BAL Premiership - Match Four
Tim Abeyie’s win came in the 200m which he took in 21.45 secs (-2.0), having early struggled to recover from a poor 100m start which left him 5th, in a hand-timed 10.9 sesc (w?). Tim was ably backed up in the sprints by European junior bronze medallist, Eugene Ayanful who placed 4th in the “B” 100m with 10.96 secs (-1.6) and 2nd in the “B” 200m with 22.14 secs (-1.6). The 400m also contributed good points, with junior, Vincent Ogedengbe placing 3rd in a good field, recording 47.64 secs, and Musa Audu taking the “B” race with 48.24 secs. The hurdlers all performed well. Francis Smith showed a timely return to form with 52.40 secs over 400mH to place 2nd, before winning the “B” 110mH in 14.77 secs into a stiff headwind (-2.1). Jamie Wright 
The middle distance races saw a number of Woodford’s younger athletes in action. In the 800m, although placing 8th, junior, Gavin Lewis acquitted himself well as he ran strongly to record 1m55.97 secs, with another junior, Omar Mansour, 5th in the “B” race, also running strongly for his 1m55.77 secs. In the 1500m, Tom Phillips was a good 5th in 3m54.92 secs, with Matt Barnes-Smith 3rd in the “B” in 3m59.82 secs. Over 5000m, Hywel Care was 5th in 14m53.56 secs, and Dan Agustus, 3rd in the “B” with 15m10.34 secs. Although neither was at their fittest, both Jon Long and Angus Holford contributed valuable points in the 3000m s/ch, with Jon 7th in the “A” race in 10m05.81 secs and Angus 6th in the “B” with 10m38.99 secs.
Alasdair Strange’s victory came in the “A” pole vault where he cleared 4.90m, and in the absence of Christian North through injury, it was pleasing to have decathlete Dan Awde, returning from injury to place 3rd in the “B” with 4.50. Alasdair also gained useful points in the “B” high jump with 1.90m, the same height cleared by Gareth Dyball for 7th in the “A”. In the long jump, Ezekiel Ewulo was 4th with 7.10m, and Nick Dowsett, back in BAL action after a 3 year absence was 5th in the “B” with 6.53m. In the triple jump, Louis-Felix OzierLaFontaine was 2nd in 14.90m (+0.1), and Sayo Ojo was 5th in the “B” with 13.45m.
Even with Emeka Udechuku unavailable for this meeting the throws produced some very good results. In a very close hammer competition, Mark Dry was 3rd with 67.86m, just ahead of Andy Frost who took the “B” competition with 67.26m. In the discus, there was a fine season’s best of 54.01m from Tom Norman for 3rd, and Devon Douglas was 5th with a personal best of 46.59m in the “B”. In the shot, Carl Fletcher who had thrown a significant personal best of 17.90m during the week, to move to 4th on this year’s UK rankings, confirmed that form as he placed 2nd with 17.43m, whilst Devon Douglas, having pb’d in the discus, was below his best in the shot, but nevertheless placed 5th with 13.91m in the “B”. In the javelin Simon Bennett, as consistent as ever was 5th in 62.42m, with Paul Howard 4th in the “B” with 50.28m.
The meeting rounded off with the relays, with the relegation slots still in the balance. The 4x100m team of Jamie Wright, Ezekiel Ewulo, Eugene Ayanful and Tim Abeyie, crossed the line in 2nd place, but as they did so without the relay baton they were disqualified - as a result of the unfortunate Tim Abeyie having the baton accidentally knocked from his hand by the Newham anchor leg runner, in the lane inside him. just 10m from the finish. The 4x400m team were able to finish with a victory as the team of Dan Awde (47.6), Musa Audu (48.8), Jamie Wright (50.1), and Vincent Ogedengbe, with a super anchor leg of 46.3 secs combined to record 3m12.78 secs.
Team manger Gladys Bird was rightly pleased with the efforts of all the Woodford athletes throughout the season, where the consistent efforts have been rewarded with another 2nd place in the BAL Premiership, and victory in the joint Jo Smith Cup competition.
Full results here