NAL Round One - Cardiff
The first full National level club athletics fixtures since 2019 were held over the weekend with the first round of the new National Athletics League (NAL) being held in Cardiff and Manchester. Woodford were in action in Cardiff where the weather was unusually pleasant albeit presenting headwinds for the sprinters. The new on-line results service had significant teething issues apparently as a result of insufficient server capacity which meant Clubs did not know of the team results until the following day. Until the results system stopped functioning Woodford had been laying in 2nd place, but in the end finished 3rd, 24 points behind Harrow but a long way off run away winners TVH. The final team scores were, TVH 662, Harrow 492, Woodford 468, Cardiff 409, Swansea 400,Nots 297, Southampton 275 and NEB 237. With the other Premiership fixture at Manchester and the League points being scored on an 8 to 1 basis, that leaves Woodford currently in 5th place in the 16 Club Premiership on the basis of a higher points score (468 to 447) than the 3rd placed team (Trafford). Indeed Woodfords 468 total was greater than the winners (Blackheath with 467) of the Manchester match, suggesting that fixture perhaps had greater depth. Currently “officials’ points” have not been added but would appear unlikely to affect the current published positions.
Woodford’s athletes performed admirably across the board and often out-performed expectations. A couple of gaps in the women’s team (no steeplechasers and only one pole vaulter) if filled might have been sufficient to have overhauled Harrow for 2nd. There was a personal best recorded by young sprinter Medwin Odamtten, another for middle distance athlete Louise Gilbert and also over 400mH from Leah Keisler. There were NAL debuts for a number of younger athletes. Mark Dry, Che Richards, Anna Clark, Shona Vincent , Ed Shepherd, George Vaughan and the women’s 4x100m relay team were all event winners on the day.
The women’s hammer got the proceedings under way and in a high standard competition Lucy Marshall placed 4th with her 5th round effort of 54.52m. In the “B” Simbi Sikiru who has managed limited training following an injury sustained playing Rugby was 3rd with 45.79m. Both hammer throwers covered other events with Lucy 8th in the shot 9.12m and Simbi 7th in the “B” with 8.16m. Lucy was also in javelin action where her 21.60m was 7th. In the “B” Precious Hamilton was 5th with 17.02m. This event took place at exactly the same time as the discus, Precious’ specialist event where she was 3rd with 42.28m. In the “B” Abigail Allen was also 3rd with29.58m. Another early field event was the women’s long jump where both athletes were making their Woodford NAL debuts. Each were U/20’s and Amelia Watling placed 3rd with 5.42m and Harriet Legg was 2nd in the “B” with 5.08m. The same two athletes covered the high jump where each cleared 1.50m, Harriet 6th in the “A” and Amelia 3rd in the “B”. Harriet was also in the triple jump where her 10.59 w (+2.2) for 6th just got the better of another Woodford debutant U/17 Kharina Partridge whose 10.51m (+1.4) was 3rd in the “B”. The women’s Pole Vault was a tight and high standard competition where Ellen McCartney just lost out on countback with her 4.10m for 2nd.
Two early men’s field events, the hammer and the long jump both produced Woodford victories. Mark Dry took the hammer win in a good competition with 68.38m but was a little disappointed not to have recorded an additional Scottish Commonwealth Games qualifying standard (69m). Andy Frost, like Mark a former GB Number 1 in this event but now a V40 was 3rd in the “B” with 56.21m. Trinidad international and Cardiff University final year law student Che Richards took the long jump win with a mark of 7.47m (+1.9) whilst high jumper Curtis Wood picked up useful “B” string points with 6.35m (+1.1) for 4th in the “B” and later in the high jump was 6th with 1.90m, the same as Joba Ashiru who placed 3rd in the “B”. Later, in the triple jump Joba was 4th in the “B” with his one effort of 11.88m. Former Commonwealth Games champion and Olympic finalist Tosin Oke was in the “A” and recorded 14.97m (+1.2), but a hamstring problem sustained on that effort meant it was his only mark. Youcef Zatat just lost out in the shot where his 17.49m placed him 2nd by just 11cm. Lacking another specialist, Mark Dry covered the “B” where the hammer man put 12.65m and placed a useful 3rd in the “B”. In the other throws the discus and javelin, as for the women they were both held at the same time with the javelin inside and the discus outside which made it very difficult for any athlete who was doing both events as was the case for both Woodford athletes. Youcef’s 44.35 in the discus placed him 5th whilst his 46.34m in the javelin placed 6th, with former international decathlete Paul Howard (now a V55) placing 4th in the “B” javelin with 44.03m and his 28.79m in the discus was 5th in the “B”. Lacking specialist pole vaulters, Paul also covered that event and his clearance of the opening heigh (2.10m) was 8th; former steeplechase specialist Ryan McKinlay cleared the same and he placed 6th in the “B”.
