UKWL Premier Division, Match Three

WGwEL senior women’s Track and Field team contested their final UK Women’s League Premier Division fixture of this season at Lee Valley. Woodford entered the fixture in 5^th place on 8 League points, but such was the proximity of the teams behind them the possibility of joining Cardiff as the other relegated team was not out of the question. In the end the Woodford women performed admirably, placing 2^nd equal on 180 points with City of Manchester (Sale Harriers), behind Birchfield on 200, and ahead of Edinburgh on 177. Trafford placed 7^th on the day, and so joined Cardiff in being relegated to the First Division, as Birchfield took the League title with 22 points from City of Manchester 20.5, with WSEH 3^rd with 15.5, and Woodford 4^th with 14.5 points, their best result for many seasons. In what was a fine all round team performance, maybe Tracey Duncan’s three strong races over 400m stood out.

Photos

Full results

Tracey Duncan, a former GB&NI European Championships and English Commonwealth Games 400mH representative, is now again getting close to her best ever performances, as a current UK ranking of 4^th over 400mH and a 4^th place in last weekend’s World trials testify. On Saturday at Lee Valley she got Woodford’s track events off to a winning start as she comfortably won the 400mH in a good 58.29 secs, before placing 3^rd in the flat 400m with 55.21 secs, and later contributing a fine 55.1 secs leg to the 4x400m relay team. That winning start on the track was added to by Nusrat Ceesay, herself a former UK champion over 400mH as she won the “B” event with 59.28 secs, in only her 4^th race of an injury restricted season. Nusrat later contributed valuable points in the 200m where she was 7^th with 25.30 secs (-0.6). The “B” 200m featured 800m specialist Tara Bird, who had done such a good job by stepping in at the last minute to organise the Woodford team for this UKWL season. Tara placed 5^th in 25.60 secs (-0.6) after her pace-making efforts for the two 800m races at the Crystal Palace Diamond League the previous evening. An athlete who finished 3^rd in that Diamond League 800m, Shaftesbury’s Marilyn Okoro but who, in so doing, had missed the Daegu World Championship A standard by a tantilising 0.05 secs, competed as a guest in the “B” 800m, and only 17 hours after that Crystal Palace race ran a superb solo 800m at the head of the field and recorded 1m59.53 secs to go inside that A standard by 0.27 secs. Further back in that field, Kathrine Foy placed 6^th in the match with 2m20.78secs, whilst in the “A” event Jess Sparke ran strongly to place 2^nd, recording a season’s best of 2m08.45secs.

Over 100m, Katie Skelding placed 6^th in the “A” race in 12.46 secs (-0.3), and Kitty Eleyae 6^th in the “B” with 12.76 secs (-0.3). Katie also placed a good 3^rd in the “B” 400m where she recorded 56.98 secs, and Kitty was earlier 5^th in the long jump with a season’s best of 5.87m (-1.6). The 1500m saw a very pleasing return to competition for Linzi Snow and, finishing very strongly, she placed 2^nd with 4m30.75, as Bernadine Pritchett gained good “B” string points, 3^rd with 4m52.66 secs. Over 3000m Lauren Stewart was just 2 secs from her best ever as she placed 4^th with 10m15.07 secs, as Lauren MacGregor was 7^th in the “B” with 11m07.3 secs. Such was the uncertainty over the team points situation, and with Kathrine Foy rendered unavailable for the 2km s/ch due to a foot problem, Lauren Stewart gamely stepped in at the last minute. Despite never having hurdled anything before in her life she just about managed to negotiate every barrier safely to gain valuable points as she placed 5^th with 8m08.53 secs. Afterwards she realised that between the barriers she was running as fast as the leaders, and left with the thought of possibly taking some time to learn to hurdle properly.The 100mH was the other individual track event, and in the “A” race, heptathlete Gemma Weetman placed 6^th with 15.45 secs, (-0.8) and in the “B” Moe Sasegbon was 3^rd with 15.27 secs (-1.2). Moe had earlier placed a good 2^nd in the high jump with 1.70m, as Gemma was 3^rd in the “B” with 1.60m and also 6^th in the “B” shot with 10.67m as well as later contributing to both relays. In the other jumping events, Hannah Frankson placed 5^th in the “B’ long jump with 5.36m (-1.7) before placing 3^rd in her speciality, the triple jump, with 12.53m (+0.8), as Stephanie Aneto won the “B” with 12.47m (+0.1). The pole vault also brought good points where Louise Shortland placed 3rd, equalling her outdoor personal best and just 2cm away from her absolute (indoor) best with 3.70m. Kirsty Mackintosh won the "B" event with 3.20m.

The throwing events opened with the hammer where Lucy Marshall, whose season has been limited after injury, was 5^th with 52.31m and Hollie Redman 4^th in the “B” with 36.61m, before placing 6^th in the discus with 36.92m, with Jo Duncan 6^th in the “B” with 30.08m before placing 3^rd in her main event, the shot with her second best distance of the season of 15.02m. The javelin saw Anne Silva place 3^rd with 43.92m and Emma Smith was 2^nd in the “B” with 35.57m. The 4x100m team of Katie Skelding, Gemma Weetman, Kitty Eleyae and Tara Bird were 6^th with 48.88 secs, and the 4x400m team of Gemma Weetman, Linzi Snow, Tara Bird and Tracey Duncan were 5^th with 3m49.23 secs.