Throwers highlight SAL2
Woodford ended with 3 points from the second SAL fixture of the season, at Mile End on Sunday 18 June, to edge away from the wrong end of the league table. The format of the league this year involves 4 matches, facing new teams at each match bar one, Victoria Park with Tower Hamlets in WGEL’s case hence no points were awarded in this head to head. Overall Kent AC took a relatively comfortable win, with VPTH and Thurrock close together for 2nd. Woodford beat Basildon AC and Enfield&Haringey to earn 3 points out of the possible 5 for this fixture.
As is often the case Woodford was the dominant force in the throws. Setting the tone Chiara Okereke won the womens hammer with 46.05, backed up by Abigail Allen in 2nd overall in 38.09, and then the shot in 12.09m. Precious Hamilton comfortably won the discus in 41.71 while Kirsty Bateman Foley similarly took the javelin in 38.76. U20 Noah Wooding won full points in his first senior weight hammer competition in 37.40 with Fergus Harford winning the B. New member Aaron Edwards took the mens shot in 12.56 with Hugh Williams second overall in 11.98. Hugh also took the B discus win in 36.06 behind Christopher Linque’s A string success (40.97). By contrast to the throws strength, the team had far more gaps than competitors in the jumps, with the only win coming in the triple jump, 12.89m from Wilfred Williams who was also 2nd in the high jump, though U17 Aidan O’Driscoll had a PB of 2.15 in the pole vault.
First up on track, Rhianna Buaku took second in the women’s 400m hurdles. Merveilles Massembo won the men’s 100m and later the B 200m. Tiya Canning Lawrence won the womens B 100m but elsewhere individual track wins proved hard to come by. Tom Adolphus took 2nd in the men’s 800m (2:01.26) and Lakhesia Adams Poku 2nd in the women’s 200m. Among athletes trying events for the first time, U17 Joseph Arnold ran the 2000m steeplechase at a height of barrier now higher than the standard for his age group.
The women’s 4x100m team of U17 Amana Oguntuga, Tiya Canning Lawrence, Rhianna Buaku and Lakhesia Adams Poku finished 2nd in the womens 4x100 in 50.88. The men’s sprint relay quartet went one better, with anchor Merveilles Massembo coming through late to take the win in 44.63 for a team including U17 Javon Vanhorn, Nathan Yao and Adrian Richards. The result of the mixed 4x400m relay appeared in doubt until late into the race due to different order options the teams chose but the Woodford quartet of Nathan Yao, Rhianna Buaku, Lakhesia Adams Poku and Adrian Richards was always close to or in the lead. Rhianna saw positions around her change sharply on leg 2 but a secure 62.8 split left the likely main opposition well adrift. Lakhesia appeared set to hand on a commanding lead but despite a strong 60.6 leg was overtaken late on by Thurrock who had put men on both the final 2 legs. This did not faze experienced anchor Adrian Richards, who stretched away after 200m for a convincing win with an impressive 49.1 split for 3:47.26.
The result of this match leaves WGEL dangerously close to the relegation zone, with four teams to go down from the 16 team division 2 North & East. A solid result is needed in the next fixture at St Albans on Saturday 9th July to prevent a stressful home match on 19th August.