Woodford’s first individual women’s track victory came in the 800m where Anna Clark finished very strongly to take the win in 2m10.44 secs. Later, Anna also raced well over 1500m where she finished 2nd in the “B” with 4m43.32 secs, but it was ahead of Anna, where Louise Gilbert took a super “A” string win, front running the whole race she recorded a personal best of 4m32.82 secs as she won by over 4 seconds. Becky Wilby backed up Anna over 800m and placed 6th in that “B” race with 2m27.56 secs. In the other middle-distance event, 3000m Woodford’s two athletes have been recently struggling with health and injury issues so in the end both were pleased to finish and gain valuable points for the team. Alicia McCardell was 5th in the “A” with 11m27.73 secs and in the “B” Jess Adams was 4th with 11m43.77 secs.
Woodford’s other women’s individual win on the track came from 17-year-old Shona Vincent who took the 100m “B” with 12.28 secs (-1.5) into a stiff headwind. Earlier Shona had recorded 12.21 secs (+0.2) in the non-scoring 100m just holding off Yemi Mary John with the 400m specialist recording 12.22 secs (+0.2). Yemi Mary later ran in the “A” 200m where she placed 3rd with 24.57 secs (-0.4). The “B” race saw Gwen Datey placing a good 2nd from the inside lane with 24.69 secs. Gwen earlier was 3rd in the 100m “A” race with 12.17 secs (-1.0) another into a stiff headwind.
Over 100mH there was a good run from Jane Davidson where she recorded a personal best of 14.40 secs (-1.8) for 4th. The “B” race saw Amelia Watling take on another event and she placed 6th with 17.22 secs having lost her stride pattern mid race and picking up what we hope is anot too serious injury. Both 400mH races scored useful points. Jasmine Mitchell was 4th in the “A” with 62.92 secs whilst debutant Leah Keisler was 2nd in the “B” with 62.83 secs, a personal best. Later, Leah ran in the “B” 400m where she tripped across the line (luckily with no serious damage) for 3rd with 58.33 secs. In that “A” race there was another debutant, first year U/20 Rebecca Grieve who was not far off her best ever with 55.43 secs for 2nd.
Both women’s relay teams recorded fine performances. The 4x100m squad of Jane Davidson, Shona Vincent, Yemi Mary John and Gwen Datey taking victory in a fine 46.49 secs. The 4x400m squad of Rebecca Grieve (56.9 secs), Leah Keisler (56.8), Jasmine Mitchell (59.1 secs) and Yemi Mary John (53.5 secs) combined for 3m46.28 secs to place 2nd.
