UKWL - Final Match

Woodford's women's team travelled to Liverpool for Sunday's final fixture of the UK Women's League Division One, After the first two fixtures Woodford were lying in second place and were hoping to secure a return to the Premier Division. With little to choose between several of the teams and Woodford some way from full strength promotion was far from a foregone conclusion However, in what proved to be a very tight final result, in the end a super team effort with all the athletes rallying round and most competing in two or three events and some also in relays, the team placed 3rd on the day, and 2nd overall in the League to ensure promotion back into the Premier Division. Enfield again won the match with 208 points from hosts Wigan on 190, Woodford 179, Notts 175, Sale 169, Shaftesbury 166, Crawley 154 and Glasgow 139. Woodford scored 20 league points and were promoted along with Enfield who scored 24. Glasgow were relegated with 6 and will be joined by either Shaftesbury or Crawley who each had 9 league points with identical match points. In what was essentially a great all round team effort orchestrated by Team Manager Keith Newton, it might not be fair to highlight any specific individual, but Jenny O'Sullivan who has only been racing on the track for a very short while and contributed in all three distance events including the steeplechase was one of many who contributed enormously.

 In demonstrating the closeness of this meeting, and that all teams worked hard to plug their various gap, Woodford had only one individual winner on the day, Azaria Francis in the "B" TJ with 11.67m, but solid scoring throughout saw them finish third.

Jenny O'Sullivan's three distance efforts came over 1500m, where she placed 2nd in the "B" with 5m19.61 secs, the 3000m where she was 6th with 11m03.21 secs, and in the 200om s/ch where she was 4th with 8m44.13 secs. Veteran, Bernadine Pritchett aslo contributed well in the middle distance events finishing 7th in the 800m with 2n26.33 secs and 5th in the 1500m with 4m58.70 secs. Jenny Thomas another vet, had a rare track outing and also gained valuable points with her 3rd in the "B" 3000m in 12m28.2 secs. In the "B" 800m, Nusrat Ceesay, unable to hurdle due to a hamstring injury filled in and finished 6th with 2m45.19 secs. Nusrat also placed 6th in the "B" javelin with 18.58m where Eike Vardja was 6th with 30.08m. Hollie Redman did three throwing events, 2nd in her speciality the discus with 44.17m, 5th in the shot with 11.50m and 2nd in the "B" hammer with 39.89m. Lucy Marshall also did three throws and was 2nd in the "A" hammer with 55.10m and later 5th in the "B" discus with 21.58m and also 3rd in the "B" shot with 10.02m. In the jumps, Zainab Ceesay was 2nd in the triple jump with 11.74m, as was Katie James in the Pole Vault with 3.70m, and with the team striving for every point Katie also high jumped where her 1.35m placed 5th in the "B" as Ayamba Akim was 3rd in the "A" with 1.65. With no specialist hurdlers available, Ayamba gamely filled in, and placed 4th in the "B" with 23.06 secs (+1.8). Sprinter Katie Skelding also helped out in the 100mH and placed 6th in 17.16 secs (+1.6). Katie had performed  well in the sprints, placing 2nd in both "B" events with 12.29 secs w (+2.8) over 100m and 25.21 secs w (+3.0) over 200m. In the "A" 100m Kitty Eleyae was 6th with 12.34 secs w (+3.7) and earlier had placed 3rd in the long jump with 5.86m (-2.6). In The "B" event Kim Murray was 4th with 4.96m (-3.1) but again gained valuable 400m points placing 6th in the "B" with 59.96 secs. In a good standard "A" event won by Marlyn Okoro with Jenny Meadows 4th, Keishana LaRosewas 5th in 55.86 secs, and not long later placed 6th in the 200m with 25.76 secs (+1.8).

Woodford 4x100m team of Kitty Eleyae, Keishana LaRose, Kim Murray and Katie Skelding were a good 3rd in 48.21 secs, and not long later sttill unsure of the points situation the same four girls lined up for the 4x400m where their 4m00.98 secs placed 6th, which was enough to confirm promotion.