SAL St Albans
The 3rd SAL fixture of the year at St Albans saw Woodford finish with 3 points out of 5 to move slightly further above the relegation zone. Hosts St Albans AC took the win ahead of Huntingdonshire who provisionally edged out Victoria Park and Tower Hamlets by 1 point. With VPTH the paired team for WGEL (facing them every match but only scoring against in match 1) finishing behind them did not cost any points and the team was well clear of Serpentine and the Highgate Harriers, Mornington Chasers combined team.
Woodford started strongly, with their early lead established by a dominant hammer win by Simbiyat Sikiru (52.92), with Abigail Allen taking the B win with second overall (39.27). Abigail later won the women’s discus with a new PB 33.08, with Simbi taking the B after narrowly missing out on the shot put win in between. Kirsty Bateman Foley continued her unbeaten SAL streak in the javelin (39.94). In the men’s throws the only A string winner was Aaron Edwards in the shot, while he also took the B discus. Hugh Williams was second overall in the shot to take the B string and second in the A hammer, but third in the discus.
Rhianna Buaku won the first track event of the day, the 400m hurdles. There were further good points in the 800m, including a full 5 by Videsh Weerakkody for the men (2:00.1) and for Anaand Tratt in the women’s B (2:28.8PB). With a double first in the men’s high jump for Joba Ashiru (1.90) and Wilfred Williams (1.80) Woodford led the match at the first update after a quarter of the match, before gaps in other events started to tell. U17M Aidan O’Driscoll improved his pole vault best to 2.30m, but absences meant Woodford only gained a single point in all the women’s jumps.
WGEL had maximum points in all the short sprints, albeit the men finished behind their VPTH counterparts against whom they didn’t score. Lakhesia Adams Poku took the sprint double in 12.2 and 25.5, with U17 Benie Massembo winning the B 100 (12.6) and Tiya Canning Lawrence the B 200 in a significant improvement of 27.3 having finally broken 13s for the first time in the non-scoring 100m (12.9). Merveilles Massembo scored well with 11.0 and 22.5 in the A sprints, with Winfred Hakeem (11.4) and Nathan Yao(23.2) backing up in the B. Other hand timed personal bests in the non-scoring sprints came from U17W Lilly Spong and Chelsy Ayiro in the 100m, Megan Wright in the 200m and U17M Javon Vanhorn also at 200m.
In the distances Angus Holford was very frustrated to be denied a 3000m PB of 8:54 by a missed timing, while Tom Rehal was a comfortable winner in the 1500m in a 4:05.5PB. They were supported by U17s, some of whom for their first time in events, including Joseph Arnold at 3000m and Matilda Frith at 2000m steeplechase, while Summer Maw ran her first 1500m for the club.
The sprint relays took maximum points, albeit as in the individual races the men (Kayode Alaba, Nathan Yao, Javon Vanhorn and Merveilles Massembo) finished behind VPTH in 44.8. The women’s quartet of Levania Ugonna-Mba, Tia Canning-Lawrence, Lakhesia Adams Poku and Benie Massembo won convincingly in a season’s best of 49.3. It was harder to field a 4x400m team, but a strong final leg (62.8) helped bring the team of Lakhesia Adams Poku, Tito Adeleye, Tejiri Akpoveta and Rhianna Buaku into second. By contrast the men had some aces up their sleeves for the final race. After tightly fought legs by Merveilles Massembo and Videsh Weerakkody, Nabil Tezkratt took the third leg. Nabil showed potential to further improve his 46.91 PB from last month as he pulled more than 60m clear of the shocked opposition. This left Adrian Richards, fresh from a PB of 50.24 elsewhere earlier in the day, to run his customary anchor leg but this time with only the clock to chase. While not hitting the records they may have hoped for, the final time of 3:25.4 was the quickest by a WGEL quartet in the SAL and by the club in over a year. Three points for the match leaves the team in the wrong half of the table in division 2 NE but vitally just above the last relegation spot, with the bottom 3 effectively down already. This result means the team’s fate is in its own hands in the final home fixture on Saturday 19 August rather than reliant on results elsewhere.