BAL Premiership 3rd Fixture

Woodford Green w EL’s men’s T &F team travelled to Glasgow for the 3^rd BAL Premiership fixture of the season on Saturday. In another very close fixture they finished 5^th with 268 points ahead of Shaftesbury 266, Enfield 247.5 and Glasgow on 239, as Newham reversed their season’s fortunes so far, and won with 332, from Birchfield 290, Sale 276 and Sheffield 270.5. Woodford now lay in 7^th place overall with one fixture to go, but the table is so close that Woodford still have every chance of staying in the Premiership in the final fixture at Lee Valley on August 8^th. Sheffield lead with 18, from Birchfield 17, Sale 17, Shaftesbury 16, Enfield 13, Newham 12, Woodford 11, and the already relegated Glasgow on 3. Woodford performances were led by A” string field event wins from Andy Frost, Tosin Oke, and “B” string wins from Jermaine Hamilton,  Thalasong Tshiereltso and Youcef Zatat.

Andy Frost who has been in good form in the last couple of weeks, including a season’s best of 69.49m, won the opening event of the meeting, the hammer which with 67.20m. Missing a specialist “B” hammer thrower, Anthony Oshodi stepped in and gained very valuable “B” string points with 3^rd and 38.84m. Anthony later competed in his specialist event, the shot, where in a good field he placed 4^th with 16.24m, just beating Youcef Zatat who won the “B” string with 16.21m. Tosin Oke, the former Commonwealth Games champion, and current silver medallist from last year’s Commonwealth’s in Glasgow, won his specialist event the triple jump with 15.86m (+1.5) off a short approach as Thalasong Tshireletso won the “B” with 14.85m. Tosin had earlier in his first long jump competition for several years placed 5^th in that event with 6.70m (+1.2), as another athlete who competed in Tosin’s winning Commonwealth Games in Delhi, where he competed in the Pole Vault, Alasdair Strange was also 4^th in the “B” with 6.42m (+1.5). Robert Wolski was back in action after missing the 2^nd match following a cycle accident and placed 4^th in the high jump with 2.10m, as Jack Lochans was 3^rd  in the  “B” with 2.00m. The discus saw Chris Linque 6^th with 46.93m and Devon Douglas 4^th in the “B” with 44.90m. Former international decathlete and veteran Paul Howard was called into action for the first time this season and placed 6^th in the javelin with 47.26, with Alasdair Strange 7^th in the “B” with 34.61m. Missing specialist pole vaulters Paul placed 7^th with 2.60m and Ryan McKinlay also filling-in was 7^th in the ‘B” with 2.20m.

The track events opened with the 400mH and Ewan Dyer after getting the 5^th hurdle slightly wrong, lost rhythm somewhat but nevertheless was 5th with 54.61 secs, as Ryam McKinlay filling-in in the “B” string, 7^th with 61.12 secs. Ryan also had to undertake “B” 110mH duty where he was 8^th with 21.11 secs, where in the A” Francis Smith had his first competition of the season and surprised himself with 6^th and 15.30 secs. The sprinters gained very good points, Omololu Abiodun was 2^nd in the 100m with 10.74 secs (+0.7) and then 4^th in the 200m with 21.54 secs w (+3.8), but suffered calf cramp as he crossed the line which was to rule him out of the relay. In The “B” sprints, Jermaine Hamilton enjoyed his first BAL victory in the 100m with 10.83 secs (+0.1) and just lost out on a double as he was 2^nd in the 200m with 21.74 secs (+2.3). In good quality 400m races, Alex Bell was 6^th in the ‘A” with 49.02 secs, and Ewan Dyer also 6^th in the “B” with 49.78 secs.

The 800m races continued to be of a good quality, and although somewhat tactical Nathan Wake’s 5^th was in the “A” was a good run in 1m54.16 secs. The “B’ saw the field go through just under 60 secs, and Andrew Mariani was also 5^th with 1m55.30 secs. The 1500m brought good points as Tom Phillips and James Stockings both ran very competitive races with Tom 3^rd in the “A” with 3m57.18 secs, and James 2^nd in the “B” with 3m57.74 secs. The 5000m saw Ed Shepherd a good 4^th with 14m54.63 secs, and Gavin Lewis struggling in the latter stages 6^th in the “B” with 15m50.44 secs. The 3000m s/ch was of a good standard and Tomaz Plibersek’s 9m36.38 secs was only good enough for 7^th. In the “B” debutant Tommy Bower was 6^th in the “B” with 10m08.00 secs. Sadly with Omololu’s late withdrawal with calf cramp from the 4x100m an already weakened team struggled and failed to finish after a dropped baton. The 4x400 squad (Nathan Wake, Alex Bell, Thasalong Thsireletso and Vincent Ogedengbe) placed 7^th with 3m21.04 secs.