit as lacking a “B” string 1500m athlete she went round for 4th in the “B” with 5m16.04 secs, as Sidne Sales placed 6th in the “A” with 4m58.44 secs, before also placing 4th in the 2000m s/ch with 8m41.65 secs. The 3000m saw “B” string runner, debutant Charlotte Peppiatt record 10m38.20 secs for 4th as she was elevated to the “A” string as Georgie-Lou Sales, returning from injury was unable to finish.
The 4x100m relay team placed 4th with 48.31 secs, and tired bodies gamely got the 4x400m baton round in 4m14.98 secs for 7th. As with the men, team management was left wondering what might have been without missfortune, and at the same time hope for Vicki Barr that her injury is not as serious as seemed likely at the time.