TVH Ladies Encouraging start to Defense of UKWAL Title

TVH competed in the first match of the UKWAL at Eton on Saturday 2nd June. The team finished second out of eight teams, with a total of 207 points. First of all, a big well done to everyone involved (athletes, coaches and supporters)! Special congratulations go to Pippa Wingate and Katie Lambert, who won the A and B string hammer, getting us off to a great start in the competition, Clare Maurer (who won the B string Pole Vault) and Pippa Rogan (winner of the A string high jump).

Secondly, we welcome the newest members of the team: sprint quartet Brittany Robinson, Hannah Hall, Simone Mallett-Forde and Olivia Mundabi, Amelia Casey (800m) and Kathryn Woodcock (discus).

UKWAL Premier Division Match 1, Eton, Saturday 2nd June 2018

Kosana Weir reports:

In the 100m, Hannah Hall raced against older athletes and finished in 7th place in a high standard race, with a good time of 12.50. Brittany Robinson also ran well in the B string and posted a Season’s Best time of 12.62 for 5th place. Simone Mallet-Forde in the nonscoring 100m also ran her fastest time of the year with 12.65. Aisha Naibe-Wey came 7th in the A string 200m, in a time of 25.40, while Hannah Hall recorded 25.31 to place 5th in the B string.

Sophie Hawkins was in another good quality A string race and finished 7th in the 400m, in a time of 58.11. Alice Harray in her second race of the day was 5th in the B string in 62.37. Alice also competed in the A string 800m less than an hour earlier, in which she finished an excellent 4th in 2:14.00, while Amelia Casey had a fine debut run finishing 5th in the B string in 2:18.78. Running their fastest last lap in a race, India Weir ran 4:32.7 to come 3rd in the A string 1500m and Kosana Weir ran 4:36.68 to finish 2nd in the B string.

Stephanie Ainley ran an excellent race in the 2000m Steeplechase and finished 5th with a new Personal Best time of 7:18.55! Sarah Johnson and Lisa da Silva both had fantastic runs (and fast finishes) in the 3000m, with Sarah finishing 3rd in the ‘A’s in 10:08.80 and Lisa finishing 2nd in the ‘B’s in 10:27.7. This was Lisa’s best 3000m time in four years!

Aisha Naibe-Wey ran a great race in the 400m hurdles to finish 2nd in the A string in 58.49 and Lucy Ferguson, who has just returned from injury, came 4th in the B string in 67.30. After an unfortunate disqualification in the A string 100m hurdles, Lucy was next to race in the B string. She came 7th, with a time of 17.19.

The hammer was won by Pippa Wingate, with an excellent throw of 60.06m. A double win was achieved in this event because Katie Lambert won the B string competition with 51.58m. New team member Kathryn Woodcock came 5th in the A string discus, throwing 45.80m and Sophie Mace threw a very good 45.37m to finish 3rd in the B string. Returning from injury, Laurensa Britane came 4th in the A string javelin, throwing 39.35m and Katie scored more superb points placing 2nd in the B string, with 30.67m. In the A string shot putt, Amelia Strickler was 2nd, with an incredible throw of 16.47m and Danielle Opara’s 12.67m placed her 2nd in the B string. Katie Lambert won the B string hammer and stepped in at the last minute to fill a gap on the javelin, throwing 30.67m (just 1 cm off her PB!), so she was given TVH Club Athlete of the Match.

TVH was well represented in the jumps, with second places in the ‘A’ and ‘B’ long jump, from Angela Barrett (5.81m) and Lia Stephenson (5.43m). Angela Barrett also competed in the triple jump, coming 4th with a jump of 12.76m. Pippa Rogan finished 4th in the ‘B’s, with 11.19m. Pippa Rogan and Molly Caudery represented TVH in the high jump, finishing first 1.75m and second 1.55m in the A and B string respectively. Molly also came second in the A string Pole Vault, jumping 4.20m. She showed great commitment to the team, having equaled her GB junior pole vault record at the ECCC last weekend. She made the long journey from Cornwall to Eton to compete in this competition, after returning from a college visit to Miami earlier in the week. Clare Maurer was back on good form and achieved first place in the B string Pole Vault, with 3.80m.

The final events of the day were the relays, which are always very exciting to watch. TVH finished 6th in both the 4x100m and the 4x400m. The 4x100m team consisted of four debutants; Simone Mallett-Forde, Brittany Robinson, Olivia Mundabi and Hannah Hall, who finished in a good 48.62. Sophie Hawkins (59.9), Amelia Casey (60.0), Lucy Ferguson (60.8) and Aisha Naibe-Wey (55.5) made up the team for the 4x400m and all raced well as they recorded a time of 3:56.16. This was Aisha’s fourth event of the day!

Pippa Rogan was named the TVH Field Athlete of the Match for winning the high jump and stepping in at the last minute to do a triple jump, jumping a very good new PB of 11.17m. It was difficult to choose the TVH Track Athlete of the Match as all of the middle distance athletes had brilliant races, and the sprinters all ran multiple races in order to fill the gaps from missing team members. It was given to Stephanie Ainley, who raced the 2k Steeplechase and was the only track athlete to achieve a new PB.

Thank you to all the athletes who participated, the officials and the organisers. This match has put TVH in a great position to defend our UKWAL title and hopefully to compete in the ECCC again next year!

UKWAL Premier Division Match 1 Result