BAL Premiership Match Three
WGEL’s men’s British League ended up a frustrating 6th in the third BAL Premiership fixture of the season at Sheffield’s Don Valley Stadium. In one of the tightest matches ever, Woodford scored 281.5 for their 6th, ahead of Newham on 222 and Herne hill on 181, but behind winners, Sale on 312.5, Sheffield 308, Enfield 302,Birchfield 284 and Shaftesbury on 282. The League standings, show a title battle between Sale on 22 and Shaftesbury on 20, Herne Hill already relegated on 3, with any of the remaining five capable of joining them after the final fixture at Copthall on August 3rd. Enfield have 15 points, Birchfield 13, Sheffield 12, Woodford 11.5 and Newham 11. Despite missing several top athletes, those that competed all did admirably, often competing in more than one event, and but for the bad luck of Robert Wolski being injured in high jump warm up Woodford would have been fourth, or even better. Stuart Harvey was Woodford’s one winner on the day, but there were many other good performances and several top three placings.
In what was likely to have been the last major athletics event before the controversial closing of Don Valley stadium the overall quality of the meeting was mixed. Some, but not all of the best athletes preferred not to race the weekend prior to the British Championships and World Trials, and several of the best youngsters were in action at the English Schools Championships. Stuart Harvey’s win came in the “B” javelin where, although some way from his best, and returning from back trouble he threw 58.31m for the win. Paul Allsop was 6th in the “A” with 58.58m. Most of the other throws also produced good points, in the hammer, Andy Frost just missed a win, finishing 2nd with 69.47m, with last minute stand in, Fergus Harford 5th in the “B” with 32.75m. A discus competition missing many of the country’s best men, including Woodford’s top two, showed good depth at Woodford, with Chris Linque elevated to “A” string duty placing 2nd with 49.78m, and junior Youcef Zatat, also 2nd in the “B” with 45.00. In the shot it was pleasing to see Anthony Oshodi back in high class action again following a long injury lay-off and his 15.73m was 4th in the “A”, just ahead of Scott Lincoln with 15.17m for 2nd in the “B”. In other field events, Adrian Stamp continued his run of decent form in the long jump where his 6.93m placed 5th, and triple jumper, Peter Karibo called into long jump action was also 5th in the “B” with 6.41m. In his speciality, the triple jump, Peter placed 3rd with 14.53m, and Adrian also having to fill in at the last minute was 5th in the “B” with 11.82m. The high jump was a problem, Robert Wolski damaged an abductor in warm up, meaning “B” string man Peter Karibo was elevated to the “A” where his 1.70m placed 7th=, and Alan James ensured one “B” string point with a nominal clearance at 1.30m. In a good standard pole vault competition, top junior Daniel Gardner found 4.80m only good enough for 5th, whilst physio and ex-decathlete Chris Awde ensured in the absence of a second specialist vaulter, a 5th in the “B” with 1.90m.
On the track there were some strong middle distance performances. The “A” string 800m was a high quality race and Jon Cook just lost out, placing 2nd with a season’s best of 1m48.73 secs. Also second in the “B” was Jordan Donnelly with 1m53.81 secs. In the 1500m, also a good quality but a more tactical race, Alex Cornwell was 2nd, just caught on the line with 3m52.49 secs, with Jordan Donnelly stepping in to double, 6th in the “B” with 4m13.87 secs. The steeplechase saw very good points with two 2nd's, Ryan McKinlay in the “A" with 9m16.2 secs, and Tom Beedell with 9m42.4 secs in the “B”. Both of those men also helped out by gaining points where specialist were missing, Tom in the “B’ 400mH with 66.02 secs for 5th, and Ryan 63.24 secs in the “B”400m. Ryan then returned to the more serious business of the 5000m where his 15m27.08 secs placed 6th, and Bertie Powell was a very good 2nd in the “B” with 15m44.40 secs. The sprints were all of a high standard. In the “A” 100m Jordan Kirby-Polidore was 5th with 10.73 secs (+0.1), before placing 2nd in the 200m, with 21.30 secs (+0.8), whilst in the ‘B” events, Eugene Ayanful was 2nd in the 100m with 10.75 secs (+0.2) and Omolulu Abiodun was 4th in the 200m with 21.78 secs w (+2.2). Austin Joseph had to be elevated to “A” string 400m action, but his 50.99 secs was only good enough for 8th. In the hurdles, Frnacis Smith, struggling with a heel injury, and due for surgery later in the summer nevertheless was still keen to turn out and in the 400mH he was 7th with 57.32 secs, and in the 110mH he was 6th with 15.35 sces (+1.8), where in the “B” stand-in Alan James gained valuable 5th place points with 21.2 secs (+0.7). With the team scores so close the relay events decided the competition, in the 4x100m Jason Greenidge, Abiiodun, Joseph and Ayanful placed 5th with 42.38 secs, but in the 4x400m without enough specialists available, Joseph, Donnelly, Cornwell and Kirabo were only able to manage 8th in 3m31.66 secs.
Moving into the final fixture at Copthall on August 3rd, in what will prove both a tense Premiership title battle and a tense relegation battle involving four or five teams, Team Manger Gladys Bird will be hoping both for a little more luck, and the support of all of the Club’s athletes.
Senior Men's 2013 Club T&F Rankings have now been updated on this site