SAL5 Report
Despite finishing fourth in the final SAL fixture of the season in Kings Lynn, WGEL just held on to their position in the second division for 2023. Either hosts Ryston Runners or Victoria Park & Tower Hamlets AC may have avoided relegation if they won the final match convincingly, but Dacorum quickly established a lead in the match which became decisive by the end of the day. Ryston narrowly edged VPTH on the day, hence moving above them in the final league table but not out of the bottom four with Woodford provisionally one place higher in 12th.
As last year, a September date for a league fixture did not encourage a strong turnout. A small Woodford team was competitive in the events contested, but with far fewer athletes than the other teams was never in contention overall and from early on was focused on earning enough points to avoid the drop on countback if the other teams battling against relegation came through late. Highest points scorer for the team by far was Hugh Williams, including a personal best to win the discus in 38.18, 12.22 to win the shot, plus a B string hammer win behind M55 Fergus Harford’s 2nd in the A string, plus A string points in the javelin and high jump. Lucy Marshall achieved another performance of the match to win the hammer in 53.40 at the start of the fixture before the match paused to reflect national mourning, then won the shot in 9.82 and took 3rd in the javelin. Denesha Rocastle was the other A string winner, with 11.42 in the triple jump after 3rd in the long jump.
There were no A string wins for Woodford on the track, remarkably athletes finished second in every individual event contested. Indeed an unlikely B string win from team manager Alan James in the B string 400m was the only first place of the day on the track albeit much slower than U17M Ben Richards in the separate A string race. Nathan Yao contested both 100 and 200 men’s A races, with a PB of 11.43 in the former. U17W Benie Massembo raced the women’s equivalents with her 26.51 200m impressive given very difficult wind against on the top bend, with fellow U17 Keisha Bediako in the B races. Rhianna Buaku was 2nd in the 400m hurdles, as was Simon Beedell in the 5000m in which he made his way through the field after a patient start.
Despite exciting races, the 4x100m relays were unable to deliver a win either. U17W Sanzia Obiero was brought in at short notice to anchor the 4x100m and, while unable to hold on to the lead handed on by Benie Massembo, Denesha Rocastle and Rhianna Buaku, her performance in finishing second made a mockery of the notional 3 second PB differential to the Dacorum anchor. The men’s quartet of Somto Jideofor, Ben Richards, Ayo Osundun and Nathan Yao were in contention throughout but just ended third in a three-way photo-finish.