The club's women started their track season in the new Premier Division of the Southern Women’s League. Despite missing several athletes they finished a close fourth in the match.
The throwers got the day off to a good start with Linda Benin and Amy Clemens winning both strings of the hammer. Amy’s throw of 39.59 metres was a personal best for the under 17 athlete.
Gabrielle Coveney was the club’s first winner on the track cruising to an easy win in the 400 metres hurdles. She added a win in the 100 metres hurdles later in the afternoon and finished second in the 800 metres.
Claudenia Williams started with second place in a fast 100 metres. She then went one better to win the 200 metres with Gladis Bitulu winning the B race. Gladis and Kara Dunn both recorded fast times in the non-scoring 100 metres race.
New signing Mel Newbery won the 1500 metres convincingly. She stormed away at the start and led all the way. Unfortunately she was ineligible to score but Ashlee McGuigan was second and picked up the points. Fiona Kennedy finished strongly to take second in the 3000 metres with Patricia Thomas second B string.
Best of the other field events was Helen Leadbetter’s second in the pole vault. She had earlier taken second place in the B long jump. Marina Donaghy jumped well to take third in the long and triple jump despite problems with her run up.
Nadia Mills led the way for a young under 15 team with victories in both the 100 and 200 metres. She was backed up in the 100 metres by 11 year old Grace Ogwell who finished third, and in the 200 metres by Tatiana Gibbons who finished second.
In the middle distances Evie King and Ellis Redmond were third in the 800 metres. Genevieve Creane was fourth in the 1500 metres. Kerry Baily and Genevieve were third in the hurdles. The best points in the field came from the javelin where Ellis was third and Charlotte Gould was second B string. Charlotte was third in the shot with twin sister Ashley third B string.
The senior women’s 4x100 metres scored a narrow win. Kara Dunn just holding off Chelmsford. Unfortunately the under 15’s were disqualified for a faulty handover. In the 4 x 400 metres Gabrielle Coveney gave the club a big lead on the first leg. They held the lead until the last leg eventually having to settle for second.
More temperate weather conditions saw some good performances from the club's runners in this year’s London Marathon. Eleven of the club’s members completed the race plus several ex-members.
First home for the club was Alison Hopkins who started with the women’s elite field at 9:00am. She clocked a personal best of 3:03:15 to move yet closer to the club record.
Next home was Adrian McGarva who found running without fancy dress somewhat quicker. He also benefited from an elite start to clock 2:42:57.
First from the regular start was Steve Hiorns who finally broke three hours with 2:59:06. The injury prone Gavin Boyter was next in 3:17:44 having overhauled Andy Dodd late in the race.
Patricia Thomas put last year’s performance behind her with a big personal best of 3:21:14. Dieter Keller and marathon debutante Nikki Baker also broke the 3:30 barrier. They ran together for 20 miles before Dieter pulled ahead to record 3:25:34 with Nikki finishing in 3:28:36. Sarah Hiscox was with them at the 20 mile mark but lost ground over the last six miles to finish in 3:34:36.
Another duo who stuck together were Pat Barton and Bob Stanbrook. A big effort from Pat got him home in 3:53:44 a new personal best. Bob finished in 3:55:29.
Ealing’s young athletes turned out in force to represent the borough in this year’s London Mini marathon. There were 44 athletes competing over the three age categories against the other 32 London boroughs.
The big turn out was a tribute to the efforts of Ealing council’s Athletics Development officer Jamie Bath. He managed the team with the help from volunteers from Ealing Southall & Middlesex.
The borough had two individual winners in Martha Reynolds and Karnvir Hayer. For Martha it was a repeat of last year’s victory, for Karnvir it was his first appearance in the race.
There were also second places for Georgia Bell, Richard Charles and Duncan Pinder. Best of the teams were the Boys aged 13 and 14 who finished second in their category.
Despite the early start, the day was a huge success and proved to great fun. Team spirit was strong with the runners painting their faces green in Ealing colours.
Snow transformed Aldershot’s Rushmore Arena into a winter wonderland for Sunday’s South of England Road Relays. Luckily the snow didn’t settle on the roads and the event saw some excellent running despite the cold temperatures.
Our women's team had their best ever relay result. Their sixth place totally eclipsing 2006’s 13th place finish.
Jeni Lovatt tackled the tough first leg finishing strongly in 21st place. Ashlee McGuigan picked up the pace on the second leg to gain three places and leave Fiona Kennedy nicely positioned to strike. A storming leg from Fiona gained six places and lifted the team to 12th.
Beata Ochmann kept the pressure up, gradually hunting down the pack of three that started just in front of her. She caught the last of them with just 200 metres to go. Next up was Alison Hopkins who gained two more places within her first half mile. Despite easing back to save herself for next week’s London Marathon she was still the team’s fastest runner. Last to run was Lynn Wilson who was never challenged as she brought the team home sixth.
The B team had a hard time as the field was very spread out but there were still some excellent runs. Jane Harris was thrown to the lions in her first ever run for the club but ran a creditable time. Patricia Thomas ran an outstanding second leg to bring the team into closer order. Gill Morgan, newcomer Claudia Manera and Nikki Baker all gained ground but ultimately the team only had five runners and had to call it a day when lying 18th.
The men’s team were always up against it with several runners withdrawing shortly before the day. Team manager Mike Barratt still managed to get a team together and a solid set of performances saw them qualify for the National Relays in 24th place.
Rob Wilson got the team off to a solid start finishing 30th on the long first leg. He handed over to Mark Delahunty who maintained that position. Hussain Jama then ran the club’s fastest long leg to lift the team to 24th. Ben McCallum followed this with the club’s fastest short leg though the team remained 24th.
After that the team oscillated up and down in the mid-twenties. Richard Tomlinson and Rob Howells drifted back to 28th before John Robertson and John Blanchard had two storming legs to move us back up to 23rd. Tim Moonen made one of his all to rare appearances dropping back slightly. Steve Plested and Rob Brown ran well to maintain our position.