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On the track, the men’s and women’s squads contributed equally in terms of wins and points-scoring, with a valuable contribution from some of the club’s younger athletes. In the field, however, the women’s squad really made a difference, notching up seven victories and over a quarter of the total points tally. Debbie and Tracey, our Dynamic Duo in the throws department, played no small part in that, covering all four throws events between them. Debbie was named Woman of the Match for her hammer throw of 46.04, her best in two years. The match got off to a fine start with a win for Laura Stewart in the women’s 400m hurdles, with her first sub-70 clocking. A short while later, Gabrielle Coveney won the 400m flat, while Michelle Ennis backed her up with a PB in the B race. Laura Davies was close to her best in the 200m. Erica Wallace and Nicola Ravenhill did sterling service in the 1500m, Erica dipping under 5 minutes for the second time, and Nicola also getting ever closer to that barrier, with her second best recorded time. The women’s track events concluded with a convincing win in the 4 x 400m relay. In the field, Debbie and Tracey dominated the throws. Debbie managed a season’s best in all four events, winning the A string shot put as well as the hammer. Tracey threw a season’s best in both the hammer and the javelin, with a PB in the shot. In the jumps, veteran Grazina Narviliene achieved a PB in the pole vault, while Roisin Lynch matched her PB in the high jump. Besirat Tesfu has been scoring well this season in the horizontal jumps and won both the long and the triple jump. For the men, Szymon Swigon (pictured) had a busy afternoon as usual, kicking off with a season’s best in the 400m hurdles. Luke Nicholas was close to his best in winning the B string, and was also a key member of the squad, competing in five events. Szymon went on to win the sprint hurdles with a PB, having also competed in the high jump and triple jump. Jamie Taylor-Caldwell won the 800m, with Joe Gilbert in the B string, both achieving a season’s best. After a very successful indoor season on the masters’ circuit, M45 Jason Carty raced his first 100m this year, with a time that places him second on the M45 ranking for 2015. (He went on to run a non-scoring 200m that is also the second-best M45 time this year). Also in the sprints, Sean Buckeridge recorded a season’s best in the 200m B string. Reef Hook tackled the 400m again, and continues to get quicker on each outing. Road runners James Hughes and Gary Cummins made their debut over 5000m on the track, James clocking his first sub-17 over this distance. Sam Ashcroft stepped down in distance to win the 1500m B race. In the field, Karolis Narvilas threw a personal best in both the hammer and the shot. The men concluded by winning the sprint relay, while Chris Hepworth ran a strong last leg to bring the team back up to second in the 4 x 400m. There were a few notable 100m performances from the non-scorers too… having fallen out of his blocks and been DQ-ed in the 100m, Sean Buckeridge came back with a vengeance to run 11.2, his best time since 2011. U17 Desmond Ofasi also clocked a good time with 11.7, while Reuben Fleary matched his PB with 11.46. U17 Kamau Muhammad ducked under 12 seconds for the first time with 11.88. And to finish, here are a few facts and figures for the statisticians amongst you… There are 21 track