Throwers dominate SAL 1
The first Southern Athletics League of the season saw Woodford take third at Finsbury Park behind hosts London Heathside and Dacorum. These 2 clubs pulled away from the rest early in the match, with WGEL coming through ahead of Herts Phoenix, St Albans and Thurrock.
Woodford dominated the throws events, including a perfect clean sweep of the women's events. Lucy Marshall won the hammer (51.31) and the female performance of the match, albeit only narrowly ahead of Danielle Broom (50.83) in her first SAL competition. Dani was the top scorer for the team, taking the discus (40.41) ahead of Lucy and the shot (10.86) ahead of U17 Rebecca Wright (9.77 in her first senior weight competition). Kirsty Bateman Foley impressively won the javelin with a 42.32PB with Rebecca taking the B string (30.77). Woodford's male throwers were almost as successful, only 3 points from a maximum score. Aaron Edwards won the shot with the male performance of the match, 13.52, his best throw in over 6 years and then stepped up to take second in the javelin (41.36) in his first competition in the event in nearly a decade. Christopher Linque edged out Devon Douglas as they dominated the discus (41.55 versus 40.78), Devon also taking 2nd in the B javelin, as did M55 Fergus Harford in the hammer. Top male scorer was Hugh Williams who took the B shot (12.01) and B hammer and also picked up points in the high jump.
In the sprints Kaidan Chambers was a close second in the men's 100m, while U17 Jaheim Roman's 11.93PB took 3rd in the B. Jaheim then stepped up to A string for the 200m and set another PB, 24.20. Debutante Hugo Massa was 4th in a tight 400m (50.86), backed up by U17 Joseph Arnold in the B (56.48PB) after Joe had come 3rd in the 400m hurdles in a senior height best of 63.3. For the women Lakhesia Adams Poku narrowly missed out on the 100m win but came back for a comfortable 200m success, backed up by Zoe Hedges taking the 200 B. Kyra White was a dominant winner at 400m in 57.48.
There were a large number of PBs in the guest sprint races where Woodford athletes battled their teammates, including Tito Adeleye (13.27 100m and 27.36 200m), Mayah O'Sullivan (13.69, 28.11), Evie O'Sullivan (13.87, 27.94), Ishana Malcolm (13.88), Chelsy Ayiro (14.82), Daisy Anderon (27.06) and Evie Monsanya (27.62). Paralympic futures athlete Bebe Jackson's 200m PB of 29.18, despite a -1.9 wind reading, was her first time below the T44 Paralympic elite qualifying standard.
The distance highlights were two wins that appeared unlikely until late on. Angus Holford held back from the lead pack in the 5000m and was still a distant 4th 90% through the race. As those in front felt the pace Angus accelerated through the field to take a clear win in 15:40.21. At 1500m Videsh Weerakkody was similarly adrift of the leaders but came through very strongly to take the lead in the final 10m. Ella Traynor picked up a PB of 5:18.48 in the 1500m, taking 3rd in the B behind fellow U17 Molly Sherrin. At 3000m Claire Allen and Katie Olert raced on the track for the first time for Woodford.
In contrast to the strength of the throws, jumps were the biggest weakness for Woodford, with the notable exception of the women's pole vault where U17s Keira Palmer (2.70) and Amber Higgs-Smith took double first. This gained more points than all the other jumps combined, though Aidan O'Driscoll was third in the men's vault and T44/F44 Bebe Jackson was 4th in the long jump (4.14).
The women's 4x100 team of Zoe Hedges, Lakhesia Adams Poku, Levania Ugonna-Mba and Tiya Canning-Lawrence won in 50.00. The women's 4x400 quartet of Kyra White (57.7), Daisy Anderson (65.6), Evie Monsanya (62.8) and Rhianna Buaku (64.7) led every step of the way to win in 4:10.82. They finished the length of the straight clear of the field, albeit the Finsbury Park track has uniquely short straights. The mens 4x400m team of Videsh Weerakkody (54.0), M50 Salvatore Passerini in his first league outing for the club (57.6), Nate Harding (57.5) and Hugo Massa (50.8) found things tougher in a more competitive race with Hugo just failing to come through for 2nd at the end. Third place overall leaves the team solidly placed ahead of the next fixture, at Thurrock on Saturday 15 June.