Saturday 15^th June saw our second match of the Southern Athletics League take place at Woking Sportsbox. Heavy rain meant the venue resembled more of a swimming pool than an athletics track; but the day started off strong with our women’s 400m hurdlers, Zoe Austridge (U23) and Amber Bloomfield (U20), both winning their races. Richard Holt (M50) also took to the track to score points in the 400m hurdles with his first outdoor race of the season, finishing happily having enjoyed the race.

We had a short delay to the field due to the rain but despite the weather Hannah Lewis (U23), in her first year with the club, went on to jump an outdoor PB of 2.95m! James Nightingale also equalled his outdoor PB in the high jump while Rachael Ilori (U23) jumped a season’s best, a few centimetres away from her PB to take 3^rd in the long jump.

Our second race on the track was the 800m with fantastic racing in the women’s seeing 1^st and 3^rd places for Chloe Sharp and Olivia Magee-Brown (U20) followed by 1^st and 5^th places for Jasper Brooks and Hendri Verster. James Naylor had a fantastic run in the non-scoring 800 setting an outdoor PB by 6 seconds and coming within 1 second of his indoor PB. While on the field Pat Apantaku stepped in to fill a gap, throwing his first hammer since 2015, and Roger Platt  (M50) fielded the B string, with both athletes looking forward to their main events later in the day. Tallulah Ndikanwu (U20) (having already completed a non-scoring 400mH race) placed 3^rd in the A string shot with 10.21m and Jessie Sargeant (U20) placed 2^nd with 8.95m.

In the 100m, Louisa Vallins (W45) ran a strong race in the A string placing 3^rd followed by Poppy Ellis-Jones (U17) placing 4^th in the B string on her debut race both for the club and as a competitive athlete having recently come through the club’s academy pathway. Anais Hemetsberger also ran well as a non-scorer before the men’s 100m started. The now windy (as well as wet) weather led to wind assisted runs for the men’s races with both Kyle Reynolds-Warmington (U23) and Duayne Bovell (M35) placing second in their strings with 10.64w and 11.06w respectively.

By this point the weather had caused two electronic starting systems to fail with team managers called in to discuss what to do next should the final back up electronic system fail. This short break from the programme, accompanied by severe rainfall, led to a 45minute delay ahead of the men’s non scoring 100m starting where Leon McBean (U17) ran well despite having to wait around for a long time in the cold.

The field was also able to restart with some competitions resuming and others now very delayed. Our sole athlete in the men’s long jump, Dennis Savage (U20), leapt to a PB of 5.75m and 4^th place. Jessie threw over 31m in the javelin, her second event of the day. Pat also now on his second event of the day joined Nehemiah Dick (U17) in the shot put, both earning valuable points for the team.

Now over an hour behind, the 400m finally began. Chanelle Cole (U23) and Matilda Shilland (U17) both sprinted round the lap to 3^rd and 4^th places. Sam Mowa (U20) and Maurizio (Rio) Corrodus (U23) then took on the men’s 400 to place 2^nd and 1^st in their races with Joseph Merry also running the race as a non-scorer. Shortly followed by Jessie who stormed to second in the 100m hurdles, her third event of the day!

The men’s 3000m was next to begin with Joseph Hill (U17) and Roger Vilardell (M40) both warming up ready to race. Unfortunately, Joseph had to withdraw before the start (wishing him a speedy recovery) but Roger V successfully completed his 7.5 laps in a time of 9:34.33s, his fastest track 3k since 2021.

Our masters’ athletes represented the club in the pole vault with Roger Platt (M50) and Alan Hardy (M65) placing 2^nd and 3^rd in their strings. Both athletes scored highly for points and Roger, on his second event of the day, had 3 great attempts at a PB height. The men’s javelin saw fantastic throws from Ben Platt (U20) being sadly cut short by the wind, with many athletes throwing quite far before the headwind forced sudden vertical drops. Even with the poor weather Ben remained positive and supported Joseph Merry in his debut javelin performance. Joe went on to throw over 25m having never held a javelin before the day and both athletes placed 4^th in their strings.

