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SAL fixture 4: Narrow loss at home

WGEL performed strongly in the first of three consecutive home SAL matches on Saturday 18 June. Despite winning almost half of all the events, the team narrowly lost out to Watford due to the latter winning 8 events unopposed. The team finished well ahead of Huntingdon and Enfield&Haringey, both of whom were previously ahead in the league, with Ilford in 5th.

Results

Photos (by Alex Wardle)

Holly Redman SAL4 2016 1

Highlights included Lucy Marshall achieving the second longest ever HT in the league (59.46), while Chris Linque (DT 50.15) and Hollie Redman (above, DT 44.93) were athletes of the match. Hugh Williams added more than a foot to his SP PB (13.42) but still lost out to Devon Douglas, who recorded one of his best DT/SP doubles in a day (49.88,13.45). Underlining the strength of throws on the day Paul Howard threw his best competitive JT in 9 years, 52.82, among 15 out of 16 throws wins. Peter Clarke edged brother Harry in the HT (54.67 to 53.89), while Eike Vardja was the other A string winner in the JT (28.55).

Other doubles wins included the men and womens TJ. The success of Peter Kirabo and U17 Baker Lubwama (pictured below) could have been predicted, but U17 Rebecca Fafowora also won in her event debut (9.43 just ahead of Eike Vardja) and also won the HJ. Other A string winners included Angus Holford in the 1500 (with Pete Caton taking the B) and Tommy Bower holding on to win the 2000 SC. PBs included Owen Armstrong winning the B 400 in 53.53 (with U17 Adam Mountford winning the A in 51.02), U17 Denesha Rocastle in the LJ (4.70) and U17 George Kabasubabo in the NS TJ (11.24).

Baker Lubwana

It was great to see Katie Skelding in her first outing since giving birth to Sophia. While she missed out in the narrowest finish of the day in the 200m she returned to anchor a winning 4x100 team. The men produced two dominant relay wins, but note should also go to our scratch womens 4x400 team that finished 2nd and kept the match alive until the final results were in. Special thanks should go to Keith Newton who covered as team manager while the usual incumbent worked on results. The final 2 matches are also at home, on Saturday 9 July and 20 August, and hopefully they will see a repeat of the strong team spirit in evidence by all those competing in this fixture.