Fine performances to end SAL season

A fifth place in the final SAL match of the season at Medway was sufficient to ensure Woodford finished mid-division in the club’s first year in the top flight. The day was highlighted by a number of strong performances on a day with the best conditions of the season, not too hot except for the longest distances and light winds favourable for sprinters but with enough shelter for others. Max Law had the best overall performance of the day in winning the javelin in 63.41, while the top 3 female performances were all by WGEL athletes with almost identical comparative scores, Katie Head, Peanut Meekings and Abbie Dowdye.

While Woodford started 9th of 18 clubs there was still a mathematical chance of relegation, with 2 points needed to ensure safety. Only Woking, who started the day 3rd in the league but out of reach of the top 2, weren’t in danger, but hosts Medway & Maidstone took full advantage of a second consecutive home match to vault from the edge of the drop-zone into the top half of the table. The hosts were helped by the surprise appearance of Lewis Church, fresh from the Commonwealth decathlon and in his first appearance of the year for his second claim club, his presence proved the difference to edge out Woking at the top. Early on there was little to choose between most teams, with the exception of bottom club Epsom & Ewell who it became clear weren’t able to make a last day charge. WGEL started with too many gaps to mount a challenge for the match and once it was clear safety was assured those offering to fill them did not have to do too much out of the ordinary. By contrast to E&E, Havering who were Woodford’s paired club for the season, put out their strongest team of the year to fight the drop and they edged out Newbury for third on the day, not enough to survive themselves but enough to leave Newbury with a very nervous wait for the other match results to see if they are down too.

First up Katie Head had no challenge in the women’s hammer, winning convincingly despite her shortest competition distance of the year. Another early winner in his first SAL match came from U20 Rashaun-Mullings Smith in the high jump, equalling his PB of 1.95 in only his third competition in three injury-ravaged years. Peanut Meekings had teammate Kike Agoro to push her in the women’s javelin, with 44.58 securing the win a long way ahead of the rest of the field, while Peanut also won the B shot put behind Rebecca Wright’s A string. Almost as far ahead of the pack in the women’s triple jump, Abbie Dowdye had a clear aim of exceeding 12m for the first time after 11.99 in the England champs last month. A narrow foul well beyond this distance indicated it was a matter of when, not if, and she duly delivered with 12.04, while Habiba Tijani took the B string. A more surprising triple jump win came from U18 Samuel Kolawole in the men’s event, with a PB of 12.28.

The sprints saw mostly Woodford dominance, with no scorer worse than 2nd. At 100m Merveilles Massembo and Matthew Gittens had no problems in their respective races, U18W Shalom Prince was edged out in the women’s A race while Lakhesia Adam Poku was a clear winner in the B in a 12.46SB. At 200m Shalom had a seemingly slim chance to reverse the 100m result as she again faced a 400m specialist who had rested from her main event in anticipation of favourable conditions. Despite this it was Shalom who showed the greater strength into the finish to win in a significant PB of 25.14. Lakhesia won the B race by a huge margin. Dante Pollard also finished well to claim a tight A 200m win in the only windy race of the day (22.28 +2.3m/s), as did U18M Thomas Niewczasinki-Kirkland in the B string. At 400m Kyra White had a straightforward win, while Adrian Richards was 2nd in 49.49 to underline his status as the top M40 in Europe. U18 Mattie Delea improved his PB to 51.29 for a close 2nd in the B string. In non-scoring races there were PBs for Jessie Briggs (12.72 100m) and Tejiri Akpoveta (27.95 200m), with Tejiri also improving her PB in the high jump (1.43).

At 800m there was a breakthrough for U18M Daniel Arnold, who met his bold claim he would break 2 minutes for the first time with a 1:59.70 second place (a PB of over 6 seconds). Katie Olert was similarly happy with 2nd in the women’s B race, her 2:41 time her fastest since her return the sport. Zena Uppal was a dominant winner in the A 1500m with Katie again providing B string support. The longer the distance the more the heat was a factor, indeed the women’s 5000m was cut to 3000m at the last minute as a result. Had our team been informed in advance we may have had participants in this, as it was Katie and Matilda Frith had plenty else to do, with Matilda active in all 3 hurdling events. Another to cover multiple events was U18W Ishana Malcolm, including a PB at 400m hurdles. The Woodford athlete who suffered most in the heat was Will Muffett, who paid for setting an ambitious early pace in his first flat 3000m race, yet somehow had the energy to cover a B 1500 later in the day.

Our women’s 4x100m quartet, U18s Habiba Tijani and Shalom Prince, along with Lakhesia Adams-Poku and U20 Tejiri Akpoveta were comfortable winners, while the men’s quartet of Thomas Niewczasinki-Kirkland, Dante Polland, Merveilles Massembo and Matthew Gittens held on for a tighter success. With limited options at the end of day, eg all the young athletes from the women’s 4x100 had already hit their maximum number of events, the decision was made to concentrate firepower on a single mixed 4x400m quarter rather than spread athletes across two teams as may have been required if the league position was not secured. The team of Thomas Niewczasinki-Kirkland, Kyra White, Lakhesia Adams Poku and Adrian Richards was never headed in a dominant 3:39.00 win. Indeed the lead stretched to the length of the straight by the time Adrian Richards coasted home, in part due to Lakhesia’s fear of being run-down by teams using men on her leg which led to her fastest ever split of 58.3.

The men’s throws ended up as a battle between Woodford’s specialists and some elite multi-eventers. Top Woodford points scorer Hugh Williams was unable to take the shot but was happy to be within 1m of winner Lewis Church given the decathlete hadn’t previously thrown less than 14m in the last 2 years. By contrast Max Law was always in control in the javelin, his 63.41 was his second best competition in 5 injury-plagued seasons, with Henry Bennet also clearly ahead of the multi-eventers in 52.14 to add to his early PB in the B shot. The men’s discus didn’t even start until well after the conclusion of the rest of the programme, but once it did Christopher Linque took a narrow early lead and extended it to win in 42.46, with Hugh Williams taking the B string.

Overall the first season for Woodford in the top division was highlighted by the dominant home win in the first fixture. Subsequent matches did not have the same depth of teamsheet, with too many gaps to be in contention at the top of the division. This was proved by this last match where WGEL won notably more events than any other team (a third of all those contested) but still ended fifth out of six. Nonetheless the higher average standard in this division has proved a useful bridging ground for many athletes, with half those in SAL action this year also competing in the NAL. Total participation was reduced slightly by the age-group changes preventing a younger cohort from competing in the SAL, but the 64 athletes competing in the first match was the most Woodford has ever had in a senior league fixture.