Final British Athletics League Match, Lee Valley

Despite a three line whip from Team Manager, Paul Oppe, the team that the Valley fielded in this final British League Match of the season was just not strong enough to secure a place in the top 5 and avoid relegation to Division 2.

Division 1 this season has been the most competitive in recent memory with clubs like Glasgow finishing 2^nd in three matches and slumping to 7^th today whilst relegation zone Windsor finished 2^nd today despite lying in 7^th place after three matches. The Valley’s 6^th place was 1.5  points behind Kent (261.5 to 260) but we needed to beat them by 28 points on the day to avoid relegation.

 The TVH Track Man of the Match award was won by Chris McAlister whose 54.41 400m Hurdles was a gusty performance against top quality opposition, which adds to his England Schools title won in July. Chris is proving himself a great asset to the club as he followed up his 400m hurdles run with a 16.92 clocking in the 110m Hurdles and ran an impressive 50.4 in the 4x400m relay. Still only 19 this young athlete is one to watch for the future.

 The TVH Field Man of the Match award was won by Steven Edwards for his near personal best of 13.89m in winning the B string Triple Jump. Steven also demonstrated his commitment to the club having earlier cleared 1.75m in the B string High Jump.

 The TVH Club Man of the Match award was won by Mohamed Jebari El-Majdoub (known by club mates as Mo Jo) for his fine 1:53.51 800m run, followed by 4:00.99 in the 1500m and a superb 49.9 second 4x400m relay leg. We have been very lucky in having Mohamed join the club this year and is sure to improve further on his 1:51 and 3:56 best performances.

 The sprints looked good for us on paper but the other clubs pulled out all their big guns and although Edmond Amaning ran strongly he was 5^th in the 100m A race in 11.00 and 3^rd in the 200m A race with 21.60, both with strong headwinds.

Nigel Thomas showed return to form after an injury wrecked season and was 3^rd in the 100m B race with 11.07 into an even stronger headwind of 5.2m/s. Kerry Mathurin found the conditions not at all to his liking as he ran 23.08 in the 200m B race.

With a lifetime best of 45.23 Luke Lennon-Ford is expected to make a significant impact on the club scene having recently joined from Birchfield. Luke (who is coached by Linford Christie) has had a torrid time since serious injury in 2012 ruined his Olympic hopes and he has struggled since then to recover full fitness. His debut for the club was marred with another recurrence of back/hamstring problems and he was limited to clocking 48.43 in a race won by recent Commonwealth Games 4x400m relay Gold medallist Dan Awde.

 Lloyd King slowly returning to form having had his own injury problems this season and his 50.35 for 4^th in the 400m B race is a step in the right direction.

 With Mo Jo taking 3^rd in the A race Kieran Sexton ran a solid 1:57.70 for 5^th place in the B race. With Mohamed Mohamed and Myles Edwards missing today Mo Jo and Keiron came back to pick up points in the 1500m, finishing 6^th and 7^th respectively in the A and B events in very competitive “sit and kick” races.

 The 3000m race provided the Valley with the highest placing on the track as Mo Aaden made a welcome return to the team from training in Kenya and ran a lifetime best of 8:25.44, shaving 0.14 from his best set in 2013, to finish 2^nd in a quality race. Mark Haskett made the long journey down from Scotland to run a gutsy 8:51.62 for 3^rd in the B race.

Jason Commissiong again had a busy afternoon starting with a non-scoring 100m race where he ran 11.47, and then the 110m hurdles where he was close to his best time, running a combative 16.01 for 4^th place in the A race and then finishing 3^rd in the B Javelin with 45.08m.

In the Pole Vault, Mike Bartlett handled the difficult conditions well to clear 4.00m to finish 4^th with Stanislav Vilga again delighted to clear 3.60m to claim 2^nd place in the B event.

Following Chris McAlister’s fine run in the A race the 400m hurdles B race saw club stalwart Bai Bai Conteh agreed to cover the event for the points and was rewarded as he successfully negotiated the 10 barriers to claim 7^th place.

 In a comeback described by one of his close friends as the best since Lazarus, Andy Hennessy made a welcome return to the team having had an extended period off. Once an international standard steeplechaser Andy called on his experience to run an impressive 10:27.67 in the Steeplechase with Bashir Mohamed close behind in 11:02.86, which was just outside his best of 11:02.04. Bashir has run a wide range of events this summer and clearly has potential to improve in all events from 400m upwards.

 Michael Adenkule jumped very well to clear 1.85m again, which is just 5cm short of his best ever, for 5^th place in the High Jump. As previously reported Stephen Edwards equalled his season’s best of 1.75m for 7th^th place in the B event, having already won the B Triple Jump. Nav Childs jumped 14.17m for 4^th place in the A Triple Jump having previously finished 6^th in the B Long Jump with 6.31m behind Ogo Anochirionye’s 6.56m, which earned him 7^th place in the A Long Jump.

 Club stalwart, Steve Whyte, was back in the team having competed successfully in an international master’s event but suffered an adductor strain during the Hammer in which he still managed to finish 3^rd with 49.34m. He gamely threw the Discus and, although well below his best still recorded a creditable 40.33m to finish 7^th in the A event. Young star Jamie Potton-Burrell was showing the effects of having thrown with great success in the European Throws Championships in Germany last weekend but earned 3^rd place in the Hammer with 44.76m before stepping in for the injured Steve Whyte in the Shot to reach 10.87m.

 Ali Mortimore was also in action again having had back problems for much of the summer. In the Discus he reached 32.76m for 6^th place in the B events and in the Shot threw 11.12m, just ahead of Jamie Potton-Burrell’s 10.87m.

 Dawid Jerzykowski threw close to his season’s best with 47.14m for a creditable 4^th place in the A event and was backed up by Jason Commissiong’s 45.08m.

 The day finished well with the 4x100m team of Leroy Cain, Kerry Mathurin, Nigel Thomas, and Edmond Amaning combining to finish 4^th in 42.30 but would have had to have run faster than their season’s  best to get up to 3^rd place in a top quality race.

 The 4x400m team with Delroy Cole running a fantastic first 250m and holding on grimly for a fine 50.8 second first leg, a sub 50 second clocking from Mo Jo, 50.4 from Chris McAlister and a superb 48.8 leg from Lloyd King the team combined to run their first sub 3:20 clocking of the year with 3:19.76 for 4^th place, over 6 seconds faster than they have run previously this year.

 Team Manager, Paul Oppe said “I am obviously disappointed but I have to be pragmatic. This season has been tough for us as the Division has been the most competitive I can recall but many of the Valley team have had a long hard season and we have had more than our share of injuries over the summer. We didn’t perform that badly today – I think the damage was done at the 3^rd match when we slipped down to 6^th place and then the other 4 teams in the relegation battle managed to put out super-strong teams. I am taking a break now before starting to plan for next year’s promotion back to this Division – we are too strong to stay down in Division 2”

TEAM RESULT

Lee Valley 9 th August 2014