Aurelia Osborne (W45) and Katy Sugden (W45) fought their way through what could only be likened to a stream during the 5000m as lane 1 had become flooded with the increasing showers. Despite practically swimming, Aurelia managed to run a PB and both athletes placed 3^rd. During the 5000m, we had 3 athletes take part in the women’s triple jump. Rachael (on event two of the day) placed 2^nd with 10.41m, again coming close to PB territory. Emily Hayden de Carbonnieres (U20) hop, skipped and jumped 9.55m to win the B string. Recently returning from injury, Charlotte Hosp (U20) achieved an impressive 10.34m non-scoring.

The next event on the track was the 110m hurdles, the only event where we had no athletes at all for the day. This meant our next track event was the 200m with all our scorers on tired from earlier races. Chanelle came 3^rd with 26 dead and Louisa placed 4^th. Kyle ran well in the A string, still managing a 22.74s run having felt a cramp mid race. Sam then just pipped him with a 22.27s 200m. We had several non-scoring athletes in Poppy (27.79), Zoe (26.19), Duayne (23.54) and Joe (24.25).

The 1500m is the only track event where the men’s race precedes the women’s. The men performed well with Alex Middleton (U20) and Mark Constable (U20) both winning their races and taking maximum points. Mark’s time was also a PB! Morgan Squibb (U23) followed in their footsteps, winning the A string in 4:37.22s. Noticing we had a gap in the 1500m, Chloe Sharp kindly stepped in and offered to jog round as a warm up for her steeplechase, placing an impressive 3^rd.

Lucinda White (U20) made her debut club appearance, with her poles sadly unavailable due to a clash with the schools intercounties she came along to support the team and score some points in the Discus. Lucinda set a PB with an impressive standing throw of 28.19! In the B string Lottie Palmer made her SAL debut. The multi-talented U17 also threw a PB with 16.55!

Jessie, now rather damp from her long day of events, really showed that she is a heptathlete with her fourth event of the day. 1.48m secured ever valuable points along with Anais Hemetsberger who jumped 1.28 with little practice after her planned training session the Thursday before was rained off! Pat, now on event three of his day, jumped 10.77m in the triple jump.

Gone 5pm and we were finally reaching the 4x100m relays (due to have begun at 4:30pm). The womens team (Poppy, Zoe, Chanelle, Louisa) successfully passed the baton around the track to place 2^nd, even with a complicated change over. A combination of poor weather and the consequential delays to the timetable meant we were unable to field a mens relay team. Due to no relay, Duayne decided to put his power to use elsewhere, joining Pat in the Discus.

The final non relay track event was the steeplechase. I suspect the filling of the water jump was an unnecessary expense given there was so much rain on the track and throughout the day that it probably could have filled itself. Katy, who currently holds the W45 2000mSC club record, gave her first 1500 steeplechase a go and completed it in a time of 6:51.69, having already completed a 5k. Chloe, who was now on her 3^rd race of the day had an extraordinary finish and set a new PB of 5:08.97s! She then had just minutes to recover in time for the final event of the day the 4x400m relays.

Still short of athletes we were only able to field one mixed relay team, though a 4x400m freestyle would have been a more suitable name for the event. Thomas Sugden ran an incredible leg and gave us a fantastic start, followed by Zoe, Chloe and finished by Rio!

The athletes gave it their all in awful conditions and I would like to thank them all for coming along and helping the team. Finally, a massive thank you to our officials who went above and beyond to keep the match running smoothly. The wet and windy weather was horrible and the events cannot happen without them and their willingness to continue, so thank you!

Our next matches are Sutcliffe Park and home at Norman Park, we hope to get our strongest possible teams for our final events.

Any athletes looking to compete that haven’t already please
get in contact via bbharriersac.sal@gmail.com

Holly Platt

SAL Team Manager