events at a regular SAL match, and 16 field events – all of which have an A and a B string – so there are 74 possible wins up for grabs. We notched up 19 of those wins, which is only about par, meaning we probably did better than other teams at covering all the events. For example, Nikki Shelley and Erica Wallace stepped in at short notice to run the women’s 2000m steeplechase, and with Nikki coming second in the A race and Erica getting maximum points in the B, this was a welcome 7-point boost to our score.The women contributed 13 of our 19 victories, split evenly between track and field, while the men scored six, all on the track. No prizes for guessing where we need to work! The next match is at Yeovil on July 4th. What a good excuse for a weekend away in the West Country!ESM Results summary Men 100m: A: 4 Jason Carty (M45) 11.36; 200m: A: 4 Kema Egbunike 23.00, B: 1 Sean Buckeridge 23.09; 400m: A: 3 Reef Hook (U20) 52.95; B: 2 Jamie Taylor-Caldwell 53.65; 800m: A: 1 Jamie Taylor-Caldwell 1:55.76; B: 3 Joe Gilbert (U20) 2:04.01; 1500m: A: 2 Chris Hepworth 4:09.8; B: 1 Sam Ashcroft 4:13.0; 5000m: A: 3 James Hughes 16:59.24; B: 2 Gary Cummins 18:15.00; 110mH: A: 1 Szymon Swigon 16.87; 400mH: A: 2 Szymon Swigon 61.30; B: 1 Luke Nicholas 65.63; 2000mSC: A: 3 Rob Brown (M45) 7:44.45; B: 3 Phil York (M50) 8:49.69; HJ: A: 4 Chris Hepworth 1.50; B: 2 Szymon Swigon 1.40; PV: A: 3 Martin Densley 2.10; B: 2 Luke Nicholas 1.10; LJ: A: 2 Sean Buckeridge 5.65; B: 2 Tom Sanders (U20) 5.61; TJ: A: 4 Tom Sanders (U20) 10.41; B: 3 Szymon Swigon 9.40; SP: A: 3 Luke Nicholas 7.77; B: 2 Karolis Narvilas (U17) 7.23; DT: A: 4 Bob Densley (M60) 16.03; B: 4 Luke Nicholas 12.77; HT: A: 2 Raf Morawski 47.39; B: 2 Karolis Narvilas (U17) 28.47; JT: A: 3 Angelo John (M40) 34.01; B: 2 Martin Densley 25.71; 4 x 100m: 1 (Jason Carty, Desmond Ofasi, Kamau Mahammad, Kema Egbunike) 45:11; 4 x 400m: 1 (Jamie Taylor-Caldwell, Luke Nicholas, Sam Ashcroft, Chris Hepworth) 3:37.08 Women 100m: A: 4 Laura Davies (U17) 13.69, B: 3 Amber Henry (U17) 13.85; 200m: A: 3 Gabrielle Coveney 26.35, B: 2 Amber Henry (U17) 28.70; 400m: A: 1 Gabrielle Coveney 58.06, B: 2 Sara Michelle Ennis (W35) 68.20; 800m: A: 3 Nikki Shelley 2:26.75; 1500m: A: 3 Erica Wallace (U17) 4:59.96, 1 Nicola Ravenhill (U17) 5:02.53; 3000m: A: 2 Fiona Kennedy (W55) 11:50.12; B: 2 Pat Thomas (W50) 13:48.54; 100mH: A: 3 Shim Amin 26.21; 400mH: A: 1 Laura Stewart (U17) 69.07; B: Shim Amin 93.60; 2000mSC: A: 2 Nikki Shelley 8:06.02 B: Erica Wallace (U17) 8:19.77; HJ: A: 2 Roisin Lynch (U17) 1.35; B: 2 Shim Amin 1.05; PV: A: 2 Helen Leadbetter 2.50; B: 2 Grazina Narviliene (W40) 1.90; LJ: A: 1 Besirat Tesfu (U20) 4.62; TJ: A: 1 Besirat Tesfu (U20) 9.88; 2 Roisin Lynch (U17) 8.81; SP: A: 1 Debbie McCaw (W35) 10.21; B: 1 Tracey Gould (W35) 7.86; DT: 2 Debbie McCaw (W35) 30.43; B: 2 Tracey Gould (W35) 20.59; HT: 1 Debbie McCaw (W35) 46.04; B: 1 Tracey Gould (W35) 35.72; JT: 2 Debbie McCaw (W35) 26.59; B: 1 Tracey Gould (W35) 17.50; ; 4 x 100m: 2 (Erica Wallace (U17), Amber Henry (U17), Besirat Tesfu (U20), Laura Davies (U17) 53.82; 4 x 400m: 1 (Gabrielle Coveney, Michelle Ennis (W35), Nicola Ravenhill (U17), Nikki Shelley) 4:17.14 Full results here |
Saturday saw our best SAL result so far, with a win by over 20 points from second-placed Wycombe Phoenix. Weather conditions were also favourable: mild, with only a light breeze, so there was a good smattering of season’s bests and PBs.