SAL, Croydon – Sunday 19th May 2018

Medway and Maidstone Ladies and Men contested their second Southern Athletic League match at Croydon Arena, South London, on Saturday 19th May. With late withdrawals and unavailable athletes this was always going to be a difficult match but due to all those there rallying around they produced a fine 2nd place in the match to follow up the victory in there first fixture.

In the Men’s match there were none busier than Lewis Heffernan in 6 events and Andrejs Safars in 7. Lewis winning 400m hurdles ‘A’ in an excellent 55.87s and Andrejs winning ‘B’. 64.21s. Repeating this in 110m hurdles with Lewis 17.1s pb and Andrejs 20.1s. Lewis was also 2nd in 400m ‘A’ race in 53.38 and Andrejs 2nd in ‘A’ Hammer with 29.71m where veteran Clive Thompson won the ‘B’ event in 23.82. Rory Kuypers was put out of contention in the 100m when his starting blocks slipped but Nathan Isaac claimed 2nd in ‘B’ with 11.76s. Rory made up for this in 200m ‘A’ 2nd in 22.66s with Nathan 3rd ‘B’. Tewelde Menges produced an excellent PB in the 3000m ‘A’ with 8.52.0 although dead heating in the finish being adjudged 2nd. Tom Collins was 3rd ‘B’ before teaming up with Mark Wilkins for ‘A’ and ‘B’ victory in the 3000m steeplechase. Jacques Cunningham Marsh was another busy lad competing in four events with a 2.03.16s min 800m ‘A’ race with under 17 Alex Donnelly producing another pb in winning the ‘B’ race in 2.05.25min.

The field events saw Sonny Nash 55.19m for 2nd in Javelin. George Blake took a comprehensive victory in the Pole Vault and elder brother Will recording a pb of 9.20m in the Shot. Lewis, George, Rory and Nathan teamed up for 3rd in 4×100 in 44.1s. The 4×400 team of Andrejs, Lewis, Jacques and debut Lorcan Rogers just pipped for victory in a very exciting 4×400 race with a time of 3.35.98.

Many of the ladies strongest events came in the field with Vanessa Hannam taking 2nd places in the Javelin ‘A’ 27.86m and Shot ‘A’ 9.65m, both PBs and a first place in the Discus ‘A’ 34.09m. Also performing strongly saw Jess Blake take 2nd in the Javelin ‘B’ 15.74m, 1st in the ‘B’ Discus 21.32m and 2nd place in the Hammer ‘A’ with a great pb of 38.78m. Grace Adeleye came 1st in the Hammer ‘B’ 34.78 and Shot ‘B’ 7.99m. Grace also competed in the Triple Jump ‘A’ with 2nd in a PB jump of 10.19m. Zara Edeleanu also performed strongly, 1st ‘B’ with 10.17m. The Long Jump saw Abigail Walters leap to a PB of 4.65m to take 1st place and also contesting the High Jump in 1.53m which was extremely close to her recent PB.

On the track saw a strong s place for Abigail Walters in the 100m ‘A’ 13.53s and Lucy Hope running brilliantly in the 200m ‘A’ with a PB 26.0s and another PB 2nd in the 400 ‘A’ 62.6s. Zara Edeleanu took 2nd place in the 200m ‘A’ 27.46s. Probably the outstanding track performance of the day was from U17 Charlotte Young in the 800m, ‘A’  in a battle for the line saw her just miss 1st place but take 2nd with a massive 5 second PB of 2.16.58s. Well deserved! In the 5000m ‘A’ a PB for Stephanie Hearn in 19.44.6s to take second place and another PB in the 1500m Steeplechase ‘A’ 6.22.76s for 3rd place. This was equally impressive after stepping in and previously covering the 400m (B) and 800 (B). There were consistent performances by Bernadette Harrop for 2nd in the Steeplechase (B) 6.52.31 and (4th) in the 1500m (A) 5.51.19s. Another athlete covering many events throughout the day was Mo Fazakerley taking 2nd place points in the 5000m (B) 23.46.7 and covering the 100m (B), 1500m (B), Long Jump (B) and High Jump (B).

Match score:
London Heathside  231
Medway & Maidstone 191
Croydon Harriers 173
Orion Harrier   172

Full results here

The next SAL takes place at Medway Park, Gillingham on Saturday 23rd June.