National Athletics League - Round Three
The 3rd round of this season’s hybrid NAL format was held at Woodford on Sunday. The hosting of the fixture at Woodford was notable because although as a founding member of the original NAL and subsequently ever present in both the BAL and UKWL the Club has regularly hosted both BAL and UKWL fixtures at this level, not since the late 1980's has the Club been able to host at its home track, instead having to use neighbouring facilities such as Copthall, New River Haringey and Lee Valley. The addition of a new, albeit small stand at Woodford enabled the Club on this occasion to again host at its own venue.
The weather although certainly blustery stayed mainly dry during the meeting, rather better than had been expected. As in the previous two meetings all teams' athletes were both a mixture of some of their best supported by many younger and less experienced athletes. That was certainly the case for the Woodford team where performances included “A” string wins on the men’s side for internationals Cameron Fillery and Youcef Zatat and from the women Anna Clark and Louise Gilbert, together with several personal bests for others. From a team perspective Woodford placed second on the day to winners Harrow, ahead of SBH and NEB. The divisional League position from amongst the 16 Clubs that make up the Premiership remains unclear with outstanding errors from the NAL scoring system still not corrected. If corrected it seems as if Woodford would probably be 4th in that table.
Youcef Zatat’s win in the men’s shot came after a more than two month forced lay-off due injury. Although not at his very best, his 17.07m ensured victory after earlier placing 2nd in the “A” discus with 44.13m. Backing up Youcef in the shot was hammer specialist Ciaran Wright who was 3rd in the ‘B” with a season’s best of 13.97m. Chris Linque, the other discus man, sadly had three no-throws so did not score. Ciaran placed 2nd in the hammer with 63.42m as Andy Frost won the “B” with a season’s best 59.47m. In the javelin it was pleasing to see Simon Bennett back in action where, this being only his second outing of the season due to injury, he threw 51.68m to place 3rd. Decathlete Howard Bell covered the “B” and his 49.51m placed 2nd. Howard had earlier placed 3rd in the long jump with 6.91m w (+3.3) and had won the “B” Pole Vault with 4.12m. Backing up Howard in the LJ was junior Samuel Oshodi whose 6.11m w (+2.4) was 4th in the “B”. In the “A” Pole Vault it was good to see Nathan Gardner back in competitive action outdoors for the first time since 2019 and off a short approach his 4.32m was good enough for victory. All the high jumpers found the conditions tough with their approach being into a stiff headwind but with junior Joba Ashiru and Curtis Wood each clearing 1.85m, Woodford placed 2nd in the “A” and won the “B”. Joba also placed 2nd in the triple jump with his best ever, but windy mark of 13.60m w (+3.7), SAL Team Manager Alan James stood in the last minute to claim some “B” string points with 9.40m w (+2.2) which placed 2nd.
The leading Woodford track performance came from GB international Cameron Fillery who came through strongly in the second half of a good standard 110mH to ensure victory in 13.77 secs (w?). Ollie Cresswell was the “B” scorer and won with 14.64 secs (w?). The 400m Hurdlers were also in good form and in the “A” George Vaughan went under 53 secs for the first time as he placed 2nd with 52.82 secs. In the “B” Declan Gall finished very strongly to win in a season’s best of 53.51 secs. All the sprints were good standard races and long jump specialist Sam Khogali was 4th in the “A” with 11.02 secs (w?) as first year U/20 Medwin Odamtten ran his fastest ever to place 4th with 10.90 secs (w?). Medwin also ran well in the 200m where he recorded a personal best of 22.40 secs (+2.0) for 4th. Winfred Hakeem also recorded a p.b. in the “A” with 22.70 secs (+1.7) which also placed 4th. Winfred had earlier recorded 11.06 secs w (+2.8) in the non-scoring 100m. The 400m races all had strong fields although times were hampered by the stiff headwind along the back straight, in the “A” race U/20 Nabil Tezcratt was 2nd with 49.00 secs and in the “B” Joe Dickenson was 4th with 50.85 secs as guest Paul Scanlan just edged him with 50.82 secs. In the non-scoring race Adrian Richards recorded 51.65 secs which, given that very stiff headwind, compares well with his current season’s best of 51.35 secs.
