The men’s team had another win in the Southern League at Perivale on
Saturday but the women fared less well. The men coasted to an easy victory with
almost complete domination on the track. There were some good wins for the women
too but there were too many gaps in the team
The young athletes performed well for the men’s team, with Matthew Clampin
starting the ball rolling with a win in the 400 metres hurdles. That race also
saw a welcome return from injury for Martin Swingler to finish second B string.
Dewayne Simms and Alex Ojo and won both strings of the 100 metres and 200 metres with the pair setting new personal bests of 22.0 and 22.2 in the latter race. They were soon followed by Sean Buckeridge and Chris Hepworth winning both strings of the 400 metres. The 800 metres saw some excellent winning times for Hussain Jama and Luke Nicholas and they did exactly the same in the 1500 metres. Rob Wilson came from behind to pip Andy Kotsyubka in the 5000 metres, but Andy then went on to win the 3000 metres steeplechase, with Phil York winning the B string.
In the field Martin Densley won the pole vault, B string high jump and shot, ably supported by Martin Swingler winning the B string vault, Dan Bramble won the high jump, long jump and was second in the triple. Samson Baah jumped to second place in the B string triple.
Best of the throwers was Matthew Payne-Davis who threw the hammer over 44 metres to comfortably win the A string and Bob Densley won the B string.
The day started well for the women with a double win for Debbie McCaw and Amy Clemens in the hammer being followed by another double for Melanie Canning and Gabrielle Coveney in the 400 metres hurdles.
Claudenia Williams then scorched to a personal best of 12.0 seconds to win the 100 metres. The other track events provided useful points. Hannah Pollak and Mel Newbery were second in the 800 metres. Hannah repeated that feat in the 400. Lynn Wilson and Gill Morgan won both legs of the 3000 metres. In the last individual race Ashlee McGuigan won the 1500 metres by over 100 metres.
In the field the team struggled despite Debbie McCaw’s win in the discus. Marina Donaghy was second in the long jump.
As usual the team finished with strong relay performances. The 4x100 team won easily after a storming second leg from Claudenia Williams. In the 4x400 they led after a fast first leg from Gabrielle Coveney but had to settle for second in the end.
Makeda Lewis and Nadia Mills were the two big scorers for the under 15 girls. Makeda scored an impressive treble with wins in the 100 and 200 metres being followed by a personal best of 5.06 metres in the long jump. Nadia won the B 100 and 200 metres races.
The club enjoyed a successful weekend at the South of England Championships at Crystal Palace at the weekend. The club’s athletes came away with seven medals including another Southern Gold for Richard Charles.
Richard’s gold came in the under 15 boys 3000 metres where he and Karnvir Hayer pulled well clear of the field to score an impressive 1-2. The pair both dipped well under Ahmed Osman’s club record set when second in this race four years ago. Richard ran 9:01.23 whilst Karnvir ran 9:04.35. In the under 20 women’s 3000 metres Mel Newbery won the silver medal.
Gabrielle Coveney qualified comfortably in the under 20 400 metres hurdles and went on to run a fine tactical race in the final. Sixth at half way, she ran a fast second bend to enter the home straight in third place and powered down the straight to take the silver medal in the last few strides in a time of 62.99 seconds, almost a second inside her personal best. Another silver medallist was Martin Densley in the senior pole vault. He secured the silver with his opening vault of 4.70 metres and had a very close attempt at 4.90.
Dan Bramble took the lead in the third round of the under 20 long jump with a personal best of 6.92 metres which was good enough to take the bronze medal. Hammer thrower Debbie McCaw also took bronze in the senior competition with a throw of 49.55, while Matt Payne Davis just missed a medal in the under 20 men’s championship with a throw of 50.69.
Hannah Pollak set a personal best of 2:18.09 in the heats of the under 20 800 metres. She finished fourth in the final. Melanie Canning did well to reach the senior 400 metres hurdles final. She ran 62.45 in her first race of the season. Marsha Charles and Gladis Bitulu finished sixth and seventh respectively in their under 20 100 metres heats. Luke Nicholas and Chris Hepworth both finished sixth in their under 20 800 metres heats.