British Athletics League,Third Match, Tooting

Following an encouraging result at the second match in Gateshead the third match proved to be one of damage limitation as the team was devastated by injury and other commitments.There were some outstanding individual performances and a number of first time appearances for athletes, which augurs well for the future.

Starting the day in 3^rd place in the League the Valley men slipped to 7^th place on the day and to equal 5^th overall, although the points remain very tight between 3^rd and 8^th places as clubs again took points from each other.

The TVH Track Man of the Match award was again won by a sprinter as Victor Dos Santos Soares made a welcome return to the team and finished 3^rd in the 100m in 10.72 and won the 200m in 21.16 before running a fantastic 3^rd leg in the 4x100m relay where the TVH men ran their fastest time of the season. Victor has already qualified for the European Championships for Portugal in the 400m and hopes to also run in the 200m.

 The TVH Field Man of the Match award was won by Ogo Anochirionye for his near personal best in the Long Jump. Ogo reached exactly 7.00 metres with a legal following wind of 0.3m/s, just 2cm short of his lifetime best to finish 3^rd.

 The TVH Club Man of the Match award was won jointly by Kamal Mitchell and Leroy Cain. Both are emerging young talent and new faces on the team and both had busy afternoons as Leroy was 3^rd in the 100m B race, and ran in both 4x100m and 4x400m relay teams, whilst Kamal was 7^th in the 400m B race in 52.78 and ran a leg of the 4x400m despite having to run the relay with heavy strapping on one thigh.

 Nigel Thomas made a welcome return to the team after injury early in the season and opted for the 200m B race, where he finished 6^th in 22.73 before running the anchor leg in the 4x100m. Hopefully, he will round back into top form for the final match.

Lloyd King was still struggling with injury niggles that have dogged his season and which forced him to pull up just before 300m in the 400m A race. However, after physio treatment he showed great club spirit and made a determined effort to run the fastest leg in the TVH 4x400m team.

With the 2 leading 800m runners missing and Kieran Sexton running the 1500m this was always going to be a tough event but Bashir Mohamed stepped up to the mark and although finishing 8^th in the 800m A race he ran very close to his lifetime best in a fast and tactical race.  Rob Russell, better known these days for his 10km and half marathon exploits once again came down from Scotland to cover the 800m B race and improved significantly on his season’s best to snatch 7^th place in a shade outside 2 minutes.

 The 1500m was again a good quality race that found Mohamed  Jabari El-Majdoub just missing out in the final stages but holding on strongly to finish 5^th in 3:56.62 for a season’s best. Keiran Sexton ran another gutsy race to finish 5^th in the B race in 4:02.36.

Not content to run just one middle distance race Rob Russell followed up his 800m race with a solid 5000m performance of 15:27.0 with the evergreen Steve Norris making a welcome return to the team to run 16:56.09 in the 5000m B race.

 Jason Commissiong again had a busy afternoon starting with a non-scoring 100m race where he ran 11.12, and then the 110m hurdles where he was close to his best time, running 15.9 for 5^th in the A race and then finishing 3^rd in the B Javelin with 40.98m. Mike Bartlett again cleared 4.00m to finish 5^th in the Pole Vault before picking up valuable points in the 110m hurdles B race where he finished 5^th in a season’s best of 17.8. Stanislav Vilga was delighted to clear 3.60m to equal his lifetime best in the Pole Vault to claim 3rd place.

The 400m hurdles was a tough event for the club as our top 3 hurdlers were missing. Delroy Mitchell bravely agreed to run but suffered a recurrence of an old knee injury and limped home in 62.02 before having to withdraw from the 4x400m team. We wish him a rapid recovery and hope to see him back in action for the last match. Simon Baptist made his team debut in the 400m hurdles B race having recently returned to the sport after a break of a few years but had to endure bad cramping within the first 100m but bravely stuck it out for valuable points. Sadly Simon had to withdraw from the steeplechase to prevent further injury.

Another first team debutant was Charles Morris who ran doggedly to break through the 11 minute barrier, clocking 10.58.3 and is sure to make further progress before the season is out.

Michael Adenkule was another athlete making his return to the team following a prolonged period of injury and jumped very well to clear 1.85m, which is just 5cm short of his best ever, for 6^th place in the High Jump. Stephen Edwards equalled his season’s best of 1.75m for 5^th place in the B event, having already claimed 3^rd in the B Triple Jump with a solid 13.25m behind Nav Childs whose 14.33m earned him 4^th place in the A event. Nav also finished 5^th in the B Long Jump with 6.23m behind Ogo Anochirionye’s 7.00m.

With team stalwart, Steve Whyte, away competing in an international master’s event young star Jamie Potton-Burrell threw well to snatch 3^rd place in the Hammer with 49.75m before throwing close to his best in the Shot with 11.56m. Meanwhile his brother Alan Sydee overcame the nerves of 2 no throws before getting in a creditable 40.45m for 3^rd in the B event and then threw a season’s best of 29.44m in the Discus.

Ali Mortimore was also in action again having had back problems in the Gateshead match. In the Discus he reached 31.06m and in the Shot he had a ding-dong battle with Jamie Potton-Burrell just failing to beat his young rival as he reached 11.47m.

Dawid Jerzykowski was back in the team having missed the Gateshead match and was close to his season’s best as he threw 46.50m for 5^th in the Javelin where he was backed up by Jason Commissiong as described above.

The day finished well with the 4x100m team of Kerry Mathurin, Leroy Cain, Victor Dos Santos Soares and Nigel Thomas combining to run the fastest time of the year of 41.86 for 3^rd place in a top quality race. Kerry Mathurin is better known as a Long Jumper but has been sprinting this year following injury issues and had earlier run another sub 11 second 100m in the non-scoring race.

 The 4x400m team was put together from those willing and able to run and they performed well. Leroy Cain, Kamal Mitchell, Lloyd King and Mohamed Jebari El-Majdoub ran solidly throughout to finish well clear of close rivals Gateshead who had been threatening to push the Valley into 8^th place on the day.

 Team Manager, Paul Oppe said “We had so many gaps it was possible that we would finish last in this match but we have kept ourselves out of the relegation zone and have every chance of finishing in the top half of the table. Apart from the top 2 teams this league is the closest I’ve seen and we can’t afford to take our eye off the ball in the final match where there will be a 3 line whip! I was proud of the youngsters in the team, many of whom were making their debut and, as ever, the club spirit got us through. Thanks to everyone today – a gutsy performance in tough circumstances.”

TEAM RESULT

Gateshead

League Table