EYAL Basildon
In the 4th round match of the EYAL at Basildon, Woodford struggled with fielding the U/17 Men’s team as many were out injured. Thankfully we had a couple of U/15’s who were willing to step up into the upper age group which helped us gain much needed points. U/17 Pearce Christie stole the 100m in 11.4 and 200m in 22.8. U15 Amy Gilbert gained 1st place in all three of her events; Shot 8.88, Discus 24.61 and Hammer 38.66. U/15’s Brandon Shibchurn 1st in 100m 11.9 and Boris Bozkov 1st in Discus 35.15, Jack Kilminster threw 10.82 for 2nd place in Shot, while Ryan Beatty was 1st in Hammer with a throw of 33.72. U/15 Molly Gardner won the HJ with 1.45m and our English Schools bronze medallist Steph Howe won U/17 Hammer 44.77.
We had some new recruits for U/13 Boys and they didn’t disappoint. Lucus Negroni won the 200m in 27.0 and Callum Salter won 1500m 5.15.2 and Javelin with a throw of 24.42. U/17 Greg Gilbert who ran a 400m was thankfully persuaded to throw Javelin and surprised himself with 33.45m.
It was at the last moment we managed to gather a U/17M team for the relay. We were down to only four athletes, 2 under 15’s, one of which came straight from the delayed 200m and the other who was carrying an injury and hasn’t sprinted for some time and the U/17 Pearce Christie who had also just run 200m and Greg Gilbert. Despite no practice at all they managed to get the baton round safely and in a reasonable time of 49.8.
WGEL are at present in 15th place (the top 12 compete for the finals). This isn’t a bad place to be in considering this is our first year in this league. We need all the athletes who are not on holiday to compete at the last event in Bedford (coach supplied) on 3rd August, so please let either myself (Helen), Wendy or Paul Cheal know if you are available. All the athletes who take part have a great time supporting each other. We would like to thank all the athletes who compete for us and those also who are more than happy to try events to gain much needed points.