Southern Athletics League Match 4 – Kingston
We opened our day firstly with a minute’s applause for our dearly departed Jack Rutherford. All athletes and officials commemorated the day by wearing black armbands and showing plenty of smiles, as Jack would have wanted. A huge thanks to everyone who participated.
We ended the day 3rd, with South London (1st) and Kingston (2nd) finishing in front, and Dacorum & Tring bringing up the rear.
We had the following athletes making their Walton AC SAL Debuts, providing some great performances and results across their respective events:
- Hayley Cargill – Returning from a long absence, Hayley reopened her Walton AC account with a dominant 800m run, leading from the off and refusing to let the K&P athlete past on the home straight. She was also our second leg Mixed 4x400m runner for the B string – 7pts
- Jon Awuah – Jon has had some good performances for the club this season and today was no different, picking up second place in the Mens 400m A string in his first outing for the Senior side – 3pts
- Fraser McAllister – another Walton AC athlete of the past making a comeback, Fraser picked up two 3rd place finishes in the 100m and 200m (both B string). He was also part of our 4x100m relay team – 5pts
- Tina Howell – Making her long awaited return from injury, Tina picked up 2nd place in the High Jump and Javelin, and 3rd place in the Triple Jump to secure good points for the team – 8pts
- Ben Witham – a new addition to Walton AC, Ben picked up second place in the Men’s Long Jump (A string) and, after learning the event 20 minutes prior, won the A string Triple Jump! He was also part of our 4x100m relay team – 8pts
Like all of our matches this season, picking out individual highlights has been difficult with this meet, below is our pick of the athletes and the contribution they made to the club on the day:
- Matthew Pharaoh – fresh from his midweek exploits at Watford, he held off both K&P athletes to finish the race 3rd overall, and winning the B string. He went on to run the Men’s B string 400m picking up second place, and was the lead off runner for the Mixed 4x400m B string, which also placed second – 10pts
- Reuben Leyland – Reuben turned his hand to the shorter sprints for the individual events at this match. Running a PB of 11.6 for the 100m and a SB of 23.9 for the 200m, this saw him collect 3rd and 2nd place respectively. He also anchored our 4x100m relay team, getting the baton over the line and avoiding the DQ after a fumble from the incoming runner. He then started off the A string mixed 4x400m team which won the event – 10pts
- Hugo Fleming – Hugo in true form, picked up max points in all events he participated in. Starting off with the men’s 800m A string, he took the field out from the off, and finished with no real pressure from the chasing runners. The 1500m was a more tactical affair, with the opening laps being deemed “too slow” by his own admission. Still, he held on and fought off a late surge to win this event as well. He anchored the Mixed 4x400m A string for his 3rd win of the afternoon – 12pts
- Robert A Smith – Our multi-event extraordinaire! This time only doing the 6 events, 110mH (3rd), 400mH (3rd), High Jump (equal 2nd), Long Jump (2nd), Pole Vault (3rd), and Triple Jump (1st) proving as always to be a valuable asset to the team – 15.5 pts (the .5 comes from sharing points on the High Jump!)
- Lizzi Amos – A fine return to form for Lizzie this season, securing a win in the 400m A string and 2nd place in the A string. She also ran both relays, securing wins for the teams – 15pts
- Emma Horsey – I had to make sure I wasn’t reading the previous paragraph when checking this, Emma also matched Lizzie’s marks with a win in the 400m, second place in the 200m (B string races), and was in the winning quartet for the relays! – 15pts
- Lucy Bartlett – Lucy is also making a fine return to racing form, winning the A string 100mH and picking up 3rd place in the 400mH. She also ran in the 4x100m winning team, and in the B string side 4x400m team which came second – 13pts
- Eva West – Eva continued her fine form in the Senior squad, throwing implements in a heavier weight category than for her age group (‘I forgot it was that heavy’ was the response I got after she picked up the hammer!). Still, this did not phase her, picking up 2nd place in the B string, 4th place in the shot, and running 3rd leg in the women’s 4x100m relay – 8pts
******CLUB RECORD ALERT*****
As mentioned in the above, we had some serious runners for our relay teams on the day, and unsurprisingly the mixed 4x400m A string broke the club record set earlier this year! Congratulations to Reuben Leyland (55.6), Lizzie Amos (61.5), Emma Horsey (63.0), and Hugo Fleming (51.4). This has surpassed the previous mark set by Ben Marks, Kate Raven, Emma Horsey, and Josh Taylor at the second match, taking the record from 3:54.0 to 3:51.6! This mark is also quicker than the Mens 4x400m time from earlier this season (3:54.1).
We had some great relay running to end the day, and it was even better to see a majority of athletes staying behind to cheer on their team mates to the end, and participated in a team photo at the end of the match. Special mention to Friso Kolff for stepping in to ensure we had a B string relay at the end of the day, running the anchor leg.
Our next and last match is at St. Albans, and we need another strong turn out to end the season on a high! I look forward to seeing you there!
Martin Norman – SAL Team Manager.