UKWL Premier Division, Match Three

WGwEL’s women finished a pleasing 5^th in their final UKWL Premier Davison fixture of the season at Eton on Sunday. They scored 164 points as Sale won with 189, and placed 5^th overall in the division with 12 points. This was a pleasing result with the team having been relegated from this top flight in 2008, and immediately returning in 2010 after winning Division Two in 2009. Credit should be given to John Stow, who stepped in at very short notice to take over as team manager this season from Keith Hopson who was unable for health reasons to be active as he would have liked, and to Bernadine Pritchett, who did much of the organizing of the team in the background. The performance at Eton was a solid all-round one, with many athletes doubling up, and amongst the more notable individual efforts a season’s best over 400mH from Tracey Duncan stood out, as did a fine victory for Diana Kennedy in the 2km s/ch, originally but erroneously announced as a league record.

The sprints saw Katie Skelding doubling at 100m and 200m, and recording season’s best in both. In the 100m she placed 5^th with 12.14 secs (+1.0) and was 4^th in the 200m with 24.83 secs (+1.4). In the “B”, Azaria Francis was 5^th in the 100m with 12.64 secs (+1.5) and in the 200m, Claire Leckie who was called into action at the last minute placed 8^th in 27.48 secs. Over 400m, Jo Ryan, not fully over a recent bug, was 8^th in the “A” with 58.58 secs, whilst in the “B”, Tara Bird in her first 400m of the season, just lost out by 0.03 secs, placing 2^nd in 55.33 secs. Missing 800m specialists, Zoe Watson filled the “A” string, and although 8^th recorded a useful 2m22.4 secs. Women’s cross country team manager Alex Wardle demonstrated fine team spirit by ensuring the “B” slot was filled where she placed 8^th with 2m58.6 secs, prior to placing 5^th in the “B” 3000m with 12m10.1 secs, with Kat Gunderson a good 5^th in the “A” with a personal best of 10m31.9 secs. In the 1500m, Emily Moss moved up in distance, but nevertheless still was a useful 4^th in 4m36.7 secs. In the “B” Zoe Watson was 8^th with 5m21.0 secs. The 2000m steeplechase saw Diana Kennedy produce a fine performance as she won with a time of 7m12.4 secs.

In the 400mH, Woodford had started the meeting with a double victory. Manchester Commonwealth Games representative, Tracey Duncan recorded her best time since 2003, when she then took a break from the sport, as she won the “A” with 58.73 secs, to move to 7^th in this year’s UK lists, whilst last year’s UK champion, Nusrat Ceesay, whose season has been troubled by injury took the “B” with 61.49 secs. In the 100mH Sam Moodie was 8^th with 17.49 secs, (+1.8) whilst Emily Moss demonstrated her versatility, placing 7th in the “B” with 16.77 secs (+1.7). Sam had earlier won the “B” high jump with 1.65m, with Ayamba Akim, 4^th in the “A” with 1.70m. All the jump events produced useful points, in the long jump , Kim Murray was 2^nd with 5.95m (+1.0) and Kitty Eleyae 6^th in the “B” with 5.33m (0.0), in the triple jump, Stephanie Aneto was 2^nd with 12.99m (+1.6) as was Zainab Ceesay in the “B” with 12.41m (+1.4), and in the pole vault, another returning to form after injury, Maria Seager placed 2^nd with 3.80m and Louise Shortland won the “B” with 3.60m.

In the hammer, Lucy Marshall threw a season’s best of 54.20m, with Sarah Smith 2^nd in the “B” with 49.37. The discus saw Hollie Redman 6^th with 38.9m, and Lucy Marshall 6^th in the “B” with 26.4m. In the shot, Jo Duncan was 2^nd in the “A” with a season’s best of 15.80m, and moving to 5^th on this year’s UK lists, and in the “B” Charmaine Johnson was 5^th with 10.19m. The javelin saw Emma Smith, 5^th with 39.55m and sister, Sarah Smith 7^th in the “B” with 21.98m. The 4x100m squad of Katie Skelding, Kitty Eleyae, Azaria Francis and Tara Bird were unfortunately disqualified for a faulty second changeover, having finished 5^th, but the 4x400m squad (Tracy Duncan, 57.2, Claire Leckie, 58.6, Katie Skelding 56.7 and Tara Bird, 54.0) performed strongly, moving through on the last leg to take 3^rd in 3m46.4 secs.

Full UKWL Premier Division Results