NAL - Premiership Round One
The 2023 National Athletic League got underway with the first fixture at Eton on Sunday. The belated start in June, rather than the usual May was due to the proposed May date clashing with the Coronation weekend. The weather at Eton was a hot 31 C with a modest (generally following) breeze. However, later in the day around 4.30 pm the venue was subject to torrential rain with thunder and lightning. Parts of the track and field event area were quickly flooded and due to that and the danger from the lightning the event was abandoned before the full programme had been completed. This meant that the relay events were not run and the women’s pole vault, shot and steeplechase, together with the men’s triple jump, high jump and javelin were either not started or not completed. The other Premiership fixture in Manchester endured the same fate with that meeting abandoned a little earlier through the programme. In both matches sufficient events were completed to allow that the overall match results will stand. It doesn’t yet seem as if the full results have been completely updated but at Eton Woodford were in 3rd place at the time and it is unlikely that will change once the necessary adjustments have been made although the team was rapidly closing down on Windsor in 2nd place. Provisional (but to be updated) placings have the team order as follows: Harrow, Windsor, Woodford, Glasgow, SBH, Newham, Notts, Crawley.
Woodford’s team although a way from full strength did include some of its top athletes and others stepped in to fill events when needed. Amongst many good performances there were ‘A” string wins for Jack Lawrie, Cameron Fillery, Adam Kirk-Smith, Youcef Zatat and it was pleasing to see Olympic steeple-chaser Phil Norman back in Club action.
Jack Lawrie’s win came in the 400mH where from the outside lane and save for very slight issue at hurdle 5 ran almost flawlessly technically to comfortably win in a time of 50.80 secs. This race was almost exactly 24 hours after Jack had raced in Geneva where he recorded a season’s best of 50.45 secs. Cameron Fillery’s win came in his specialist event the 110mH where he came from behind at halfway to finish very strongly to win in a season’s best of 13.70 secs. In the 'B" George Vaughn won with a personal best of 14.50 secs (+0.7). Cameron later ran the “B” 200m where he placed 6th with 22.05 secs (+0.1). Adam Kirk-Smith won the 3km s/ch which frustratingly was run without the water jump (due to water pressure issues affecting its filling) and he recorded 9m05.73 secs. Ryan McKinlay picked up good points, 2nd in the ‘B” with 11m13.73 secs. Adam had earlier warmed up for his ‘chase with a “B” string 400mH placing 4th in 61.80 secs, and later just as the weather turned ran the flat 3000m in the downpour and strong winds to finish 5th in 8m43.17 secs, with U/20 Joel Doye 2nd in the “B” with 8m52.60 secs. Youcef Zatat’s win came in the shot with 18.22m after earlier placing 4th in the discus with 43.14m. In that “B’ competition Chris Linque was 5th with 40.57m. Backing up Youcef in the shot Hugh Williams stepped in at short notice for Craig Charlton (after BA cancelled his flight from Frankfurt where he lives and works) and his 12.10m was good enough for 2nd in the “B”. Hugh together with Fergus Harford had earlier covered the hammer ensuring valuable points were gained.
Phil Norman raced over both 800m and 1500m. In the former Phil finished a good 2nd with 1m51.93 secs. In the latter he was paired with Ben Potrykus (who had run 3m46.84 the previous evening at Loughborough) and after a very slow start the race picked up over the second half with Ben just leading Phil into the last 100m and although a couple of others just came past in the last 20m, Ben was 2nd in the “A” with 3m50.69 secs and Phil 1st in the “B” with 3m51.06 secs. Backing up Phil in the 800m was debutant and U/20, Jimmy Geller who performed admirably at this level to place 4th in 1m56.26 secs fractionally outside his hand-timed p.b. of 1m56.2 secs. The 400m races were of a high standard and both Woodford athletes recorded p.bs. In the “A” Jacob Campbell was 3rd with 47.49 secs and the “B” Omololu Abiodun was also 3rd with 48.05 secs. Adrian Richards ran in the non-scoring race and he recorded 50.75 secs. In the “A” 200m Matthew Adum-Yeboah was 6th with 22.10 secs (+0.1). The 100m races were covered by younger athletes, U/20 Moyin Odeniran was 6th in the “A” with 10.95 secs (+1.3) and in the “B” Merveiiles Massembo was 5th = with 11.14 secs (+0.7). In the non-scoring 100m and 200m Liam Suttie recorded 11.31 secs (-1.4) and 22.17 secs (-1.5). Also running non-scoring 100m races were Nathan Yeo 11.46 secs (+0.3) and Ryan McKinlay 12.69 secs.
