NAL Match Three, Birmingham
The final round of the 2024 NAL season took place at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium, the refurbished venue of the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Whilst this match was always likely to be a straight two way fight for the title between joint leaders TVH and Harrow, Woodford started in fourth place and mathematically any of the six teams starting in 3rd-8th places could be relegated depending upon the day’s outcome, compounded by the fact that host Club Birchfield, starting in the bottom two, were likely to be significantly stronger for their home fixture. In fact, both of the bottom two clubs, Birchfield and Sale were notably stronger for this fixture as they tried to avoid relegation. This meant that all six of the non-top two clubs (including Woodford) flirted with the relegation zone at some stage during the match. Woodford’s team for this fixture contained several top athletes but had a number of others missing either due to injury or other unavailability. This meant a number of reserves were called upon to fill places with many athletes taking on additional events and this great team spirit saw Woodford pull though on the day to finish 6th in very close scoring behind overall winners TVH and Harrow and behind relegation fighting Birchfield and Sale, and just behind Glasgow and ahead of Blackheath & Bromley and WSEH. This should leave the final standings with Woodford 4th overall as follows; TVH 23, Harrow 22, Glasgow 12.5, Woodford Green 12, WSEH 10.5, Birchfield 10, Sale 9, Blackheath & Bromley 9. However, these results both on the day and overall remain provisional.
From a points scoring performance Youcef Zatat’s “A” string shot win and the men’s 4x100m relay win were notable but every single performance whether just gaining a single point or setting a new personal best was significant in such a tight competition.
Youcef Zatat,who won the English title in the same stadium two weeks ago, won his second event, the shot, with a solid put of 18.29m. Earlier, Youcef had taken part in his first discus competition of the season and his 46.24 was 2nd in the “B”. After the shot, Youcef threw 51.39m for 3rd in the “B” javelin. Backing up Youcef in the shot was Aaron Edwards and his 12.49m was 3d in the “B”, whilst ahead of Youcef in the discus was Mark Plowman whose 47.85m was also 2nd in the “A”. In the "A" javelin, Bradley James was 4th with a season’s best of 60.56m. Mark also covered the “B” hammer and his 32.71m was 5th in the “B” with Noah Wooding also placing 5th in the “A” with 42.85m.
The women throwers all performed well. Their first event was the hammer where Lucy Marshall was 5th with 49.97m as Simbi Sikuru was 3rd in the “B” with 47.62m. The discus saw Shadine Duquemin place a close 2nd with 52.49m and later a useful 5th in her first shot competition since 2018 with 12.47m. Backing up Shadine in those ‘B” events and called in to cover others’ unavailability was Lyn Tucker and her 10.56m in the shot and 34.59m in the discus placed 6th and 5th respectively in the “B” events. The javelin saw Kirtsy Bateman-Foley 3rd in the “A” with 40.37m and Lucy Wilkinson also 3rd with 32.27m
The middle-distance events were generally tactical and whilst the men’s team were very solid the women were missing several of their better athletes and were reliant upon athletes who stood in or took on double events and contributed hugely valuable points in such a tight meeting. First up were the 800m races and Joseph Owen was 3rd with 1m53.93 secs and in the “B” Owen Hibbert was 2nd with 1m57.42 secs. The 1500m saw UK steeplechase champion Phil Norman in action (after having placed 6th with 57.06 secs in the “B” 400mH) and with that race in his legs wasn’t quite able to match the mid-race kick from Birchfield’s Gebremariam who completed a trio of NAL victories with Phil 2nd with 3m51.89 secs. Haider Razzaq was 3rd in the “B” with 3m 58.52 secs. The 3000m started at a very slow pace before picking up with Joel Doyle 4th in 8m46.33 secs and Oliver Bushdari 2nd in the “B” with 8m48.25 secs. In the 3km steeplechase Videsh Weerakkody placed a good 4th with a new p.b.of 9m54.54 secs with Ryan McKinlay 5th in the “B” with 10m43.78 secs, before immediately after gaining valuable 8th place points as our only 110m hurdler.