The men’s first track victory came in the unlikely shape of Ed Shepherd taking a victory in the “B” 800m – an event now significantly under distance for Ed. After sitting towards the back in what was in any case a slowish tactical pace, Ed found he had more speed in his legs than he expected and came past all but one in the home straight, second across the line by a few hundredths in 1m59.32 secs for the “winner” to be dq’d for a lane infringement to give Ed the win. In the “A” race Videsh Weerakkody made his debut and did well to maintain his form towards the end and record 2m02.15 secs for 7th. Ed was in action again later over 1500m where again he ran strongly in a 1500m that picked up after a slow first lap finishing 5th in3m57.14 secs. Just behind Ed and winning the “B” was Adam Kirk-Smith with 3m58.93 secs. Adam was also in his 2nd race of the day having earlier placed 2nd in the 3000m s/ch with 8m 59.33 secs. Having gone off at a Commonwealth Games qualifying standard pace to help the Cardiff athlete have a go at that mark, Adam then settled back to a more comfortable pace for his current level of fitness to ensure he gained the 2nd place. It was certainly pleasing to see the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games steeplechase representative back in NAL action. In the “B” steeplechase, Josh Entwistle who has had such a good winter season was just 0.02 secs outside his 9-year-old p.b as he recorded 9m42.84 secs for 2nd. 5000m was the distance race for this fixture and there were several good athletes in the field. Perhaps not quite ready for this after recent ultra-distance events Paul Martelletti nevertheless picked up valuable points as the “B” scorer with 15m28.75 secs for 4th. James Stockings just got the better of Paul and was the “A” scorer where his 15m20.09 secs placed 7th.
17-year old Medwin Odammten’s personal best came over 100m in the non-scoring race where he improved by 0.07 secs to place 2nd in 10.68 secs. Also in the non-scoring races, Sikiru Onigbanjo recorded 11.11 secs (+0.2) for third in his race. Later in the match 100m Medwin again ran well to place 2nd but the strong headwind prevented another personal best as he recorded 10.70 secs (-1.5). In the “B” 100m Matthew Adum-Yeboah ran well, also into a strong headwind with 10.99 secs (-1.4) for 6th. Later Matthew took on the “A” 200m where from the unfavourable inside lane he placed 6th with 22.10 secs (-0.8). The “B” race saw Sikiru back in action where he was also 6th with 22.78 secs (-2.0). The 400m saw Declan Gall called into “A” string action and he ran well finishing 3rd with 49.31 secs. This race was however controversial as some athletes had difficulty in hearing the starter with the NEB athlete not starting. Having never risen to the set position the Starter should not have fired the gun. However that NEB athlete ran later in the non-scoring race and his time in that appears to have been added to the A string results, moving Declan to 4th. However this may well be an error from the scoring system and if so will alter the team scores, but not the positions in due course. The “B” string race saw Paul Scanlan in action where he finished 6th with 50.28 secs. In the non-scoring event Adrian Richards recorded 52.70 secs.
The first race of the day had been the 400mH and it was possibly the highest standard race of the day with Jack Lawrie just losing out to Tokyo Olympian Chris Macalister recording 50.69 secs behind the winner’s 50.41 secs. It was Jack’s fastest ever start to a season and augers well for him chasing a Scotland team Commonwealth Games qualifying mark. In the “B” race there was another 2nd with George Vaughan just losing out by 0.05 secs with 53.09 secs. Later George provided Woodford’s 2nd track win of the day as he took the “B” 110mH with 15.18 secs (-2.4) into a very stiff headwind. In the “A” race it was pleasing to see Taylor Roy back in action but sadly he clipped the 3rd hurdle badly when in 3rd place but never recovered his stride pattern, in the end finishing in 7th with 17.42 secs.
Both men’s relay times also ran well. In a good standard 4x100m Nabil Tezkratt, Che Richards, Matthew Adum-Yeboah and Medwin Odamtten combined with 41.34 secs for 4th. The 4x400m team of Nabil Tezkratt (48.5 secs), Declan Gall (48.0) secs, Paul Scanlan (51.3 secs) and Jack Lawrie (48.0 secs) just losing out after a really close final leg as they recorded 3m 15.83 secs.
It was a pleasant afternoon of athletics and good to be back in National League action after so long. The technical issues around the non-production of results and team scores from mid-meeting on however, did frustrate all team managers and athletes. Team mangers Keith Newton and Gladys Bird will be looking to get out strong teams for the second round of fixtures with Woodford in action at Eton on June 4th.