Skip to main content

NAL - Round Two

The second round of the NAL Premiership was a home fixture at Ashton Playing Fields on Saturday. In blazing 30 deg C sunshine, no cloud cover and a breeze that at times was quite stiff, the day was a challenge for athletes and officials alike.

Final results have Woodford 4th on the day with 470.5 points, behind TVH(670), Harrow (624), and Glasgow (487) and ahead of Tonbridge (403.5), Windsor (380.5), Birchfield (341.5) and Swansea(292). After two rounds the League table is:

1.        TVH                         16

2.        Harrow                  14

3.        Woodford             11

4.        Glasgow               11

5.        Tonbridge             6

6.        Windsor                6

7.        Birchfield              6

8.        Swansea              3

 Across a weekend of many fixture clashes which along with the NAL, included the English Schools Championships, Watford BMC Grand Prix and the YDL (upper), most teams had depleted resources available for this fixture. In Woodford’s case we had younger m/d athletes stepping into NAL action and even older ones helping to plug gaps. There were many decent performances from Woodford athletes but perhaps Yemi Mary John’s 200m win together with Georgie Forde-Wells LJ win stood out with each demonstrating the effects of the wind on the day. There was also another A string win for Lucy Walliker in the HJ. 

Yemi Mary who currently heads the UK 400m rankings stepped down in distance ahead of next weekend’s London Diamond League and running from lane 7 finished very strongly in the straight to comfortably take the win in 24.14 secs (-5.7). Whilst a somewhat imprecise science, probably worth a sub 23 secs clocking in benign wind conditions. 

Georgie the UK’s leading triple jumper recorded her furthest ever LJ distance with 6.52m w (+5.1) to win the A. Such were the variable windy conditions Georgie also had a 6.23m (0.0) and there were even occasional headwinds for some jumpers. Backing up Georgie in the B was Mary Elcock and her 5.82m (+1.4) placed 2nd in the B.

 In the other women’s sprint events it was pleasing to see Gwen Datey in action for the first time this season after picking up an injury at the end of the indoor season. Her 3rd in the 100m with 12.02 secs (-2.5) was a good opener. Lakhesia Adams-Poku was called into B string actin and her 12.66 secs (-1.8) was also a good performance. Backing up Yemi Mary in the 200m was Maddy Whapples and she placed 6th with 26. 22secs (-3.9). In good quality 400m races Natalie Groves was 6th in the A with 56.05 secs and Molly Swingler was 5th in the B with 56.00 secs. 

The men’s 100m saw Benedict Chukueze 8th 1ith 11.17 secs (-2.5) and Meveilles Massembo 4th in the B with 11.03 secs (-1.4). Over 200m Merveilles also raced in the B event and he was 8th with 22.33 secs (-1.2). 100m specialist Medwin Odamtten ran the A and was 7th with 21.92 secs (-2.1). Over 400m both races were of a good standard and in the A, Jacob Campbell continued to make progress after long term injury as he placed 6th with a season’s best of 48.22 secs. The B saw a Woodford debut for Jack Higgins and he too recorded a season’s best of 48.61 secs for 4th.

 Our middle-distance resources were heavily depleted across the board primarily due to the fixture clashes and younger athletes helped plug the gaps. In the men’s 800, U/20 Will Muffet was 8th in 2m02.46 secs and in the  B, U/18 Hary Stockill was 5th with 2m08.23 secs. Over 1500m another U/18 Luca Norden was 7thwith 4m10.57 secs and Tom Beedell about to celebrate becoming a M40 and in heavy training for the Berlin marathon stepped in to cover a gap and was also 7th in the B. Over 3000m Jaymee Domoney was 5th in the A with 9m09.66 secs and Angus Holford was 4th in the B with 9m12.43 secs. The steeplechase was over 2000m at this meeting with Luke Gribbin, 5th in the A with 6m23.04 secs and U/20 Aiden O’Driscoll recording a season’s best of 6m33.82 secs for 4th in the B.

 In the absence of others, our women’s middle-distance events were covered by three great club people who ensured that all flat events were covered. Katie Olert notably covered all three events (800m, 1500m and 3000m and gained 6th place in the B, 6th in the A and 5th in the B in each respectively. Rachael Lam was 7thin the A 800m and then 6th in the B 1500. Dawn Holford completed those events as she placed 6th in the A 3000m. U/18 Alice Padian made her NAL debut in the 2k s/ch where she was 6th in the A. 

