NAL – final fixture 2023 at Glasgow

Woodford’s NAL team encountered logistical difficulties at this final NAL meeting of the season, courtesy of British Airways cancelling one of the team’s flights on Friday, meaning a small group of athletes didn’t make the journey. The fact that, as per the provisional results, Woodford finished 2^nd on the day and accordingly 3^rd overall in the Premiership speaks highly to those who travelled and, in particular, to one athlete who managed to find an alternative route to Glasgow and competed in three events on less than four hours sleep.

These provisional results at Glasgow had TVH winning with 639.5 from Woodford on 524.5, Glasgow 523.5, SBH 509, Trafford 409, Sheffield 405.5 and Chelmsford 375. Considering the provisional results from the other Premiership fixture in Birmingham, the top 8 in the table would be TVH as Champions on 24, from Harrow 23, Woodford 20 (1482.5), Windsor 20 (1399), Glasgow 17, Blackheath 16 (1379.5), Sale 16 (1362), Birchfield 15. In blustery conditions which early on favoured the sprinters but later reversed, there were many good performances led by individual “A” string wins for Georgie Forde-Wells, Youcef Zatat, Jack Lawrie, Ellie McCartney, Danielle Broom and Bea Wood.

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Georgie Forde-Wells, the UK triple jump champion who won that event in the prior NAL meeting at Woodford, this time took on the Long Jump where she won a very tight competition on her last attempt with 5.78m (0.5). In that same event Amelia Watling also won the “B” string with her second-round effort of 5.52m (0.6). Georgie later competed in the high jump where her clearance of 1.52m was 2^nd = in the “B”, with Jess Gordan clearing 1.57m for 4^th= in the “A”. Amelia also gained good “B” string TJ points in her first ever competition in the event, placing 4^th with 9.39m (-0.9), with another U/20, Kharina Partridge, placing a good 3^rd in the “A” with 11.19m (-0.5).

Youcef Zatat’s win came in his specialist event, the Shot Put, where his 17.95 was over 2m clear of second place. Youcef had earlier placed 4^th in the discus with 44.72m. Backing up Youcef in both of those events was Aaron Edwards who was 2^nd in the “B” DT with 38.86m and then 3^rd in the “B” SP with 13.10m.

In the other men’s throwing events it was pleasing to see Andy Frost in his first NAL meet of the season and he placed 2^nd with 54.27m as Fergus Harford was 7^th in the “B”. In the javelin, where athletes endured unhelpful wind conditions, there was a NAL debut for Keston James who placed 2^nd with 54.79m, while Lee Lovelock-Jemmott was 3^rd in the “B” with 42.29.

Jack Lawrie’s win came in his second event, the 110mH. Jack was originally due to contest the “B” event but with the “A” athlete being one of those unable to get to Glasgow thanks to BA, Jack was elevated to the “A” string where he nevertheless won in 14.54 secs (+0.1). Jack had earlier placed a close second in his preferred event, 400mH, in 51.40 secs. Without specialists to cover those “B” string events, and either side of his main steeplechase event, stalwart Ryan McKinlay gamely gained valuable points with 7^th in the 110mH and 6^th in the 400mH as well as a failed opening height attempt in the Pole Vault. In the 2000m s/ch Ryan placed 3^rd in the  “B” in 6m47.34 secs. Making his debut in the steeplechase Videsh Weerakkody performed admirably, recording 6m38.74 secs to place 5^th in the “A”. That event took place less than an hour after Videsh had raced in the 800m “B” event where he placed 5^th with 1m59.04 secs. In that “A” race, which was quite tactical, Jaymee Domoney led into the straight but just lost out, placing a good second in 1m55.40 secs. Later Jaymee raced over 1500, where he was again second but in the “B” string with 3m58.06 secs. The race was slow at first but picked up over the last 600m and in the ‘A” Ben Potrykus  lost out in a close finish where he was fourth with 3m52.18 secs. 3000m was the longer race for the men in this meeting and Joel Doye had a good run to place 3^rd in a significant p.b. time of 8m33.95 secs. Jordan Donnelly, now a M35, also raced well to place 2^nd in the “B” with 8m44.92 secs.

In the men’s 100m Sikuru Onigbanjo placed 5^th with 10.73 secs (+1.0) whilst in the “B” Moyin Odenrian was 4^th with 10.90 secs (0.0). By the time the 200m races got underway the wind had turned around with athletes battling headwinds. From lane two, Nabil Tezkratt placed 5^th in a very close “A” race with 21.63 secs (-1.9) whilst in the “B” Matthew Adum-Yeboah finished a very good 2^nd in 21.81 secs (-2.6). Over 400m Jacob Campbell continued his recent good form finishing 2^nd with 47.88 secs and in the “B” M35 Adrian Richards continued to improve, recording a personal best of 49.45 secs for 3^rd.

