WGEL win final SAL match
Our team had a successful final home match of the year as they won their last Sweatshop Southern Athletics League fixture of the season. They beat division champions Ryston Runners into second, with London Heathside, who had been second in the league going into the match, finishing third but still gaining promotion. Neighbours Orion Harriers edged out Loughton for fourth. The breadth of the team success was impressive, winning half of the events. Most dominant were our women's throwers, but there were wins in every sphere, some more unexpected than others.
Photos (by Alex Wardle)
Photos (by Bertie Powell)
Photos (by Terry McCarthy)
Lucy Marshall was female athlete of the match, winning the hammer in 57.94m, the shot in 11.90m and the B string discus in a PB of 28.69m. Hollie Redman won the discus in 45.85m, backing up with wins in the B string shot (11.15m), hammer (41.80) and javelin (25.50).
Eike Vardja (below, right) completed the throws domination winning the javelin (29.76), a clean sweep of league wins across the season, and finished second in the long and triple jumps. Gemma Coe shrugged off illness to win the 800m and 1500m double in tactical races. U17 Phoebe Fuhr won the pole vault (2.50 =PB) and high jump (1.43), and combined with Ella Warwick, Clare Leckie and Elese Obiekwe to win the 4x100m (54.07). Ella and Clare were also involved in an unexpected 4x400m win along with Zoe Watson and Kat Gundersen, albeit by way of disqualification.
A large men's team had no gaps for the first time this year and also some highly creditable non-scoring performances. Most successful male athlete was Ryan McKinlay who, prior to comfortably taking the 2000m steeplechase, also won the 400m hurdles, the 800m and even the 110m hurdles. He also found time to pace-make the 5000m, in which our first finisher was non-scorer Harold Wyber in a big PB of 15:51.13 before successfully teaming up with Ryan again in the chase. Another big PB came from U17 Owen Armstrong who won the B string 400m in 53.76s. Stefan Redmond (below left), ever present in the league this season, won the 200m in 23.50, having previously won the B string 100. He then anchored the 4x100m team (with Carl Rendora, Keira McCook and Tyler Bown) to a comfortable win in 44.94s before leading out our 4x400m team who finished second. Angus Holford and Sam Benge won the A and B string 1500m respectively, while team manager Alan James ensured a clean sweep in the 110m hurdles.
Our men’s throwers were almost as dominant as their female counterparts, dropping only one point and then by the thinnest of margins. Harry Clarke comfortably won the hammer in 54.28 (the male performance of the match), as did Jay Boddington in the javelin with 52.81. They were ably backed up by M45 Fergus Harford (34.65) and Lee Lovelock-Jemmott (47.06 PB) respectively. Hugh Williams won the shot in 11.90, while U20 Mikaeel Khaliq just edged him out in the discus in his first senior competition with 35.92. Sam Malekout had a frustrating afternoon, just failing to close out the throws clean sweep in the shot and also finishing second in the long jump, B string high jump and B string pole vault. Christman Ihouma (below) comfortably won the triple jump in 13.42m.
Over fifty athletes represented the club at this fixture, with ages ranging from 15 to over 60. It was encouraging to see a number of U17s making their senior league debuts with competitive performances, including a second place in the B string triple jump from Frankie Westland and third place by Chibudo-Williams Ike in the high jump. Other impressive performances from U17s included second places in both the 100m and 200m by Elese Obiekwe (behind HCA Jo Ryan who had a clean sweep of women’s sprints for Loughton).
The result leaves Woodford finishing mid-division, having propped up the table the previous year which had left a difficult draw this time (facing each of the top 5 teams twice in the season). It should leave the team well placed to mount a bid for promotion out of division 3 in 2016.