TVH only 1 point away from the win at home SAL Match

A home match is always a good chance to field a strong team and provide a good match performance and the Valley men and women didn’t disappoint with a 2nd place finish in the third Southern League match of the season at Linford Christie Stadium on Saturday.

It was an incredibly close match between the top team in the league, Chelmsford, the 3rd placed team in the league, Nene Valley Harriers, and the Valley, and TVH came very close to winning the match and missed doing so by the smallest of margins.

The final match scores gave Chelmsford the win by just 1 point as they finished 1st on 203 points, with TVH 2nd on 202, Nene Valley Harriers 3rd on 197.5 and Walton 4th on 138.5.

Once again there was a larger turnout for both the men’s and women’s teams compared to the first 2 matches and there was also a larger number of wins for both teams, an impressive 12 wins for the women and 13 wins for the men.

It is always good to see athletes joining the team and for Saturday’s match there were 2 women and 2 men making their Southern League debut.

With so many fine performances on the day it was a close decision for the TVH Man of the Match and Woman of the Match awards, which went to Conor Kissane-Wood who improved his 1500m pb by a good 6 seconds to 4m08.9s on his way to 2nd place in the A 1500m, and Hannah Hall for wins in the A 100m and A 200m and a leg in the 4x100m relay.

For the second successive match Ogo Anochirionye and Angela Barrett were the Sweatshop Man of the Match and Woman of the Match, as excellent jumps won Ogo the men’s long jump with 7.19m and Angela the women’s triple jump with 13.01m.

To have finished so close to winning the match against such strong teams means we are in a good position to go for the first match win of the season, as we will also be hosting another home match for the next Southern League match at LCS on Saturday July 9th.

Women’s Match Report

by Amber Simukonda

After struggling to fill events in the first 2 matches, the 15 female athletes that turned out to compete on Saturday all dug in to make sure that we covered as many events as possible and got those much needed points.

We have an amazing crop of U17 athletes and they never fail to disappoint.

Amelia Casey (400, 800) and Olivia Olsher (2000 steeplechase, high jump) made their Southern League debut and alongside Hannah Hall, Alice Harray and India Weir all performed very well.

Hannah won both the 100 (12.7) and 200 (25.9) and anchored the team in the 4×100 relay and this earned her the TVH woman of the match award.

India ran an amazing solo 1500 and was rewarded with a PB (4.39.5), as were Alice and Amelia who started their afternoon with PB’s in the 800 (2.22.1 and 2.24.3) and less than an hour later made their 400m debut running brilliantly to give the team much needed points.

Olivia also started her afternoon with the 800 (non-scoring), moved on to the high jump and finished with the 2000 steeplechase (8.21.1) – her first ever steeplechase race.

It is also great to have our university athletes returning home for the summer – Marissa John and Rebekah Wiltshire – the busiest of those was Marissa who competed in the 100, long jump, triple jump, 4×100 and 4×400 relay.

Becky who is back from America for the summer made a welcome return to the long jump but due to her ankle swelling up after the second jump, had to withdraw from the long jump competition.

Special menton to our senior atheletes who turn up match after match and always perform well.

Angela Barrett had a great triple jump recording a jump of 13.01 which is now the league record. She also found time to throw the javelin, discus and finish the day with the high jump.

Laura Britane with the absence of our other throwers took part in all the throwing events – javelin, hammer, discus and shot putt, and recorded wins in both the discus and javelin.

Lucy Ferguson ran well to win both the 400H and 100H and ran a great leg of the 4×400 relay along with her training partner Sarada Nag.

Lisa Da Silva on a mission to get us those points started the day with the 400H, moved on to the 3000 which she won and also managed to run a leg of the 4×100 relay.

Anna Critchlow also in the 3000 won the B string matching Lisa’s A string win and Siana Jones also ran well in the 1500 and found time to throw the hammer as well. Christine Munden was a last minute addition to the 200m and ran really well to come 3rd in the B string.

The next match is another home match on 9 July, so please come and support the team to go for our first win of the season.

#UpTheValley.

Men’s Match Report

by Phil Wetton

Following a turbulent week of weather which had seen heavy rain downpours flood the long jump pits at LCS, it was a relief to see some blue sky and sunshine over West London for Saturday’s third Southern League match at LCS.