In the other field events the triple jump did not start and it seems the javelin didn’t complete the first round. The high jump was on-going with Joba Ashiru having cleared 1.90m and still in the competition and Wilfred Williams 1.65m. The long jump was early and was completed and Calum Henderson placed 4th with 7.12m with Joba placing 5th in the “B”. The Pole Vault also completed where another debutant, Cameron Wells was 6th in the “A” with 4.00m.
For the women the hammer was the first event and Lucy Marshall improved to 52.78m in the final round which moved her up to 3rd place. Simbi Sikuru was 4th in the “B” with a 45.08m some way behind her recent form but that was after two no-throws and sadly not quite enough to make the cut. In the discus Emma Botham was 4th with 45.64m with debutant Danielle Broom winning the “B” with 43.49m. Kike Oniwinde another making he debut was 6th in the “A” with 40.95m and in the “B” Kirsty Bateman-Foley as 2nd with 40.04m. The shot was affected by the thunderstorms and was not started. In the triple jump U/20 Kharina Partridge was moved up as the “A” after an injury where she nevertheless placed 2nd with 11.29m. Yenime Tindley another debutant was drafted in late to take on the “B” where she placed 5th with 10.47m. After injuries to others Kharina also covered the long jump (4.65m) and high jump (1.40m) for valuable points. Tia Canning Lawrence covered the “B” long jump, with another debutant Grace Brennan covering the “B” high jump (also 1.40m). After another injury to an expected “A” athlete Grace then stepped into that 100mH, where her 16.0 secs for 7th was a significant personal best and she was in the rain affected Pole Vault where her 3.10m was 3rd in the “B” . In the ‘A” Ellen McCartney along with the other athletes still in the competition when abandoned seem to have shared the available points.
In the 100m Rebecca Matheson who was another in Geneva the previous day was 2nd with 12.06 secs (+1.2) and later won the “B” 200m with a marginally windy 24.16 secs (+2.1). Gwen Datey was 3rd in that “A” race with 24.37 secs (+1.1). Lakeshia Adams-Poku was the “B” 100m athlete where she placed with 12.48 secs (+0.8). In the 400m both Woodford athletes were 5th, Jasmine Mitchell in the “A” with 57.78 secs and Jo Ryan in her first 400m for four years with 60.26 secs. Earlier Jasmine was close to her best ever in teh 400mH when placing 3rd with 62.54 secs with Rhianna Buaku also 3rd in the “B” with 68.93 secs.
The 800m saw Leah Keisler who last year concentrated on 400mH place 2nd with 2m09.41 secs with Kezia Beeton another making her debut 3rd in the “B” with 2m21.09 secs. Alicia McCardle was the only distance athlete who competed and coming back from injury acquitted herself well to place 6th in the 3000m with 11m47.51 secs. Kate Stockings was also there to compete in the steeplechase which was cancelled due to the weather. In a non-scoring 100m Tiya Canning Lawrence recorded 13.31 secs (+0.6).
Although the weather led to the unsatisfactory conclusion of the competition the correct decisions in the circumstances were taken by the officials. The next round of the NAL will be at Woodford on Saturday July 15th. Where the Team Managers will be hoping for a strong showing in our home fixture.