We were narrowly beaten into third at the first Southern Athletics League meeting of 2015 at Uxbridge on Saturday, behind hosts Hillingdon AC and Newbury AC. We were placed first in 24 events – the men and the women contributed equally to the overall points tally, but the women claimed more victories, while the men managed to field a fuller team. One of the standout performances came from Kamile Bykovaite, who set a new club record of 11.28m in the women’s triple jump, also equalling her PB in the long jump. With training partner Besirat Tesfu also improving her best in both events, ESM took a clean sweep in the horizontal jumps. Newcomer Isha Habib jumped a personal best of 4.91m in the long jump, which proved to be the longest jump of the day, albeit non-scoring. Over at the pole vault, Helen Leadbetter and Grazina Narviliene also scored maximum points. Women’s team manager Tracey Gould put together a squad to be reckoned with in the throws. Debbie McCaw won the shot, came second in the hammer and won the B string discus and javelin. Tracey herself won the B string hammer and came second in the B shot putt. Siobhan Drummond (pictured) threw the discus seven metres further than anyone else, adding nearly two metres to her PB. Alongside her four track performances, Kat Mertens topped up the points tally with a win in the javelin. On the track, Eldika Edwards continued her dominance in the sprints, putting clear daylight between herself and the other athletes. She was ably supported by Amber Henry, who won the 100 B and came third in the 200 B. Kat Mertens took second in the 400m and 800m. Together with Besirat Tesfu, these three took a convincing win in the sprint relay. Michelle Ennis made a promising debut run in the 400m B. Man of the match was probably Seb Zajackowski. His afternoon started with a thrilling 800m battle against clubmate Mo Hashi, both clocking sub two minutes. With a hundred metres to go, Mo seemed to have the race stitched up, but Seb dug deep to edge him over the last 30 metres. An hour and a half later, Seb made his track debut over 5000m, finishing second with arguably his best performance of the day. He also won the 1500m convincingly before leading off in the 4 x 400m relay. Over the shorter distances, Will Lord came second in the 100m before achieving a personal best with a win in the 400m. Kema Egbunike made a useful contribution with his second place in the B string sprints. Hurdles specialist Szymon Swigon also had a busy afternoon, winning the 110m hurdles after coming second with a PB in the one lap hurdles. He also notched up valuable points in the high, long and triple jumps. Luke Nicholas also competed in five events, including a win in the 1500m B race. The men’s team competed in all the field events, though the hammer throw from Karolis Narvilas was the only significant personal best. This season, we continue to compete in Division 2 West against 14 other clubs, and the next match is at Harrow on May 31st. Click here for the list of dates/venues and here for the programme of events. ESM Results summary Men 100m: A: 2 Will Lord (U20) 1158; B: 2 Kema Egbunike 11.8; 200m: A: 2 Kema Egbunike 23.6; B: 2 Phoenix Lyon 23.8; 400m: A: 1 Will Lord (U20) 50.9; B: 2 D’yon Christopher (U20) 55.3; 800m: A: 1 Seb Zajackowski 1:59.1; 1 Mohammed Hashi 1:59.4; B: 1500m: A: 1 Seb Zajackowski 4:18.3; B: 1 Luke Nicholas 4:24; 5000m: A: 2 Seb Zajackowski 15:40.7; B: 2 Sam Ashcroft 16:52.9; 110mH: A: 1 Szymon Swigon 17.9; 400mH: A: 2 Szymon Swigon 62.7; B: 2 Luke Nicholas 66.4; 2000mSC: A: 3 Tom Yates 7:25.6; B: 4 Phil York (M50) 9:28.3; HJ: A: 4 Szymon Swigon 1.50; B: Luke Nicholas 1.00; PV: A: 1 Martin Densley 3.30; B: 2 Luke Nicholas 1.90; LJ: A: 3 Szymon Swigon 5.31; B: 4 Kamah Mohamed (U17) 4.19; TJ: A: 3 Szymon Swigon 10.31; B: 3 Bob Densley (V60) 5.70; SP: A: 4 Raf Morawski 7.53; B: 4 Karolis Narvilas (U17) 6.75; DT: A: 4 Jack Kirk 16.92; B: 4 Bob Densley (M60) 15.59; HT: A: 2 Raf Morawski 46.91; B: 2 Karolis Narvilas (U17) 25.54; JT: A: 2 Jack Kirk 33.89; B: 4 Mo Hashi 23.29; 4 x 100m: 1 (Will Lord, Kamah Mohamed, Kema Egbunike, Phoenix Lyon) 52.0; 4 x 400m: 3 (Seb Zajackowski, Luke Nicholas, Angelo John, Mo Hashi) 4:22.8 Women 100m: A: 1 Eldika Edwards (U20) 12.5; B: 1 Amber Henry (U20) 14.2; 200m: A: 1 Eldika Edwards (U20) 26.1; B: 3 Amber Henry (U20) 29.3; 400m: A: 2 Kat Mertens 61.2; B: 3 Michelle Ennis 68.8; 800m: A: 2 Kat Mertens 2:19.5; B: 2 Pat Thomas (W50) 2:57.2; 1500m: A: 3 Nikki Shelley 5:16.9; 3000m: A: 4 1 Pat Thomas (W50) 13:26.4; 100mH: A: 3 Shim Amin; 21.1; 400mH: A: 3 Shim Amin 83.9; HJ: A: 3 Nikki Shelley 1.30; PV: A: Helen Leadbetter 2.20; B: 1 Grazina Narviliene (W40) 1.70; LJ: A: 1 Besirat Tesfu (U20) 4.89; B: 1 Kamile Bykovaite (U20) 4.68; TJ: A: 1 Kamile Bykovaite (U20) 11.28; B: 1 Besirat Tesfu (U20) 10.64; NS: Isha Habib (U17) 4.91; SP: A: 1 Debbie McCaw (W35) 10.14; B: 2 Tracey Gould (W35) 7.13; DT: A: 1 Siobhan Drummond 37.33; B: 1 Debbie McCaw 29.98; HT: A: 2 Debbie McCaw (W35) 42.42; B: 1 Tracey Gould (W35) 34.23; JT: A: 1 Kat Mertens 26.40; B: Debbie McCaw (W35) 23.72; 4 x 100m: 1 (Kat Mertens, Besirat Tesfu, Amber Henry, Eldika Edwards) 52.0; 4 x 400m: 3 (Kat Mertens, Michelle Ennis, Shim Amin, Nikki Shelley) 4:22.8 Full results here |