A HARD FOUGHT 3RD PLACE FOR TVH IN SAL MATCH 2

With not too far to travel for the second Southern League match of the season at Harrow, both the men and women fielded larger teams than the first match for the match on Sunday. In what turned out to be a very close competition for 3rd and 4th place between Milton Keynes and TVH it was the Valley men and women who gained the upper hand by just 3 points to finish in 3rd place.

Southern Athletics League Division 1, Match 2,
Bannister Stadium, Harrow,
Sunday May 22nd.

The final match scores saw home team Harrow in 1st on 218 points, Dartford Harriers 2nd on 192, TVH 3rd on 153 and Milton Keynes 4th on 150.

A larger men’s and women’s team and some very good performances produced a larger number of wins compared to the first match for the Valley, with 11 wins for the men and 9 wins for the women.

The growth in the size of the team was reflected in the healthy number of athletes making their debut, as 4 men and 2 women made their first appearance in the Southern League.

The TVH Man of the Match and Woman of the Match awards went to Nav Childs for wins in the A triple jump, B long jump and 4x400m relay as well as a 3rd place in the B shot, and Sophie Preece for wins in the A 400m, B 200m and 4x400m relay.

A dominant display in the long jump and triple jump also produced the Sweatshop Man of the Match and Woman of the Match winners, as Ogo Anochirionye was a clear winner in the men’s long jump with a jump of 7.32m and Angela Barrett was well ahead in the women’s triple jump with a jump of 12.67m.

We will now be hosting the next 2 Southern League matches at Linford Christie Stadium in June and July, so it’s time to make the most of home advantage and go for the first match win of the season in the next match at LCS on Saturday June 18th.

Women’s Match Report

by Amber Simukonda

With only 8 athletes for the first match at Bedford, we managed to get three more athletes out for the second match at Harrow. What we lacked in quantity, we made up for it in quality winning 9 events on the day.

The wins on the day came from Annabelle Bates in the high jump (1.68 PB), Sophie Preece in the 200m (26.1), 400m (57.5), and 4x400m relay, Sarah Johnson in the 5000m (18:05), Angela Barrett (12.67) and Lia Stephenson (12.13) in the triple jump (A&B), Abigail Moronkeji in the shot putt (10.63) and Laura Britane in the discus (42.43).

The list of winners also included 2 Southern League debutants who were a welcome addition to the team, Annabelle Bates and Sophie Preece.

We were able to finish the day on a fabulous high with a great win by the 4x400m team – Lucy Ferguson, Sherique Ruddock, Angela Barrett and Sophie Preece – winning by over 120m.

Woman of the match went to Sophie Preece for wins in the 200m, 400m and 4x400m relay.

The next match is on 18 June – please get in touch if you would like to compete.

#UpTheValley.

Men’s Match Report

by Phil Wetton

Thankfully the cold and rain from the first match at Bedford was long gone and warm sunshine provided good conditions for the second Southern League match at Harrow on Sunday.

The Valley men’s team added another 12 men to their ranks and travelled to Harrow with a good sized 30 man team, which included 4 making their Southern League debut for TVH, Kevin Kimuana, Richard Solomon, Oli Caudwell and Raul Rinken.

With 11 wins, 6 on the track and 5 on the field, and a long list of 12 pb’s on the day, it made for impressive reading on the results sheet.

The Valley’s own club Man of the Match award for the overall best performances on the day was won by jumper Nav Childs, for his wins in the A string triple jump with 14.35m and B string long jump with 6.54m, a leg of the winning 4x400m relay team and a 9.00m pb for 3rd place in the B string shot putt – all of which kept Nav busy all day and deservedly won him the trophy and voucher, well done Nav!

Ogo Anochirionye’s excellent performance to win the long jump competition with a great jump of 7.32m made him the Sweatshop Man of the Match, an award given to the best overall performance on the day out of all the competing teams and events in the men’s match, though sadly the prize vouchers awarded in previous years have been discontinued this season.

The Valley men were once again willing to make sure that every event was covered on the day, with the only gap in the final results being the pole vault, which was only due to an inability to transport the pole to the match.

The first event on the track saw Abdi Ali make a welcome return to the team after a 3 year absence in the 400m hurdles, and despite hitting a couple of hurdles he recorded a new pb time of 63.4s for 4th place in the A race, while the ever-ready U20 junior Artur Domingos also came home with a pb of 79.6s for 3rd place in the B race.

It was a dominant display of sprinting from the Valley men as they claimed a clean sweep in the 100m and 200m races.

In the 100m Subomi Onanuga marked his full Southern League debut for the Valley with a good win in the A race in 11.1s, while Mark Dyble continued his good form to win the B race in 11.2s.

Stepping up to 200m Mark was once again first across the line as clear winner in the A race in 22.4s, and he was well supported by a new member to the team making his Southern League debut, Kevin Kimuana, who easily won the B race in 22.7s to make it a clean sweep and maximum points in the sprints.

There was also a number of Valley sprinters in the non-scoring races, which saw Jehvaun Senior record times of 11.6s and 23.2s in his 100m and 200m, along with Miguel Larrea who ran 11.7s for 100m and a 23.4s pb for 200m, and Hassan Bah who recorded pb’s in both the 100m and 200m with 11.8s and 23.6s.

