BAL Premiership Match Four
WGwEL men’s team placed 4th in the final British Athletics League Premiership fixture of the season at Lee Valley Stadium, on Saturday and they remained in 3rd place overall in the final League standings with 23 points. Newham, who went into the meeting on level points with Birchfield, comfortably won on the day to take the League title with 29 points from Birchfield on 28, Woodford 23, Shaftesbury 20.5, City of Manchester (Sale) 18, Enfield and Haringey 13, then Windsor on 6.5 and Belgrave on 6 who were both relegated. The very windy conditions hindered the sprinters, and made many of the longer races tactical affairs. Woodford’s best individual performance was probably from Emeka Udechuku who returned to 60m form in the discus.
After a few weeks where he has been troubled by injury, Emeka Udechuku returned to good discus form with a 60.32 effort for second. Emeka will be hoping to be selected for England for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, and now for an injury-free build up. Emeka also gained valuable points in the shot where he placed 2nd in the “B” with 16.60m, as Carl Fletcher was 3rd in the “A” with 16.94m. In the “B” discus, and standing in for the injured Tom Norman, Devon Douglas had his best competition in the BAL so far as he placed 3rd with 50.66m. In the hammer, Andy Frost, selected for Scotland for the Commonwealth Games, was 5th with 64.66m, with Devon Douglas gaining a valuable point in 8th in the “B”. The javelin also brought useful points, but the wind affected distances. Simon Bennett was 5th in the “A” with 60.76m and Stuart Harvey won the “B” with 58.81m.
Recent African Games triple jump champion Tosin Oke comfortably won his speciality off a reduced approach with 15.84m, and junior Peter Kirabo placed 3rd in the “B” with 13.62m. Tosin also gained good long jump points, 4th with 7.06m w (+3.9) with Jamie Wright, also 4th in the “B” with 6.61m w (+3.2). The high jump was of a very good standard with two athletes clearing 2.26m, Woodford’s Robert Wolski, who won the previous match with 2.25m and was very close to 2.28m, was disappointed with his 2.15m for 4th, and to lose his unbeaten record in the League this season. The pole-vaulters found the windy conditions tricky, and in the end quite difficult when the javelin was switched ends in the stadium, causing congestion as the javelin run up crossed the pole vault runway. Christian North was 3rd with 4.60m, and Alasdair Strange, already selected for Scotland for Delhi, cleared 4.40m off a reduced approach for 4th in the “B”.
The sprinters battled strong headwinds and in the “A” 100m, Tim Abeyie ended up trailing in 7th in 11.72 secs (-4.2) with what appeared to be a hamstring problem, rendering him subsequently unable to compete over 200m. Junior Sam Watts stepped up admirably to the “A” string, placing a very good 3rd from the outside lane in a hand-timed 22.1 secs. The wind was not recorded but the headwind was extremely strong. In the “B” string sprints, hurdler Dan Davis ran the “B” 100m, 7th in 11.34 secs (-4.1), and Jamie Wright covered the 200m, 8th in 23.69 secs (-4.4). Over 400m, in a high quality “A” string, Nick Leavey was just below his very fine recent form, but nevertheless recorded 47.10 secs, which was only good enough for 5th. In The “B” event another junior, Paul Scanlan, got his first taste of individual BAL action, placing 5th in 49.72 secs.
In the 800m Omar Mansour was moved up to “A” string action at short notice and placed 7th with 1m55.04 secs, and in the “B” string Gavin Lewis was 6th with 1m56.30 secs. With the strong wind, the 1500m was a slow affair to start but with a very fast last 500m. Alex Cornwell, still a junior, was right in the mix, and placed 5th with 3m57.31 secs. Andrew Mariani, making his BAL debut, found it a tough baptism and placed 8th in the “B” with 4m10.35 secs. The 3000m saw Matt Barnes-Smith 7th with 8m42.02 secs, and Hywel Care 4th in the “B” with 8m42.76 secs. The 3000m s/ch brought good points with Ryan McKinlay 3rd in the "A" with 9m30.30 secs, and Angus Holford also 3rd in the "B" with 10m10.60 secs. In the 400m Hurdles Francis Smith, who has had to miss significant training over the last few weeks, was 7th with 55.89 secs, and James Wright a good 4th in the “B” with 56.39 secs. Francis later was a very close 2nd in the “B” 110mH with 15.17 secs (-3.4), with Dan Davis a good 3rd in the “A” with 14.53 secs (-2.4). With various athletes nursing injuries the relay squads were not as strong as usual, but nevertheless both safely got the batons round. The 4x100m team of Nick Leavey, Dan Davis, David Olupitan and Sam Watts were7th with 42.37 secs, and the 4x400m squad ( Paul Scanlan, 49.9 secs, Alasdair Stranage 51.2 secs, Dan Davis 52.2 secs, and Nick Leavey 47.6 secs) were 5th in 3m20.91 secs.
Despite perhaps a slight reflection on what might have been after Woodford had won the first fixture of the season, team manager Gladys Bird was quite satisfied with another strong showing for the team and 3rd place overall in the BAL Premiership. As the season draws to a close, attention will be focused on the final team fixture, the Jo Smith BAL Cup Final at Copthall Stadium on September 4th where, together with Woodford’s ladies, the men will be seeking to retain the trophy they won last year.