Athletes impress in YDL upper
Woodford Green with Essex Ladies finished 5th in the first league fixture of the year on Sunday, in the YDL upper age group match in Tonbridge. Hosts Tonbridge just failed to overhaul Crawley after a tight battle for the win, ahead of Havering and Croydon, with the combined ATIP team propping up the table. Among athletes to impress, Gwen Datey just missed out on the win in the U20 womens 100m in 11.99, but became the first junior Woodford woman to run a wind-legal sub-12 since 2007. She then ran a 24.54PB despite a challenging cross wind to avenge her 100m loss by almost a second. Shona Vincent was similarly dominant in her individual races, taking the B string U20W 100 and 200 in 12.22 and 25.11PB respectively.
At the start of the day new member Noah Wooding took the win in the U20 mens hammer with a 6kg PB of 43.56m, backed up by Luke Finch taking the B. It was the first league meeting for the former U15 national medallist, who also improved his shot best with 10.78 for 2nd. Another thrower to PB was Alex Hancock, who was 3rd A string in a competitive U17M javelin with 38.65 along with two other 3rd places in the DT and HT. The only other Woodford winner on the field was Marcel Winter in the U17 mens high jump, on countback with 1.65, having come straight from winning the B 100m in 11.64w. Kharina Partridge was second in the U17W triple jump in 10.76m behind the Southern champion, with Luca Kaye 3rd in the U17M long jump (5.47). Several athletes stepped up to cover throws events at new weights to them, including Nate Harding despite having restricted mobility on the day.
Sikiru Onigbanjo was 3rd in competitive U20M 100 and 200m A races. A number of U17 men competed in U20 races, including Alfie Ward who won the B 400m after Max Richards took 2nd in the A with a PB of 53.85. Unfortunately Alfie was disqualified for a lane infringement in the U17 800m, while busiest man of the day was Oscar Farthing-Barbero who covered the B string having already finished 3rd in the 1500m and competed in the A string shot. James Canlas was 3rd in the U17M 100m (11.67) while Ethan Franklin won the B 200m in 24.24. Ben Richards (54.57) and Godwinner Nkebani (57.55, debut) were 2nd in their respective U17 400m races.
Ashleigh Simmonds was 3rd in a tight U17W 100m (12.96) with Benie Massembo 2nd in the B (12.97). They repeated their positions in the 200m, though Benie was the marginally quicker of the two (27.08). PBs in the non-scoring races included Levania Ugonna with 13.06 in the women’s 100m and Kayode Alaba with 12.09 in the men’s, with Tyrees Agha (12.66) and Josiah Dasilva (12.72) also improving in the same event before Tyrees stepped up to cover the U20M 200B (26.28).
Injuries through the course of the day meant it was not possible to field all the intended relay teams, while the women’s U20 4x100m team went into this event with high hopes but were disqualified for a faulty final changeover. Most of this quartet joined up with Jess Adams to form an U20W 4x4 team, led off by Zahara Malcolm, with Gwen Datey trying a distance she has never previously envisaged and Shona Vincent bringing the team home in 2nd with 4:22.02. The U17 mens 4x100m team (46.07) and 4x400m team (3:54.73) both finished 3rd despite none of the long relay team ever having raced the distance before Sunday (Josiah Dasilva, Tyrees Agha, Oscar Fathing-Barbero and Godwinner Nkebani). The U20 4x400m team was mainly those U17s with experience at the distance (Ben Richards, Alfie Ward and Reuben Fabian) plus Max Richards on anchor, they too finished 3rd in 3:45.40.
It was a welcome return to normality for league competition after disrupted and localised-only competition in 2021. A normal structure also means promotion and relegation this year, with 1 to go up but 2 to go down in division 1B of the YDL upper. The team will need a stronger overall result in the home fixture, which is now on Saturday 28 May (not Sunday as originally planned due to RideLondon), to pull clear of the relegation zone.