Breaking News: TVH win UK Women’s Athletics League, TVH at the European Athletics Championships and more
TVH Retain UK Women’s Athletics League Title at Southampton
It was an amazing performance from our women’s team in the final round of the UK Women’s Athletics League Premier Division to hold off the challenge of Birchfield Harriers and win the league by the narrowest of margins. This is the 3rd year out of the last 4 that our women’s track & field team have won the league and as the top ranked club in the country will go forward again to represent the UK in the 2019 European Champion Clubs Championships.
We started the day 1 league point and 36 match points ahead of Birchfield and with our athletes competing at the European Athletics Championships unavailable for selection and many others injured the realistic aim was always to finish 2nd as close behind Birchfield as possible. With some fantastic performances and athletes covering many events it came down to the relays ; 2nd place in the 4 x100m and a win in the 4 x 400m was enough for the team to finish equal with Birchfield on 22 league points each and to win the league by 685 to 676 match points! Congratulations to our fantastic team and team manager Manuel da Silva.
Full match report to follow, results at https://www.thepowerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=234763
TVH Athletes at the European Athletics Championships
The European Athletics Championships gets underway in Berlin today (Monday 6th August) with 5 members of the TVH women’s team competing.
Tuesday 7th August Amelia Strickler – Shot put. Amelia won the British Championships / European Trials on 1st July with 17.22m, having set a pb of 17.26m at the South of England Championships in June.
Tuesday 7th August Molly Caudery – Pole vault. 18 year old Molly won the pole vault for TVH at the European Clubs Cup Championships with 4.40m at a windy Birmingham in May and went on to set a new UK Junior record of 4.53m in Germany in June.
Fri 10th August Zoey Clark – 4 x 400m relay. Zoey has found the time in a very busy year to put in her usual great performances for TVH. A silver medal in the 4 x400m relay at the 2017 World Championships was followed by bronze in the relay at the World Indoors and making the final of the 400m. A great pb of 51.36 secs at the Anniversary Games was not quite enough to gain selection for the individual 400m.
Sat 11th August Lorraine Ugen – Long jump. Lorraine has been in fantastic form this year, winning the British Championships / European Trials with a huge jump of 7.05m and is ranked 1st in the world this year. A great competition could be in store with the top three in the world rankings all Europeans (Malaika Mihambo and Ivana Spanovic have both jumped 6.99m).
Sun 12th August Tracy Barlow – marathon. Tracy gained selection for the European Championships with her solid run in difficult conditions at the London Marathon in April and is ranked 2nd in the UK this year. Tracy broke her half marathon club record with 72:35 at the World Half Marathon championships in March and had a good win at the Swansea Half Marathon in June in the build up to the European Championships.
British Athletics League Premiership – Allianz Park 4th August
The TVH men’s team competed in the top division of the British Athletics League in 2017 after a 10 year absence. Our second season in the BAL Premiership in 2018 proved more difficult with a host of injuries before and at the competitions. 5th place in the first fixture at Leigh in May was followed by a disappointing 7th place at Cardiff in June and 5th place at Bedford in July. We spent the season trying to close the gap on Cardiff (who had a good start at Leigh) and another 5th place finish at the final fixture at Barnet left us on 13.5 pts to Cardiff’s 14 pts and 7th place overall. The management team of Phil Wetton, Nav Childs and Chris McAlister worked tirelessly throughout the season and are confident that we can bounce straight back in 2019. Chris also won our Club Man of the Match award at Allianz Park for his performances in the 400m hurdles, 400m and 4 x400m relay and is getting tantalisingly close to Eddie Betts long standing 400m hurdles club record (50.58 secs so far this season, compared to Eddie’s 50.49 secs in 1997).
Full report to follow, results at https://www.thepowerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=234925
Youth Development League U13 / U15 – TVH win final fixture to win division
Our Youth Development League Under 13 and Under 15 team had a great season with a closely fought battle with Cambridge Harriers. We hosted the fourth and final fixture on 21st July, with Cambridge Harriers having won two of the first three fixtures and both teams already sure of promotion, we needed a big win to overhaul Cambridge’s 75 pts lead on total match points. It was a fantastic performance on the day by our wonderful young athletes and we won by 145 pts to win the division. Congratulations to the team and team manager Amber Simukonda for a great season and we look forward to a good standard of competition in a higher division next year.
A special thank you to our officials, especially Dave and Marion Huffer, Geoff Hawes, Barrie Saunders and Paul Woodgate, the chief timekeeper at our home fixtures. Their task wasn’t made any easier by one of the clubs due to compete pulling out at 10pm the night before, but as ever they coped admirably.
Results at https://www.thepowerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=234584
Southern Athletics League – Bedford 18th August
The final league fixture for the club is the Southern Athletics League fixture at Bedford on 18th August. Our men and women compete together in this league with 5 rounds of fixtures taking place from April to August. After a slow start to the season we won our home fixture in June and the July fixture at Battersea, team managers Phil and Amber are looking to finish the season on a high with 3 wins in a row.