We made good use of our home advantage at the opening SAL fixture on Saturday, where we won comfortably with a total score of 293, beating Thurrock’s 274. It wasn’t by any means certain though, with Thurrock appearing to take a slight lead early on and little separating us throughout the match. They were generally stronger than us in the field, while we took more points on the track. Crucial to our success, however, was covering so many of the events, so well done to team managers Chris, Jamie and Patricia for rallying the troops. It was also great to see so many ESM non-scorers trying new events and/or just putting down a marker for the season.
With a combination of chilly temperatures and early-season cobwebs, there were precious few PBs, but the men’s 5000m was a good quality race, won in 14:51.62 by Jonathan Poole of Serpentine (winner of last year’s Perivale 5). Chris Hepworth was a few seconds short of his recent 5K road PB, but bettered his track PB by nearly a minute in the A string, while non-scorers Akira Anzai Jackson, Santosh Rai and Mark Kencroft all ran their best track 5K to date. In the B string, Elliott Jones was also nearly back to top form.
Start of a top quality men’s 5000m
Elias Ahmed ran a good “sit and kick” tactical race in the men’s 800m. He had to settle for second in the 1500m, though Seweryn Czapka won the B string.
In the men’s 2000m steeplechase, Pete Flewitt and Rob Brown ran respectable times in their veteran categories. Technical events such as hurdles and steeplechase are good points-scoring opportunities, as clubs will often struggle to fill their team sheets.
Pete Flewitt tackles the water jump
In the women’s 3000m, Sarah Gerrie and Leanne Smith ran PBs, notching up good points with first and second place in the A and B string respectively.
Sarah & Leanne at the start of the women’s 3000m
Gabija Rasiukevicuite and Rachel Badham also made an impact in the 1500m, finishing second and first in the A and B string races. It was a similar story in the 800m, where Cameron Thomas backed up her recent PB with another sub-2:30 in the A string, and Charlie Cooney-Quinn took full points in the B.
Cameron on her way to another good 800m time
We have a good developing squad of young female sprinters and it was great to see them all in action, especially in the 4x100m. It’s all about getting the baton round, and in doing so, they beat a very strong team from Enfield & Haringey, who looked set for a win until they dropped the baton in the final handover.
The closing relays are always exciting to watch and we won three of the four. Laura Stewart finished ahead on the opening leg of the 4x400m, Cameron Thomas built up a good lead on leg two, then Gabija Rasiukevicuite and Nicola Ravenhill finished it off with a convincing win. The men also won the 4x400m.
Chris brings the baton home in the 4x400m
In the field, Oscar Gjesdal and Matt Clampin took full points in the high jump and were both second in the triple jump.
Field eventer Helen Leadbetter is always a huge asset to the club, this time winning the pole vault, the long jump and the triple jump, as well as the high jump B string. Debbie McCaw was, in her own words, “dragged out of retirement” to compete in the hammer. While a long way short of her best, she nonetheless took a narrow victory. Claire King also scored solid points in the discus and shot.
For the men, Matt Clampin also did great service, competing in four events.
The icing on the cake was the 20 match points awarded to ESM for providing a full squad of qualified officials, so thanks to them for giving us that added advantage over Thurrock, whose officials only gained them 10 points!
Thanks to Arun Manget for the great action shots. The full album can be found on our Facebook page.
The next match is on Saturday 18th May at Peterborough, and we need to maintain the good turnout!
