Women Show Squad Strength at SAL Finale
Gavin LauOur women achieved their highest points total of the season, having improved in every match. They also outscored our men for the first time this year! Our overall 4th place under-represented our performance on the day, due to the SAL’s quirky scoring system. But given results elsewhere, it proved sufficient to secure our second division status for next season.
Stepping up to finish on a high
Our women saved their best for last at our final SAL meeting, finishing on a real high note at Hemel Hempstead. As well as outscoring our men, they also clearly outscored every other club there, except for hosts Dacorum AC. This was testament to our improved squad depth. Star sprinter Michelvi Wamba was away running for England at an U20 International, so we missed the ten points from her regular sprint doubles. Injury and illness on the day also curtailed the contributions from U17s Nereci da Silva and Lyra MacDonald (although both still scored six points). But these deficits were more than offset by others stepping up, ensuring we scored well in almost every event. A link to the full meeting results can be found here.
Emily Robinson made a very welcome return to the track, post injury. Adding points in both 100 and 400m hurdles and steeplechase to another healthy haul in three throws, she racked up a massive 17 points. Laura Hindley once again scored very strongly, with 14 across four events – two track, two field. Laureen Okhogenu won both Hammer and Shot A string, the former with yet another U17W 4k club record (37.10m). Irati Ajanlekoko Gomendio won the High Jump again. Club Captains Jade dos Santos and Lily Zechmann both scored well for a third consecutive meeting, Jade running 5000m and steeplechase, Lily the 800m and 4×400 relay.
Strong contributions from SAL returnees and debutantes
We also welcomed back Monika Panoutsou and Aoife Murray, competing in their first SAL meeting this season. Monika secured a thrilling last gasp win in the 800m A race. Aoife scored five valuable points in 400mH and Discus. Running as a non-scorer, she also took nearly two seconds off her 400m PB from last season!
Recent club joiner Sarah Laing finished 3rd in both the 100m hurdles A and 1500m B. She also scored our club’s first Pole Vault points since 2019! Sarah inspired several of our men to give vaulting a try. Joe Dale and Tony MacDowall later cleared opening heights to pick up more points. Among our other SAL debutants, Bally Chahal finished a very creditable 2nd in the 5000m B, while U17W newcomer Leticia Menezes Dos Santos finished 2nd in High Jump B and 3rd in 200m B.
Our Men’s points total fell short of previous meetings…
With several athletes on holiday, or competing elsewhere, our Men scored 27 points fewer than at Mile End. Even a repeat of our score at Stevenage (18 more points), would have sufficed for a clear 2nd place in the overall meeting. That, in turn, would have removed all relegation fears or concerns about the SAL’s arcane scoring system (see below). Still, there were plenty of performances to admire. We dominated the sprints again, securing maximum points. William Andoh won the 100/200m A double for the third time this season. Ezekiel Lowe and Khamani Samuel-Campbell won the B races. Richard Bartram secured shrewd, tactical wins in the 800m and 1500m A and 3000m B races, reprising his Stevenage performance. Paul Martelletti answered the club’s call, cruising to an impressive 3000m A win.
… despite many strong performances on the day
Joe Dale and Dave Jones scored very well in the steeplechase, with Dave doubling up in the 800m. Tiago Mendes competed in his first SAL of the season, scoring in 1500m and Javelin. And it was good to see James Foley back up and running in the 400m Hurdles. Kweku Abankwa made invaluable contributions to both relays. He stormed into a huge lead in the first leg of the mixed 4x400m B race, that Lily, Laura and Joseph Stauch never looked like relinquishing. Kai Fellows finished a strong second in the 400m A (with Joseph 3rd in the B race) and nearly snatched 1st in the 4×400 A race, running with Monika, Rich and Lyra.
Sam Hitchings was once again our main man in the field. Winning the Hammer, Sam threw over 40m for the first time in over five years (40.91). He picked up more points in the Shot Putt and Discus, while advising team mates on their throwing technique. Sam helped Omar Elhag maintain his sequence of improving his Hammer PB at every SAL meeting, as he finished third. Edgar Wetherall was another of our ‘ever present’ athletes, doubling in Long and Triple Jump at all four SAL meetings. Andre Dahlkamp and Micah Prescod-Williams provided support in the throws and jumps.