With the exception of the pole vault, resources for the jumping events had to be drawn from athletes not originally intending to compete in any of those events bar the “A” high jump, again courtesy of BA and their flight cancellation. In that “A” high jump Joba Ashiru cleared 1.92m for 6^th with unfortunately Merveilles Massembo failing at his opening height. It was left to both Joba and Merveilles to cover all the other jumps. In the long jump Merveilles placed 7^th in the ‘A” and Joba  5^th in the “B”, whilst in the triple jump Merveilles was 7^th in the “A” and Joba 5^th in the “B”. In the “A” pole vault in unhelpful wind conditions, Cameron Wells placed 5^th with 4.02m

Another Woodford winner on the day was  Ellen McCartney in the women’s Pole Vault, where her first-time clearance at her opening height of 3.82m sufficed for the win in tricky wind conditions for the vaulters. Grace Brennan picked up good “B” string points, placing 2^nd with 3.12m and went even better in the 400mH where she won that “B” event with a personal best of 65.27 secs and later placed 6^th in the “B” 100mH. In that “A” race Jane Davidson had a fine run, placing 2^nd with 13.91 secs (-1.1). In the “A” 400mH Jasmine Mitchell, who was the sole athlete from that cancelled BA flight able to get to Glasgow, albeit with less than four hours sleep, was 5^th with 63.67 secs. Jasmine was later 7^th in the “A” 400m with 58.67 secs and also contributed in the long relay. The tightness of the overall points score shows the value of Jasmine’s efforts to get to Glasgow after the flight cancellation. In the “B” 400m, sprinter Lakhesia Adams-Poku stood in for her first attempt at the distance and recorded 60.73 secs for 5^th. The shorter sprints were all of a good standard. In the “A” 100m Gwen Datey was 3^rd with 11.94 secs w (+2.3) with Rebecca Matheson also 3^rd in the “B” with 11.99 secs w (+2.4). Over 200m  Rebecca was 4^th in the ‘A” with 24.72 secs (-2.7) with Gwen winning the “B” with 24.56 secs (-3.0).

The 800m brought good points with Leah Keisler placing 2^nd with 2m09.60 secs, whilst in the “B” Louise Gilbert enjoyed a good win with 2m14.21 secs. Louise later placed 3^rd in the “A” 1500m with 4m33.61 secs whilst in the “A” 3000m there was a fine win from Bea Wood who recorded a p.b. of 9m30.85 secs. Sadly, because of the BA cancellation, we were unable to field “B” athletes in those events.

Early in the day the event got underway with the women’s hammer, where good points were gained as Lucy Marshall placed 3^rd in the “A” with 53.71m and Simbi Sikuru was 2^nd in the “B” with 52.70m.

The discus was a tight competition with Danielle Broom overhauling the long-time leader  in the 5^th round to take the win with 47.37m. Although a long way from her best, Precious Hamilton still placed 3^rd in the “B” with 33.20m. The shot saw both Danielle and Simbi back in action, Danielle placing 6^th in the “A” with 10.97m and Simbi also 6^th in the “B” with 7.50m. The javelin saw Lucy Wilkinson make her NAL debut for Woodford and her 35.09m placed 5th in the “A”. Lacking another specialist, Jane Davidson covered the “B” and her 24.37m was also 5^th.

In early non-scoring races over 100m Sikuru Onigbanjo recorded 10.82 secs (w?), Matthew Adum-Yeboah 10.86 secs (w?), Merveilles Massembo 11.36 secs (w?), Lakhesia Adams-Poku 12.39 secs (w?) and Shona Vincent 12.48 secs (w?).

The meeting closed with what proved to be very competitive relay races. The women’s 4x100 team ( Shona Vincent, Gwen Datey, Lakhesia Adams-Poku, Rebecca Matheson) won with 47.12 secs, whilst the men (Sikuru Onigbanjo, Adrian Richards, Matthew Adum-Yeboah and Moyin Odenrian) placed 2^nd with 41.66 secs. In the 4x400, the women (Kharina Partridge 63.1 secs, Jasmine Mitchell 59.9 secs, Leah Keisler 56.3 secs and Gwen Datey 58.6 secs) placed 5^th with 3m57.88 secs.

The men’s race proved very close with Woodford leading from the start with Jacob Campbell (48.5 secs), Jack Lawrie (48.7 secs), Adrian Richards 49.2 secs combining to hand over a 2m lead to Nabil Tezkratt. Despite a fine run and a 45.8 sec leg, Nabil just lost out by 0.08 secs in the last two metres to Sheffield’s GB international Lee Thompson as Woodford finished 2^nd with 3m12.16 secs.

In the end and despite the logistical challenges and British Airways weakening our planned team the meeting in Glasgow was an enjoyable one. Thanks are also due to our travelling officials organised by Tamsin James whose efforts are rewarded with points and contribute to the team's scores and positions.