UKWL Match Two

WGEL's UKWL team travelled to Wigan for the second fixture in the three fixture first division season. Depleted in numbers, a strong team spirit with many competing in two or three events ensured that almost all events were covered. The most successful event being the hammer which brought a double victory for Myra Perkins and Lucy Marshall. Sadly that team spirit wasn't quite enough to lift the team above 8th place on the day with 144.5 points, just 1.5 behind Cardiff, as TVH won with 220. Woodford now lie in 5th place overall on 6 league points, the same as each of the 6th and 7th placed clubs, Wigan and Herne Hill. Beating one of those in the final fixture would ensure safety but team mangers Keith Newton and Keith Hopson will be hoping for a significantly stronger turn out and strong finish in the final fixture at Kingston on August 4th.

The hammer was a good competition with four athletes over 50m and in winning the "A" Myra Perkins threw 54.15m as Lucy Marshall won the "B" with 51.09m. Both of these athletes also gained additional points, Lucy in the "B" shot and discus where she was 2nd and 6th respectively with 11.14m and 24.10m Myra gamely claimed 7th place "A" string 400m points with 75.14 secs, and another thrower, Hollie Redman also gained valuable track points with 8th in the "B" 800m in 3m23.07 secs. In the discus where Hollie has been in pb form this year, placed 3rd with 41.46m and in the "B" javelin 7th with 24.10m. Heptathlete Gemma Weetman filled the other throws slots, placing 5th in each of the "A" shot and javelin with 11.98m and 35.77m and also placed 6th in the "B" 200m with 26.02 secs (+3.2). Not quite yet a heptathlete yet, but moving towards multi-events after specialising in 400mH, Nusrat Ceesay also competed in three events. She placed 4th in the "A" triple jump with 11.01m, 7th in the "A" 200m with 25.63 secs (+1.9) and a close 2nd, in the same time as the winner in the "B" 100mH with 14.53 secs w (+2.7). Stephanie Gaynor was in the "A" string and she placed 3rd with 13.98 secs (+1.8) having earlier finished 7th in the "B" 100m with 12.83 secs w (+2.3). The jumping events brought decent points, there were two seconds in the high jump, in the "A" Moe Sesegbon was 2nd= with 1.65 and in the "B" Ayamba Akim cleared the same height for her 2nd. In the long jump Kitty Eleyae was a good 2nd with 5.97m w (+2.8), whilst Moe picked up additional points in the "B" where she placed 5th with 5.12m (+1.8).

Emily Moss picked up a good 3rd in the 2000m s ch, but a couple of days prior to the meeting the other middle distance events weren't covered. Club stalwarts Bernadine Pritchett and Alex Wardle stood in at short notice to cover 5 of those 6 events. In the 800m Bernadine placed 7th in the "A" 800m" with 2m28.15 secs, and then placed 6th in the 1500m with 5m14.03 secs, and 5th in the 3000m with 10m56.52 secs. Alex was 5th in the "B" 1500m with 6m06.44 secs and 6th in the "B" 3000m with 12m21.57 secs. The 4x100m team of Kitty Eleyae, Nusrat Ceesay, Moe Sasegbon and Stephanie Gaynor were 6th in 49.78 secs and the 4x400m team of Alex Wardle, Bernadine Pritchett, Moe Sasegbon and Gemma Weetman were 8th in 4m36.65 secs.

In the end a fine team effort form all of those who made the trip to Wigan, the Team Managers will be hoping for a much stronger turn out in that final fixture at Kingston on August 4th.