The women’s 800m saw Jess Norkett in action and whilst not fully fit was another who rallied to help the team effort and she was 8th with 2m17.41secs as Aoibheann Pearce was 5th in the “B” with a p.b. of 2m20.69 secs. Aoibheann later took on the 2km s/ch and placed 6th with 8m06.66 secs. Alicia McArdell and Katherine Olert covered both the 3000m and the 1500m where they placed 8th ,7th, 8th and 8th respectively but those points gained were hugely significant in the context of the team contest.
The sprint events were as always, a high standard. The men’s 100m had Moyin Odeniran 7th in the “A” with 10.86m (+0.9) and U/20, Ethan Franklin 4th in the “B” with a p.b.of 10.78 secs (+0.2). Ethan was also in 200m action where he was 6th in the “B” with 21.66 secs (+2.3). In the “A” Nabil Tezkratt was 4th with 21.53 secs (+0.3). The 400m saw Adrian Richards a little below his recent fine form and his 50.38 secs was 8th, with Matthew Adum-Yeboah 4th in the “B” with his fine p.b. of 48.86 secs. In the women’s 100m Gwen Datey’s 11.92 secs (+1.7) placed 6th in a strong field, whilst in the “B” Rebecca Grieve was elevated from a non-scoring race due to injury was 7th 12.12 secs (+0.1), a p.b. in her first race over that distance in two years. Gwen was back in action over 200m and she was again 6th with 24.19 secs w (+2.1), whilst U/20 Rebecca was back later in the 400m where she placed 4th with 55.10 secs. Backing up Gwen and Rebecca was Lakhesia Adams-Poku who gamely agreed to be drafted in at very short notice to cover injuries, and covered both “B” races and although 8th in those as well as being a member of both relays was another whose late notice contribution was extremely valuable.
For the men Billy Doyle was the only other hurdler in action and he was 7th over 400mH. For the women, Jasmine Mitchell was also 7th with 64.77 secs, with Grace Brennan also 7th in the “B”. In the women’s 100mH Jane Davidson was a very close 3rd in 13.86 secs (+0.7) but in the “B” Jasmine Clark who led early on despite finding herself off her wrong leg gamely finished 6th after clattering the 6th hurdle.
The jumps produced mixed results for the team but in the end, it was those results from the later jumps events which saw the team move up in the day’s results. The women’s long jump was up first and in a very good standard where every athlete had a p.b. of over 6m and Mary Ellcock placed 6th with 5.85m with Georgie Forde-Wells was 7th in the ‘B’. Georgie gained additional points by clearing the high jump opening height but by the time the triple jump came around, the ankle problem that has troubled the 2023 UK champion for some time was again causing problems. Nevertheless, Georgie ensured a mark was gained and her 11.43m placed 2nd in the “B” with Mary 3rd in the “A” with 12.76m.The women’s Pole Vault saw Ellie McCartney close to her recent Club record (4.36m) as she took a fine win with 4.33m. In the “B”, Grace Brennan was 4th with 2.93m. In the men’s PV Cameron Wells was 6th with 3.80m, whilst in the LJ Sam Khogali was 3rd in a close competition with 7.50m with Merveilles Massembo 6th in the “B”. In the high jump, Joba Ashiru was back in action after injury and his 1.92m was 7th =. In the “B” U/20 Marcel Winter was 4th with a fine p.b. of 1.87m. The TJ saw Tosin Oke place 3rd in a very close, good standard competition with 15.80m as Sam Khogali was 4th in the “B” with 13.26m
The relays were the final events and the men’s 4x100m team of Ethan Franklin, Medwin Odamtten, Matthew Adum-Yeboah and Nabil Tezkratt produced a fine win in 40.66 secs, the fastest by a Club team in the UK this season. The 4x400m team of Billy Doyle, Matthew, Nabil and Adrian Richards were 5th with 3m19.17 secs. The women’s 4x100m of Jasmine Clark, Gwen Datey, Lakheisa Adams-Poku and Jane Davidson were 7th with 47.76 secs, whilst their 4x400m team of Gwen, Jasmine Mitchell, Lakhesia and Rebecca Grieve were 8th in 4m01.76 secs