Ben Potrykus led Woodford’s middle-distance performances where in the 800m, having sat of the pace perhaps for a little too long, he finished very strongly to place 2nd with 1m52.92 secs. U/20 Tom Adolphus placed 3rd in the ‘B” with 2m04.61secs. With a last minute drop-out in the 1500m Angus Holford was elevated into the “A” spot with his 4m12.61 secs for 4th and Josh Entwistle stepped in to cover the gap and his 4m39.49 secs was 2nd in the “B” and that was after Josh had earlier placed 2nd in the 3000m s/ch with 10m19.32 secs. Ryan McKinlay scored as the “B” but was game to have finished having encountered a calf problem relatively early in the race. His 12m03.77 secs was a long way from his usual standard but still placed 2nd in the “B”. The 3000m flat race started off at a modest pace but then picked up after a couple of laps, Ed Shepherd was 4th in the “A” with 8m48.69 secs and marathon specialist Paul Martelletti, in his first track race for two years, was 3rd in the “B” with 8m56.43 secs.
Both the relay teams placed 2nd, the 4x100m squad of Ollie Cresswell, Medwin Odamtten, Winfred Hakeem and Sam Khogali recording 43.38 secs and the 4x400 team of George Vaughan (54.02 secs), Declan Gall (49.04 secs), Paul Scanlan (50.83) secs and Joe Dickenson (51.79 secs) combining for 3m25.68 secs.
The Women’s team were missing some athletes through either injury or illness but rallied round well to cover most of the events. Anna Clark was Woodford’s first winner on the day, over 800m as she just overhauled Jess Norkett in the final stages to record 2m14.32 secs, with Jess equalling her recent personal with 2m14.50 secs to take the “B”. There was also a double win in the 1500m where in the “A” Louise Gilbert significantly improved her p.b., front-running to 4m40.85 secs with Lilly Yates just outside her best ever with 5m01.26 secs for “B” victory. Another to record a p.b. was U/20 Jess Adams whose 11m10.57 secs was 2nd in the 3000m. Missing some of our usual sprinters those that stepped in still performed well. Jo Ryan was 4th in the “A” 100m with 12.46 secs (+1.1) and later 3rd in the “B” 200m with 26.10 secs w (+2.4). Eloise Lewis was 3rd in the “B” 100m with 12.73 secs (w?) with Yemi Mary John just 0.01 secs outside of her p.b. with 24.54 secs (+1.8) for 3rd in the “A” 200m. Despite that headwind in the back straight in the 400m U/20, Kyra Boyce nevertheless recorded a p.b. of 57.15 secs for 3rd with Jasmine Mitchell taking the “B” with 58.75 secs.
The throws saw some decent performances. Lucy Marshall was 2nd in the hammer with 56.34m as U/20 Simbi Sikiru won the “B”, improving her p.b. by over 1m to 51.76m. In a good standard discus Emma Botham was 3rd with 44.91m as Precious Hamilton took “B” victory with 40.95m. Both then helped in other events, Emma 3rd in the “B” shot with 9.65m and Precious 4th in the javelin with 29.17m as Lucy Marshall also helped out in both of those events with 4th in the shot with 10.02 m and 3rd in the “B” javelin with 19.67m. Multi-eventer Amelia McDonald covered two of the jumps events and placed 4th in both “A” high jump and long jump with 1.55m and 5.07m w (+3.2) respectively. Larissa Anipa covered the “B” HJ where she was 2nd=, and then the “B” LJ which she won with 4.63m w (+3.8) but sadly picked up an ankle injury on landing which we hope is not too serious. Millie Finch gamely covered the TJ where she placed 3rd with 8.67m (+1.7) having earlier found herself in the “A” 400mH with 76.32 secs for 4th.
The relay teams placed 3rd and 2nd with the 4x100 team of Eloise Lewis, Katie Skelding, Jasmine Mitchell and Jo Ryan recording 50.10 secs and the 4x400 team of Jasmine Mitchell (59.77 secs), Jo Ryan (59.89 secs), Jess Norkett (59.34 secs) and Louise Gilbert (62.29 secs) recording 4m01.29 secs.