In a good quality and closely fought 400m race Andrew Ajube gave a good performance for his first Southern League race of the season to finish 3rd in the A race in 51.6, while Richard Solomon made a great start on his Southern League debut by winning the B race with a dip on the line and also recording a new pb time of 52.9s.

Having enjoyed victory in the 400m Richard came back onto the track for the 110m hurdles and his time of 21.4s earned him 3rd place in the A race, and Stan Vilga made the most of his place in the B race to finish in 2nd in a new pb time of 23.2s.

Botond Safar is proving himself to be an astute 800m runner as he recorded his fastest time of the season, 2m01.7s, for 2nd place in the A race, and Scott Brewer continues to improve with every race as he went below 2m10s for the first time to finish 3rd in the B race in a new pb of 2m09.2s.

On his debut apperance in the Southern League Max Thorp took to the track for the non-scoring 800m and finished in a time of 2m16.6s.

In the 1500m Conor Kissane-Wood was keen to do well, though it wasn’t an easy race as he found himself off the back of the leading group on the final lap and came home in 3rd place in the A race in a time of 4m21.2s, while more accustomed to 400m and 800m Goldenfritz Ngarizemo worked hard for 4th in the B race in 4m45.5s.

U20 junior athlete Louis Marriott had a very good run in the non-scoring 1500m race and was rewarded with a good pb time of 4m32.2s.

The 3000m steeplechase always provides a challenge due to the technical nature of the event and thankfully Paul Woodgate and Artur Domingos were both up for the challenge, with Paul coming home in a new pb of 13m26.2s for 4th in the A race and Artur getting 3rd in the B race in 17m12.3s.

Manuel Caeiro was looking forward to making his TVH debut in the steeplechase, but was only able to race as a non-scoring guest on the day, and had a good run to finish in a time of 11m02.1s.

The 3000m saw 4 Valley men lining-up on the start line, with Fahad Abdi and Oli Caudwell in the main race, and Steve Norris and Christian Nielsen in the non-scoring race.

In the main race Fahad was unlucky to suffer with muscle cramps and was forced to drop out with just 2 laps to go, while Oli had a good race on his Southern League debut to finish 4th in the A race in a new pb of 9m57.2s, and he was followed home by Steve in 10m05.6s and Christian in 10m43.0s.

As the track events reached their conclusion with the relays, Subomi and Mark were joined by Jehvaun and Miguel for the 4x100m, and in a close finish the Valley men just missed out on another win by 0.2s as they produced a good time of 43.2s for 2nd place.

For the 4x400m the team of Andrew, Richard, Kevin and Nav proved to be a winning combination, and they came home for a clear victory in a swift time of 3m26.3s, to mark the end of the match with a win and also a heavy downpour of rain which began just as Andrew crossed the finishing line.

On the field the Valley men were pleased to welcome Raul Rinken onto the team for his Southern League debut, Raul is a very talented decathlete from Estonia who has won a number of junior titles at home before coming over to London to study at Imperial University.

With Raul being the only heavy thrower available on the day he had a busy day in the field throwing in the shot putt, hammer and discus, while the rest of the team once again ensured that all the B string heavy throws were covered.

In his first event of the day Raul made a good start in the shot putt with a throw of 11.34m for 3rd place in the A string, and Nav Childs did well as he warmed-up for the triple jump and long jump by producing a pb throw of 9.00m for 3rd in the B string.

A throw of 33.50m earned Raul another 3rd place in the A string hammer and Artur Domingos came in to cover the B string with a throw of 9.55m for 4th place.

The discus then gave Raul his first win, as his strongest event he was a clear winner and he took maximum points with a throw of 41.32m, while having finished his javelin competition Matt Brooke was involved in a very close B string discus competition and finished 3rd with a throw of 21.07m.

A high quality javelin competition saw Dawid Jerzykowski finish 4th in the A string with a throw of 45.39m, while Matt Brooke was very close to the 40m mark and got his Southern League campaign off to a good start with a throw of 39.72m for 2nd place in the B string.

With a very busy work schedule Odell Okwuosa found the energy to compete in the high jump at the start of the afternoon and a jump of 1.58m placed him 4th in the A string, and Stan Vilga’s jump of 1.53m gave him 3rd in the B string.

A very strong line-up of TVH jumpers for the long jump and triple jump meant that the result was never in doubt as they took maximum points in both jumps.

In the long jump Ogo Anochirionye was once again at his best to go within 2cm of his pb as he jumped 7.32m for a clear win in the A string, and Nav Childs produced a jump of 6.54m to easily win the B string.

The winning margins in the A and B string triple jump were both well over 1.50m, as Nav produced a winning jump of 14.35m in the A string and Steve Edwards was on good form to win the B string with a season’s best jump of 13.48m to complete the clean sweep.

Competing as a non-scorer in both the long jump and triple jump Odell Okwuosa had a good jump in the long jump with 6.11m, though may well have been getting tired by the time of the triple jump where he jumped 11.89m.

It was a long wait sheltering inside the tent from the heavy rain outside before the final match scores were announced, and a hard fought match had earned TVH 3rd place by just 3 points from Milton Keynes in 4th.

It had been a match where every point counted and if we can take this attitude into the next Southern League match then we can only get stronger as a team.

The next match is at Linford Christie Stadium on Saturday June 18th, so let’s make home advantage count in our favour and go for a home win!

Up The Valley!

SAL Division 1, Match 2, Harrow, 22-05-16, Results