The hurdles events were tough with the wind, the too strong tail winds in the back straight and headwinds in the home straight messed with stride patterns for the 400mH athletes. In the men’s 400H Ollie Parker made his debut for Woodford and he placed 3rd after a tough 8th hurdle and recorded 52.21 secs. Will Parry pleased to be in the B with Ollie available, placed 3rd with 56.07 secs. In the 110mH Ruben Headman ran well placing 3rd with 14.39 secs (+1.0 ) with Will back in action for the B, 5th with 16.08 secs (-0.9). For the women, it was pleasing to see Jasmine Mitchell back in NAL action and placed a good 3rd in the A 400mH with 62.11 secs with illness unfortunately preventing  us contesting in the B race. Over 100mH Yasmine Uwakwe was 3rd 14.03 secs (-0.2) and debutant Erin Williams also 3rd in the B with 15.41 secs (+0.9). 

Erin had also stood in earlier to plug a discus gap and her 30.40m was 4th B, as Danni Broom was 6th A with 41.73m. Competing as a guest in the is event F44 Para athlete, Bebe Jackson recorded 26.88m, a personal best.  Another debutant in the throws was Olivia Dobson who placed 3rd in the shot with 13.78m and also 5th in the B javelin with 33.69m. In the B shot Dani was back in action and was 4th in the B with 10.65 and in the A javelin Kirsty Bateman-Foley was also 5th with 35.86m. The first throws event of the day was the hammer where Katie Head won the A with 60.76m and Lucy Marshall was 3rd in the B with 52.60. The men’s hammer was also a good scoring event, Jabez Berry recording his second best ever mark of 66.55 for 2nd, and Tom Head winning the B with a season’s best of 60.92m. Jabez later stood in to cover the B shot and his 10.42m was 6th in the B with Gareth Winter, back after injury, 4th in the A with 14.83m. Gareth had earlier placed 2nd in the B discus with 43.84m as M 40 (and soon to be M45) Tom Norman, placing a very good 3rdwith 50.84m his best mark since 2014. In the javelin Max Law was another back in NAL action and he placed 4th with 61.05 as Henry Bennett was 6th in the B with 48.01m. 

Amongst the other jumps events there was a fine win for Lucy Walliker in the high jump with a season’s best of 1.77m as Amelia Watling was just shy of her p.b. with 1.52m for 5th B.  In the triple jump, U/20 Abbie Dowdye was 5th with 11.80 (+1.1) and in the B Tai’bat Owosho was 6th with 10.22m. The pole vault saw Hollie Jupp 4th with 3.82m with U/18 Amber-Higgs Smith, standing in as last-minute illness cover, placing 3rdin the B with 2.52m. In the men’s pole vault, U/18 Nathan Mobbs again performed well, placing 3rd in the A with 4.52m and Will Snashall 4th in the  B with 3.82m. The varying winds continued to affect the horizontal men’s jumpers as they had earlier done so with the women, frustratingly in the long jump, Thalosang Thsireletso fouled out with three no jumps, although Sammy Lok placed 2nd in the A with 7.13m (+4.5). In the triple jump Thalosang made some amends recording his best mark since the indoor season with 15.40m placing 3rd as he recorded a rare (possibly the first) win over team-mate and recent M45 world record setter Tosin Oke whose 15.05m won the B. The high jump saw Toby Cherry clear 2.02m for 3rd = as Sammy Lok was also 3rd in the B with 1.87m. 

In the final relay events, the men’s 4x100m squad ( Merveilles Massembo, Marcel Winter, Matthew Adum-Yeboah and Benidict Chukueze placed 5th with 41.68 secs, as did the women (Habiba Tijani, Shalom Prince, Lakhesia Adams Poku, Gwen Datey) with 47.59 secs. In this fixture there were A and B mixed 4x400m relays and the A squad (Jack Higgins 50.59, Molly Swingler 55.85, Ollie Parker 48.02 and Natalie Groves 55.35) placing a close 3rd in 3m27.98 secs. The B squad ( Adrian Richards 50.74, Kyra White 57.23, Thomas Niewczasinski-Kirkland 50.23 and Maddy Whapples 56.69) just took the win in the final 20m with 3m34.98 secs

 

The team managers although a touch disappointed that unavailability of some, just prevented another 3rdplace, nevertheless prepare for the final fixture at Eton on Aug 22, in 3rd place overall, ahead of Glasgow on equal league points but ahead by a few match points.