UK Women's League 2nd fixture

WGEL's women's UKWL team produced a much improved performance at Birmingham in their second Premiership fixture of the season. They placed 5th just 4.5 points behind 4th with 174.5 points, as TVH won with 229, from hosts Birchfield 226, Windsor 197, Enfield 179, Woodford 174.5, Swansea 159, Edinburgh 157.5 and Blackheath 107. Woodford lie now in 7th place overall in the league with 5 points, ahead Blackheath on 4, as TVH lead on 16, from Windsor 13, Birchfield 12, Edinburgh 8, Swansea 7, Enfield 7. Woodford's women like the men will need a strong turn out in the final fixture to have a chance of maintaining their Premiership status, but certainly now do have a chance after this result. In a solid all round performances with many athletes competing in more than one event, there were "A" string wins for Gemma Rous and Sylvia Cruz, "B" string wins for Myra Perkins and Kitty Eleyae, a personal best for Lucy Marshall and a welcome return for Holly Pattie-Belleli.

Sylvia Cruz's win came in her specialist event where the Portugal international won with 51.49m. Sylvia also contributed valuable points in the shot where she was 5th with 12.77m and the discus 8th with 30.46m. Gemma Rous, 4th last week in the British Championships won the 400mH with 59.31 secs, and then placed 6th in the flat 400m with 56.05 secs. Lucy Marshall's personal best in the "A" string hammer came off a week of illness and she placed 2nd with 58.74m, this time getting the better of Scotland Commonwealth Games representative Myra Perkins who won the "B" with 55.99m. The other winner was Kitty Eleyae in the B Long jump with 5.57m (-0.6). Kitty earlier had placed 6th in the "B" 100m with 12.69 secs w (+2.9), and also placed 3rd in the "B" triple jump with 11.07m. In the "A" long jump Holly Pattie-Belleli, currently back in the UK from her US university placed 4th with 5.59m (+0.6). Holly also placed 5th in the "B" 200m with 25.17 secs, and 3rd in the "A" 100mH with a good 13.85 secs (+1.2). Another multi-eventer, Moe Sasegbon gained valuable points in three events, 2nd in the "A" high jump with 1.75m, 2nd in the "B" 100mH with 14.30 secs w (+3.3), and 4th in the "B" shot with 11.40m.

Sarah Busby made her UKWL debut for Woodford and was a welcome addition in the sprints placing 3rd in the "A" 100m with 11.92 secs w (+2.2) and 6th in the "B" 200m with 24.70 secs (+2.0). In the middle distances, Gemma Coe doubled at 800m and 1500m and placed 6th in both "A" races with 2m16.99 secs and 4m42.85 secs. Bernadine Pritchett doubled also at 800m and 3000m where in the "B" events she was 6th in both with 2m27.36 secs and 11m04.90 secs. Kat Gundersen also doubled, 6th in the "B" 1500m with 5m13.29 secs and 7th in the "A" 3000m with 10m53.03 secs. Rachel Lund was 3rd in the 2000m s/ch with 5m13.29 secs, and also 7th in the "B" 400m with 69.89 secs. Eike Vardja also competed in two events the "B" javelin, 6th with 29.20m, the "B" discus, 7th with 24.19m . In other jump events there were further good points, as Zainab Ceesay, not at full fitness after a knee injury, was 3rd in the "A" triple jump with 12.54m. Ayamba Akim 3rd in the "B" high jump with 1.60m, and Caroline Adams 6th in the "A" pole vault with 3.30m.

The 4x100m team of Kitty Eleyae, Gemma Rous, Holly Pattie-Belleli and Sarah Busby were 4th with 47.83 secs, and the 4x400m team of Holly Pattie-Belleli, Caroline Adams, Gemma Coe and Gemma Rous were 7th with 4m03.98 secs.