BAL - Final Match

Woodford Green men’s team completed their fine British Athletics League season with another emphatic win at Lee Valley on Saturday. Their fourth successive win in the National Division One sees them make an immediate return to the Premiership having been relegated in 2013. They scored 391.5 points to win from Windsor SLE&H, who scored 320 points to fight off relegation. Promoted along with Woodford was Glasgow who, although 7^th on the day, had placed 2^nd in the prior 3 fixtures. Relegated were Gateshead and TVH. In a fine all-round team effort everybody performed well, but it was pleasing to see both Dan Awde and Andy Frost in club action so soon after competing in the Commonwealth Games.

As usual Woodford’s hammer throwers got the team off to a good start,where there was the first of several double wins. Andy Frost took the “A” with 66.73m and Peter Clarke the “B” with 56.65m. The discus throwers took advantage of good wind conditions and both recorded marginal personal bests with Devon Douglas winning the “A” with 53.21m, and Chris Linque the “B” with 50.79m. In the shot, Anthony Oshodi just missed out on a clean sweep for the whole season, placing 2^nd on this occasion with 15.76m and Youcef Zatat took the “B” with 15.36m. The javelin saw Stuart Harvey back in action for the first time this season and his 54.15m, before retiring with a back problem placed 2^nd in the “A” with veteran, and former international decathlete Paul Howard also 2^nd in the “B” with 47.94. Paul had earlier gained valuable pole vault points with 2.60m for 6^th=, the same height as another former international decathlete and now team physio Chris Awde cleared for 5^th in the “B”. In the high jump Robert Wolski completed his 4^th win of the season with 2.10m and then had a close effort at 2.20m, with Jack Lochans taking the “B” with 2.00m. In the long jump, junior Joseph Dewar, whose sprinting has being going well recently and included a personal best of 10.54 secs  (-0.8) on Wednesday evening, placed 3^rd with 6.98m (+1.6), and in the “B” Adrian Stamp was also 3^rd with 6.66m (+1.7).  In the triple jump and missing the usual Woodford athletes, both injured, Prince Ezenwa was back in action and placed 6^th with 13.89m, and Robert Wolski filled in with one effort off a few strides and his 12.21m was also 6^th in the “B”.

 Although warm, the wind that helped the discus throwers was in the face of the sprinters who at times had to battle quite fierce headwinds. The “A” 100m saw Eugene Ayanful finish strongly to place 4^th with 10.96 secs (-1.1), and in the “B” Omololu Abiodun was 2^nd with 11.04 secs (-5.2). Omololu was also in action over 200m where he placed 4^th in the “A” with 21.82 sesc (-2.4) and in the “B” Tom Holligan was 6^th with 22.63 secs (nwi). The 400m saw Glasgow 4x400m gold medalist Dan Awde win comfortably in 47.09 secs, with Alex Bell a good 2^nd in the ‘B” with 48.96 secs. The 400m Hurdlers gained good points, Ewan Dyer was 3^rd in the “A” with 53.32 secs, and junior Jack Lawrie won the “B” in 53.58. Jack then had a fine 2^nd place in the 110mH recording a personal best for 2^nd of 14.77 secs (0.0) with most onlookers doubting the wind reading which seemed to be a significant headwind. In the “B’ Tomaz Plibersek gamely gained a point with his 8^th in 23.48 secs (-2.6) , just a few minutes after he had won the ‘B” string 3000m s/ch in a season’s best of 9m28.88 secs, just behind Ryan McKinlay, who although not well and some way from his best was nevertheless keen to help the team and placed 2^nd in the “A” with 9m26.19secs. Ryan later gained useful “B” string points in the flat 3000m with his 5^th in 9m18.12 secs, with Ed Shepherd 4^th in the “A” with 8m33.14 secs. There was another double victory over 800m. Nathan Wake who, back in 2009 as a 16 year old, recorded 46.89 secs for 400m and placed 4^th at that event in the World Youth Championships, but has since been troubled with hamstring injuries, has made a serious switch to 800m this year recording 1m49.99 secs, won the “A” string with 1m53.28 secs. Tom Phillips took the “A” in a very close finish recording 1m55.60 secs. Tom later returned over 1500m and in a good field he placed 3^rd with 3m57.93 secs, as did Dan Gurton in the “B” with 4m01.34 secs.

The meeting closed with two fine relay victories, the 4x100m squad of Joseph Dewar, Omololu Abiodun, Tom Holligan and Eugene Ayanful combining well to comfortably win in 40.86 secs. The 4x400 squad won even more comfortably with Jack Lawrie (51.3 secs), Nathan Wake (48.3 secs), Dan Awde (46.7 secs) and Vincent Ogedengbe (47.45  secs) winning by almost 5 secs in 3m13.75 secs. This brought a fine BAL season for Woodford to a close, with all the athletes, and Team Manager Gladys Bird pleased with their return to the Premiership.