Skip to main content

SAL team thwarted by throws cancellations

Woodford finished second in their first Southern Athletics League fixture of the season at Stevenage on Saturday 17 May. The match was impaired by a cancellation less than 48 hours beforehand of the discus and hammer events due to new circles not having set, which deprived WGEL of multiple international throwers and left an uphill battle to beat Victoria Park Tower Hamlets who are traditionally strong on the track but very weak at throws. Based on entries prior to the cancellations the result would have been extremely tight otherwise, but as it became clear that the gap would become insurmountable the Woodford team settled for securing second ahead of hosts Stevenage and North Herts. There was a significant gap back to Ilford in fourth while provisionally Luton and Thurrock dead-heated for 5th.

Despite injuries and illness leaving gaps in some early events, WGEL made a strong start including full points in the 400m hurdles by Aidan O’Driscoll (65.91) and Henry Akaluka (67.26) who along with Anaand Tratt in the women’s race (78.39) all set PBs. U17W Remi Salako won the long jump in 5.20 backed up by useful points by Chelsy Ayiro, then Aoibheann Pearce improved her best at 800m by over 4 seconds, 2:14.11, in a decisive win. Merveilles Massembo just missed out on the overall win in the men’s 100m by 0.01 with a 10.70PB (Woodford’s highest ranked performance of the day) and also set a PB in coming second in the 200m in 22.18. Kirsty Bateman Foley continued her unbeaten SAL javelin record for Woodford (38.73) while U17M Stephen Ng (3.20) and Rahul Solanki (2.80) were the top two in the pole vault. Indeed U17 men made up the whole men’s jumps team, with Rahul (1.55) and Leo Everitt (1.65) setting PBs in the high jump, as did Sammy Geist (5.57) and Leo in the long jump. Woodford’s usual shot put strength was dented by the lack of those who would also do the cage throws, but Hugh Williams still won the men’s A in a 12.30SB, backed up by a senior PB by Henry Bennet for second in the B before Henry’s 3rd place in the javelin (47.08).

There were impressive wins in the distance races from Louise Gilbert at 3000m (10:21.15), backed up with B success by Alicia McArdell (11:06.19PB), and Tom Adolphus who kicked away impressively to win his first track 5000m (15:27.61). Another dominant victory came from Aidan O’Driscoll in his first ever 3000m steeplechase in 10:28.17, which is a faster tempo than his 2000m PB. Other than Aidan, WGEL’s only double A string winner of the day was U17W Remi Salako, who only tried triple jumping for the first time this week but ended up a convincing winner with 10.60. Woodford were clear in second in the match going in to the relays which were highlighted by a strong win in the men’s 4x100m (U17 Waiz Yasser, Merveilles Massembo, Adrian Richards and Qi Wei) in 43.27, but narrow 2nd places to VPTH in the women’s 4x100m (Remi Salako, Shalom Prince, Lakhesia Adams Poku and Habiba Tijani) and men’s 4x400m (Merveilles Massembo, U17 Samuel Kolowole, Henry Akaluka and Adrian Richards) summed up the theme of the day.

Second place leaves WGEL needing a strong performance in the next fixture, at Woodford on Sunday 22 June, to reinforce potential promotion credentials. It is 2 to go up from the 18 team division in which all but Ilford will be met only once. The team take 5 points from this first fixture, out of 6 as the only match at which the team scores against Ilford, whereas the other 3 fixtures will be scored out of 5.