Our Top Points Scorers
The following were our biggest individual points scorers on the day, with some also contributing to relay points (not included below).
| Athlete | Points | Events | ||
| Emily Robinson | 17 | 2nd 400mH A, 1st 1500SC B, 2nd Javelin B, 3rd Shot Putt A, 5th Discus B | ||
| Rich Bartram | 15 | 1st 800m A, 1st 1500m A, 1st 5000m B | ||
| Laura Hindley | 14 | 3rd 400m B, 3rd 1500m A, 1st Long Jump A, 3rd Javelin A | ||
| Laureen Okoghenu | 10 | 1st Hammer A, 1st Shot Putt A | ||
| William Andoh | 10 | 1st 100m A, 1st 200m A | ||
| Sam Hitchings | 8 | 1st Hammer A, 4th Shot Putt A, 5th Discus A | ||
| Sarah Laing | 8 | 3rd 1500m B, 3rd 100mH A, 4th Pole Vault A | ||
| David Jones | 7 | 1st 2000SC B, 4th 800m B | ||
| Jade Dos Santos | 7 | 2nd 5000m A, 3rd 1500SC A | ||
| Joe Dale | 7 | 2nd 2000SC A, 4th Pole Vault A | ||
| Leticia Menezes Dos Santos | 7 | 3rd 200m B, 2nd High Jump B | ||
A strange result that didn’t reflect our performance
At the end of the meeting, we were surprised to learn we’d placed 4th out of six clubs. It felt like we had performed better than that. Closer inspection of the detailed results revealed how much the quirks of the SAL’s scoring system counted against us.
Our division contains eighteen clubs. We compete at four meetings with six clubs. We face each club in the league once but to make the numbers work, every club is twinned with one other. Twin clubs compete together at all four meetings. In the first meeting, points are awarded in every event conventionally. Winners score six points, down to one point for finishing 6th. But at subsequent meetings, event winners score five points and a club’s results in every single event are adjusted as if their ‘twin’ club’s athlete wasn’t present. Clubs twinned with a relatively weak club are put at a very sizeable disadvantage relative to those twinned with a relatively strong club in the same match.
Points adjustments for twin clubs counted against us
At Hemel Hempstead, we clearly outperformed St Albans on a head-to-head basis. Awarding points conventionally, ie 6-5-4-3-2-1, we’d have scored 276 and finished joint 2nd with Cambridge & Coleridge. St Albans would have scored 262. But the points adjustments for twin clubs saw our total reduced by 52, effectively the number of events (out of 68) where we finished ahead of Central Park. St Albans’ total was only reduced by 20, the number of times they finished ahead of their twin, Dacorum (the host club and clear meeting winners). So the adjusted official result showed St Albans in 2nd with 242 points, while we were 4th, with 224, a massive 32 point swing!
It’s worth noting that using conventional scoring, we’d also have finished ahead of Harlow at the Stevenage SAL, for example. There was some logic to introducing the twin clubs’ points adjustment two years ago, so that all clubs only effectively face each other once. But it seems intrinsically unfair that a club can clearly outperform another at a meeting and yet finish below them, due to the lottery selection of their twin clubs, as happened to us at least twice this season.
An anxious wait before our survival was confirmed!
A 2nd place finish in the meeting would have lifted us well clear of the Division 2NE relegation zone. But the points adjustments and our official 4th place meant we had to wait anxiously for other match results. And to finally get confirmation that only three clubs from our division will be relegated, not four, as incorrectly indicated on the website league table!
With survival confirmed, we can reflect on a lot of positives over the season. After a tough start at our opening meeting, we got into our stride and showed something closer to our true form by the end. Across the four meetings, 78 of our members participated, with 62 scoring points and 12 more competing as non-scorers. Among them, 16 were competing in a Track & Field League match for the first time. Whether honing our skills or picking up some new ones, we had a lot of fun and that’s what it’s really all about!