Final match scores: ESM 293, Thurrock 274, Serpentine 237, Orion 229, Enfield & Haringey 186
ESM results summary:
Men: 100m: A: 2 William Lord 11.51; B: 3 Ash Conteh 11.79; NS: Joshua Nedd (U17) 12.38; Miles Bernadine (U17) 12.20; Chris Burbidge (M40) 13.06; 200m: A: 3 Rowan Board 24.14; B: 3 Ash Conteh 24.35; NS: Tristan Collins-Marsh (U17) 24.64; 400m: A: 2 Rowan Board 53.30; NS: Michael Kouwiloyan (U17) 57.90; 800m: A: 1 Elias Simon Ahmed (U17) 2:00.52; B: 2 Seweryn Czapka (U17) 2:09.17; NS: Luke Adar (U20) 2:18.04; Akira Anzai-Jackson 2:20.41; 1500m: A: 2 Elias Simon Ahmed (U20) 4:06.47; B: 1 Seweryn Czapka (U17) 4:25.97; NS: Vitaly Bender (U17) 4:41.31; David Foley (M60) 5:28.63; 5000m: A: 4 Christopher Hepworth 15:52.48; B: 4 Elliot Jones 17:13.05; NS: Akira Anzai-Jackson 17:51.00; 4 Santosh Rai 17:51.59; 5 Mark Kencroft (M50) 18:02.62; 2000mSC: A: 3 Peter Flewitt (M45) 7:04.40; B: 3 Robert Brown (M50) 8:03.58; 400mH: A: 2 Luke Nicholas 69.37; B: 2 Matthew Clampin 77.51; 4x100m: 3 ESM (Ash Conteh, Will Lord, Tristan Collins-Marsh, Miles Bernardine) 45.79; 4x400m: 1 ESM (Rowan Board, Elias Ahmed, Tristan Collins-Marsh, Chris Hepworth) 3:35.48; DT: A: 4 Philip York (M55) 16.14; B: 4 Christopher Hepworth 15.56; HJ: A: 1 Oscar Gjesdal (U20) 1.88; B: 1 Matthew Clampin 1.60; HT: A: 5 Robert Densley (M65) 16.91; B: 4 Philip York (M55) 5.71; JT: A: 5 Bilal Uba (U20) 19.28; B: 3 Philip York (M55) 12.07; LJ: A: 4 Matthew Clampin 4.87; B: 3 Miles Bernadine (U17) 4.81; NS: Bilal Uba (U20) 5.44; PV: A: 5 Luke Nicholas 1.20; B: 3 Robert Densley (M65) 1.20; SP: A: 5 Luke Nicholas 7.28; B: 4 Robert Densley (M65) 6.69; TJ: A: 2 Oscar Gjesdal (U20) 12.17; B: 2 Matthew Clampin 10.53
Women: 100m: A: 2 Bessie Aban-Owusu 12.87; B: 2 Fatma Hammad (U20) 13.21; NS: Golder Wiafe (U17) 13.03; Olamide Belewu (U20) 13.53; Miriam Abdelgader (U20) 14.26; 200m: A: 3 Golder Wiafe (U17) 27.45; 200m: B: 1 Fatma Hammad (U20) 27.82; NS: Bessie Aban-Owusu 28.09; Olamide Belewu (U20) 28.49; Miriam Abdelgader (U20) 30.59; 400m: A: 3 Nicola Ravenhill (U20) 66.40; B: 4 Olivia Howes-Smith 79.78; 800m: A: 2 Cameron Thomas (U20) 2:29.62; B: 1 Charlotte Cooney-Quinn (U17) 2:44.80; NS: Katie Hay (U17) 2:51.61; 1500m: A: 2 Gabija Rasiukevicuite 5:09.02; B: 1 Rachael Badham (W45) 5:12.92; 3000m: A: 1 Sarah Gerrie (W35) 11:21.65; B: 2 Leanne Smith 11:51.86; 100mH: A: 2 Laura Stewart (U20) 19.20; 4x100m: 1 ESM (Bessie Aban-Owusu, Golder Wiafe, Olamide Belewu, Fatma Hammad) 52.22; 4x400m: 1 ESM (Laura Stewart, Cameron Thomas, Gabija Rasiukevicuite, Nicola Ravenhill) 4:23.91; DT: A: 2 Claire King (W40) 18.48; B: 4 Denise English (W50) 10.79; HJ: A: 3 Golder Wiafe (U17) 1.40; B: 1 Helen Leadbetter (W35) 1.25; HT: A: 1 Debbie McCaw (W35) 32.05; B: 3 Cameron Thomas (U20) 5.78; JT: A: 5 Patricia Thomas (W50) 11.70; B: 3 Nicola Baker (W50) 11.23; LJ: A: 1 Helen Leadbetter (W35) 4.44; B: 2 Fatma Hammad (U20) 3.43; PV: A: 1 Helen Leadbetter (W35) 2.40; SP: A: 3 Claire King (W40) 6.97; TJ: A: 1 Helen Leadbetter (W35) 8.87
Full results on power of 10