Tim Hannah reports from this season’s concluding YDL match:
Ealing’s U17 and U20 athletes were in action last Sunday at Croydon for our final Youth Development League match.
Our combined team with Thames Valley Harriers – Team West London – came second in the match, behind the hosts Croydon. We were second in our last match too, but our slow start to the summer means we finished third overall in the League.
We had good numbers for this match. Our Under 20 women were well represented by Bessie Aban-Owusu who was second in the 100m A string in a time of 13.0. Olamide Belewu was second in the B string in a time of 13.6. Bessie was also second in the 200m B string race in a time of 27.6, matching her PB set in 2014.
First time athlete Joy Choufar was second in the long jump with a leap of 4.18m and completed a non-scoring 200m in 27.2, while Miriam Abdelgader ran the non-scoring 100m in 14.4.
Our U20 men were led by Elias Ahmed who came third with a PB in the 400m (52.6) and won both the 800m (2:00.6) and the 1500m (4:14). Kai English was second in the 200m (23.6), second in the long jump B string (3.20), third in the discus (33.17), which was close to his PB for the 1.75kg implement. Best of all, he won the high jump with a personal best of 1.86. Bilal Uba won the 100m B string race with a PB of 11.3; he ran another PB in the non-scoring 200m (22.7). Kirk Lebdiri was second in the 800m B race (2:14.8), second in the discus B (17.56) and second in the high jump B with a PB of 1.40. Chauncey Edwards ran a non-scoring 800m in 2:13.5.
Our only U17 woman was Lilia Khan. She finished fourth in the 100m (13.6) and second in the 200m with a PB of 27.8.
Seweryn Czapka in the U17 men came third in the 400m (55.1) and won both the 800m (2:05.3) and the 1500m (4:20.7). Vitaly Bender won the 1500m B race (4:45.4), ran a PB of 2:13 in the non-scoring 800m and came fifth in his long jump debut, with 4.41.
We had mixed results in the relays. Our U20 men fumbled with the baton in the 4x100m and came fifth, but made up by winning the 4 x 400m. Kai and Elias took part in both races; Bilal joined them for the sprint relay and Kirk ran in the 4x400m.
The Under 17 men’s team also won their 4x400m relay with Seweryn and Vitaly involved.
The U20 women came second in the 4x100m with an all-Ealing team of Bessie, Olamide, Miriam and Joy. Lilia Khan was part of the team that finished second in the U17 4x100m.
Coming a convincing second in the match means we have a very good chance of promotion in 2020. We will have many more new U17s coming into the team. However, we will have to cover more field events than this year, which is where we have been weak.
Match scores: 1 Croydon Harriers 689, 2 Team West London © 540, 3 Stevenage & North Herts AC 391, 4 Vale of Aylesbury AC 331, 5 Herne Hill Harriers 295, 6 Guildford & Godalming AC 293, 7 St. Marys Richmond AC 194
Final league positions & scores: 1 Croydon Harriers 2158, 2 Stevenage & North Herts AC 1704, 3 Team West London © 1920, 4 Vale of Aylesbury AC 1410, 5 Guildford & Godalming AC 1496, 6 St. Marys Richmond AC 1030, 7 Herne Hill Harriers 912
Full results to follow on power of 10.