SAL - Ipswich
At a freezing cold wet and windy Ipswich track the Joint mens and womens team had a very good win in the first match of the Southern Athletic’s League.
They defeated the home team of Ipswich who finished in third place in the League last year and Luton plus West Suffolk with North Norfolk (composite team).
The conditions really were atrocious with a biting cold wind and several bouts of hailstorms along with persistent rain. It made life very difficult for the athletes who found it very hard to get their muscles warmed up.
But whilst understandably PBs were in short supply there were some amazing wins.
In the Women’s match there were wins for Erin Breen & Imogen Walker in the pole vault, Steph Williams and Zoe Benton in the 400m hurdles, Alex Hill in the 800m, Emily Hack and Ellie Bandy in the 400m, Sally Cowler and Aby Griffiths in the 100m hurdles, Alex Hill and Georgina Anderson in the 200m, Laura Armorgie and Aby Griffiths in the high jump and the 4 x 400 relay squad of Emily Hack, Ellie Bandy, Alex Hill and Steph Williams.
There were PBs in the triple jump for Sally Cowler and in the hammer for Eleanor Moss.
2 of our female athletes were named in the Women of the match awards, Stephanie Williams for the 400 hurdles and Laura Armorgie for the high jump.
In the men’s, maximum points were scored in the first four track events with Rob Green and David Stephens winning the 400h, and then Beck Grover and Joe Gaynor winning the A and B string 800. Beck then secured another victory in the B string 400m. Maximum points were also picked up in the 1500m, with Alex Cloona and Steve Prosser picking up wins. Steve had a busy afternoon also winning the 5k A string and the 2k Steeple Chase B string. There were also wins for Gaynor and Stephens in the 110hurdles, and the 4 x 4 relay team.
In the field, debutant Elliot Breen came away with victory in the pole vault, while there were solid performances from the athletes in the jumps and throws taking into account the unideal conditions.
The match was won by 199.5 points to Ipswich’s 190.5 so every athlete who competed helped with this brilliant win with many doing multiple disciplines.
An excellent start to the season. The SAL team will now travel to Erith, Bexley on Sunday 22nd to look to maintain their positive start.
Women’s Team: Megan Breen, Eleanor Moss, Erin Breen, Imogen Walker, Sally Cowler, Kara Peck, Steph Williams, Zoe Benton, Alex Hill, Alicia Found, Aby Griffiths, Emily Hack, Ellie Bandy, Lizzie Parry, Eleanor Found, Georgina Anderson, Isabel Found and Laura Armorgie.
Men’s Team: Bradley Armorgie, Anthony Bryan (NS), Elliot Breen, Nathan Burke, Alex Cloona, Joe Gaynor, Robert Green, Beck Grover, James Grove, Jason Kingwell, James Longrenn-Sampaio, Ben Lloyd, Mark Oddy, Steve Prosser, David Stephens, Peter Townsend.