Victory on our own patch in the SAL
Gavin LauA strong all-round team performance saw us win our home Southern Athletics League fixture, at Mile End. The narrow margin of victory, by just four points, underlined the importance of everybody’s contribution.
A much improved result
The win was achieved thanks to a much stronger all-round team performance compared with our first two SAL meetings. Previously, school exams, injuries and fixture clashes had severely depleted our squad. But at our home meeting, we showed what we can achieve at closer to full strength. On the track, we continued to dominate men’s events, as we had at Stevenage. A stronger showing from our women also meant they secured more track points than any other club on the day. And our biggest uplift came in the field, thanks to the SAL return of our excellent young jumpers and throwers!
The narrow margin of our victory underlined the importance of everybody’s contribution. From the most experienced practitioners to newbies, having a go to help out, everyone played their part. And a most enjoyable day was had by all: scorers, non-scorers and spectators alike! A link to the full meeting results can be found here.
Our Athletes of the Match
At each SAL event, a male and female athlete of the meeting are named. These are based on points awarded for each performance (using a system like multi-event scoring). Both athletes came from our club:
Michelvi Wamba for her 24.54 in the 200m. As at Stevenage, Michelvi completed yet another fine sprint double and anchored our 4x100m relay.
Michael Shonibare for his 48.04 in the 400m. Michael cruised to victory by over four seconds and ran a sensational last leg to secure victory in the 4×400. Six days later, he broke the club Senior Men’s 400m record, running 47.13 at the English Champs in Birmingham.
Our Multiple Points Machines
The following were our biggest individual points scorers on the day, with many also contributing to relay points (not included below).
| Athlete | Points | Events | ||
| Laura Hindley | 18 | 1st 800m A, 1st 1500m B, 2nd L Jump, Javelin B | ||
| David Isibor | 13 | 1st 200m B, 1st Triple Jump A, 3rd 100m B | ||
| William Andoh | 10 | 1st 100m A, 1st 200m | ||
| Nereci Da Silva | 10 | 1st Long Jump A, 1st Triple Jump A | ||
| Jade Dos Santos | 10 | 1st 3000m A, 1st 2000SC A | ||
| Alex Lawrence | 10 | 1st 800m B, 1st 5000m A | ||
| Michelvi Wamba | 10 | 1st 100m A, 1st 200m A | ||
| Sam Hitchings | 9 | 2nd Hammer A, 3rd Shot Putt A, 4th Discus A | ||
| Jesse Katabazi | 9 | 1st 400m B, 2nd 110mH B | ||
| Lyra MacDonald | 8 | 1st 1500m A, 3rd 400m A | ||
| Emily Robinson | 8 | 3rd Javelin A, 3rd Shot Putt B, 4th Discus B | ||
| Nat Rowland | 8 | 1st 800m A, 3rd 1500m A | ||
| David Shortridge | 8 | 1st 110mH B, 3rd 400mH B | ||
| Edgar Wetherall | 8 | 2nd Long Jump B, 2nd Triple Jump B | ||
Many more outstanding performances
We had plenty of winners throughout the day. In addition to those listed above, they included Joe Dale (3000SC B), Irati Ajanlekoko Gomendio (High Jump A), Ruby James (3000m B), Adam Milberry (1500m B), Michael Shonibare (400m A), Joe Walker (5000m B), Lily Zechmann (800m B) and our Men’s 4×100 and 4x 400 relay teams.
Many of our athletes, including a high number competing as non-scorers, achieved impressive PBs and SBs. Picking out just a few among them: Laureen Okhogenu threw an U17W HT4k club record of 36.69m in the Hammer. This to add to her HT3k club record of 43.02m, throwing the slightly lighter Hammer used in the YDL meeting two weeks before. Irati’s victory in the High Jump and Nereci’s in the Long Jump were achieved with PBs of 1.60m and 5.34m respectively. And among our non-scorers, recent joiner Adam Lacey, making his debut over 800m, ran an outstanding 2.00.43, to finish just behind Nat Rowland, who also ran a PB to win.