It was a very good turnout for a home match with a 31 man team that also included 2 men, James Ellis and Chris Thomas, making their Southern League debuts.

The number of wins for the Valley men on match day continues to increase match by match, with an impressive total of 13 wins on Saturday, 7 on the track and 6 on the field, along with a fantastic number of 12 pb’s.

The Valley’s own club Man of the Match award for the overall best performance on the day was won by middle distance athlete Conor Kissane-Wood for his excellent pb run for 2nd place in the A string 1500m in 4m08.9, which represents a big improvement of 6 seconds on his previous pb and points to what he can achieve in the future, both which won him the trophy and voucher, well done Conor!

Ogo Anochirionye is also in great form and with a jump of 7.19m repeated his excellent double from the previous match to once again win the long jump and 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.

The strength of the Valley men’s team was reflected by the fact that all events on the day were covered and this did indeed play an important part in helping to add to the final points score in such a close match.

As events began on the track with the 400m hurdles Andrew Ajube brought his 400m speed into play in a very competitive A race which saw him finish 2nd in a good new pb time of 57.1s, while Caspar Donnison was determined not to let injury delay his return over the hurdles any longer and ran close to his best time for 2nd place in 60.8s in a close B race.

Subomi Onanuga and Mark Dyble both doubled up for the 100m and 200m and proved their worth to the team with 3 wins and a 2nd place.

A time of 10.9s for Subomi and 11.1s for Mark gave them both good wins in the 100m A and B races respectively.

In the 200m Mark was determined not to beaten on his home track and produced a good time of 22.3s to win the A race, while Subomi doubled his usual race distance to equal his pb time of 22.8s for 2nd place in the B race.

The non-scoring races once again showed a good turnout from the Valley men, as Jason Comissiong ran well on his return from injury to record a time of 11.2s in the 100m, along with Jehvaun Senior running a time of 11.5s.

The non-scoring 200m was a 4 man all-Valley race, with Jehvaun taking the honours in 1st place in 23.6s, Richard Solomon 2nd in 24.7s, Botond Safar 3rd in 25.3s and Caspar Donnison 4th in 26.4s.

The 400m continues to be a good quality race and Lloyd King produced a good time of 50.5s for 3rd place in the A race in his first Southern League race of the season, while moving down from 800m Kieron Sexton’s good form earned him a good pb time of 52.4s to finish 3rd in the B race.

Having missed the start of the season Jason Comissiong made a welcome return to the team in the 110m hurdles and looked to be going well after an excellent start, though a lack of race fitness saw him catch the final few hurdles he still came home 2nd in the A race in 16.4s, and U20 junior Artur Domingos’ clear run over all the hurdles gave him a new pb time of 23.9s for 4th in the B race.

It was another good quality field in the 800m and Botond Safar ran well to equal his season’s best time of 2m01.7s to finish 4th in the A race, and U17 junior Lucillo Burrell made a good start to his Southern League track season running a good time of 2m06.3s for 3rd place in the B race.

In the 1500m Conor Kissane-Wood ran near to a perfect race as he maintained a good pace and finished strongly to improve his pb time by 6 seconds to run 4m08.9s for 2nd place in the A race and just missed the race win by 1.5s, while Chris Thomas earned maximum points on his Southern League debut for a win in the B race he wasn’t happy with his time of 4m21.2s.

Currently on an impressive run of form Scott Brewer again improved his best times on Saturday, with a win in the non-scoring 800m in a new pb of 2m08.2s and 2nd place in the non-scoring 1500m in a new pb of 4m49.2s, there looks to be more to come.

It was a 2000m steeplechase for Saturday’s match and once again Paul Woodgate and Artur Domingos were up to the task and both were rewarded with pb times, Paul finishing 4th in the A race in 8m54.9s and Artur 3rd in the B race in 9m55.0s.

The 5000m provided a good number of Valley entries with James Ellis and Fahad Abdi competing in the main race, and Steve Norris and Paul Woodgate competing in the non-scoring race.

In the leading group for the whole race James had an excellent day on his Southern League debut, winning the A race in a new pb time of 16m39.5s, and he was well supported by Fahad Abdi who also had a very good race with a new pb of 17m15.0s to win the B race for maximum points.

There was also a season’s best time of 17m53.3s for Steve Norris and a new pb time of 18m37.7s for Paul Woodgate as they finished 1st and 2nd in the non-scoring 5000m.

Nearing the end of the track match the Valley men had a very strong 4x100m relay team of Jason, Jehvaun, Mark and Subomi and the result was never in doubt as Subomi crossed the finish line well ahead to win in a time of 42.5s, the fastest Southern League relay time for the Valley men this season.

Having already raced in the 4x100m Jehvaun showed his commitment to the team by joining Andrew, Nav and Lloyd for the 4x400m, and in a close race for 2nd place they just missed out by 1s to finish 3rd in a time of 3m27.4s.

Moving on to the field events it was good to see Ali Mortimore back on the team in his first Southern League appearance of the season, and joining forces with Steve Whyte gave the Valley men a strong team in the heavy throws.

In what proved to be a good day’s competition in all the heavy throws Steve and Ali earned a valuable number of points for the team with 2 wins, 3 2nd places and a 3rd place between them in the shot putt, hammer and discus..

Starting the day in the shott put saw Steve throw 11.65m for 2nd place in the A string and Ali throw 11.28m for 2nd place in the B string.

An assured performance from Steve in the hammer produced a best throw of 49.70m to give him a clear win in the A string by over 4m, and Ali took 3rd place in the B string with a throw of 30.17m.

Ending a good afternoon’s hard work in the discus Steve produced a good throw of 39.76m for 2nd place in the A string, while Ali saved his best for last with a throw of 31.58m to win maximum points in the B string.

In the javelin Dawid Jerzykowski once again faced good opposition and despite being hindered by a pain in his side while throwing he still managed a throw of 44.87m for 2nd place in the A string, and Richard Solomon proved he can perform well on the track and field with a good throw of 39.65m for 2nd place in the B string.

The pole vault was a strong competition with half of the field jumping over 4m, and Erik Tropp matched his season’s best jump of 4.00m to finish 3rd in the A string, while Stan Vilga’s jump of 3.40m placed him 2nd in the B string.

Due to exams having prevented them from competing in earlier matches it was good to welcome back Michael Adekunle and U17 junior Toni Ademuwagun onto the team for their first Southern League appearance of the season in the high jump.

With Toni jumping close to his best in every competition he once again equalled his pb with a jump of 1.85m for 2nd place in the A string, while Michael was able to cope with a sore ankle to win the B string with a jump of 1.80m, and on good form it shouldn’t be long before they are both jumping 2m.

The long jump and triple jump were once again a good source of points for the Valley men with 3 wins and a 2nd place on the day.

Another top performance from Ogo Anochirionye in the long jump again produced maximum points as his jump of 7.19m won the A string by over 80cm, and Nav Childs jump of 6.17m gave him 2nd place in the B string and was just 9cm away from the winning jump.

It was a clear win for Nav in the triple jump as he jumped 13.80m to win the A string by over 1m and it was good to see Odell Okwuosa returning back to good form, having finished his exams and getting back into training he produced a good jump of 12.82m to win the B string by over 80cm.

Adding the long jump to his list of talents Richard Solomon jumped well to win the non-scoring long jump with 6.05m and Odell also enjoyed another good performance to finish 2nd with a jump of 6.01m.

After all the effort of the Valley men and women throughout the match it was a nervous time waiting for the final match scores to be declared, as it had been such a close match all day and all of the top 3 teams had been leading at some point during the match.

When the provisional match scores were declared they showed that there were only 5.5 points between the top 3 teams, with Chelsmford 1st, 4 points ahead of TVH in 2nd and 5.5 points ahead of Nene Valley Harriers in 3rd place.

However a 2nd place for the Valley in the men’s B string pole vault was missing from the provisional results, which gave TVH an extra 3 points and meant that the Valley still finished in 2nd place but just 1 point away from winning the match!

Despite not winning the match it was a good 2nd place against 2 of the top 3 teams in the league and the 3 league points for 2nd place will help move the Valley up the league table.

It also shows that the team is getting stronger every match and following the natural progression of results we should be on course to win the next match!

The good news is that it will be another home match at Linford Christie Stadium on Saturday July 9th, so put the date in the diary and join the team going for a home win!

Up The Valley!

SAL Division 1, Match 3, LCS West London, 18-06-16, Results