Top of the Table

HW will go into the fourth Southern Athletics League match of 2022 at Aldershot on Saturday 13 August having won the first three matches and topping the League with 661.5 match points over Basingstoke & Mid Hants AC on 603 points, keeping the Club on course for promotion. Having won the first three matches, proud team manager Keith Scofield is calling for yet another big effort to match the valiant team performance at Horspath, Oxford on 16 July, when HW athletes covered every single event, bar the B-string 110m hurdles, to clinch a vital 3-point victory over Radley AC in second place. 'Thank you to so many athletes, yet again, for putting their hands up and doing events they have never done before or that are way out of their comfort zone', says Keith.

At Horspath there were solid performances all across the board. The Club's sprinters kicked off the match with a third place for A-string Antonio Douglas in the 100m in 11.31, and a B-string win for Ryan Facey in 11.59. There were notable wins for Andrew Penney in the 800m – his first two-lap race since 2013, in which he clocked a PB of 1:55.74, building on his recent form and renewed appetite for the shorter distances (he set a new PB of 3:47.32 over 1500m at Wimbledon Park on 1 June, and another – 4:07.05 – in the Mile on 20 July). Andrew Merry was second for the B-string in 2:05.03.

Archie Walton took the A-string 1500m in 4:00.94, with Jonny Cornish maximising the points with 4:01.17 for the B-string. In the 5000m Fred Slemeck and Joe Croft delivered A and B string wins in 15:09.89 and 15:41.02 respectively.

In the women's 400 hurdles U20 Lulu Weisz continued her enthusiastic SAL form, winning the A race in a PB of 66.86 with U17 Ariana Shala taking the B string victory in 74.19. On the field Ariana won the triple jump with 9.86m, while fellow U17 Josh Martin also continued his great run of performances in the high jump, taking the win with a leap of 1.66. He also clocked a PB of 50.94 in the 400m to finish second, with Charlie Eastaugh winning the B race in 53.88.

Lisa Thomas and Heather Letley bagged maximum points in the 2000m steeplechase in 8:23.30 and 9:17.47 respectively, while Alison Murray won the pole vault with a clearance of 2.60m, backed up by multi-eventer Heather (1.20m) who competed in seven disciplines throughout the day to
ensure the women's team covered every event.

M45 Christer Hagberg was almost as busy on the field, taking the win in the hammer in style, with a throw of 44.41, backed up by M60 Kevin Snelling for the B string (16.40m). He was equally impressive in the javelin, throwing 40.56 to take the win, with Jean Pascal Laperotine (F42 classification) third for the B string with 27.82m. In the discus Christer was pipped into second place with 41.20m and Jean Pascal third for the B-string with a throw of 19.20m. The two also finished second for both A and B string in the shot, with Christer putting 12.18 and Jean Pascal landing a PB of 8.61m.

In the relays the Men's team won the 4 x 100m relay, with the Women's team second in their race. Both teams finished the track events with third place in the 4 x 400m relays.

SAL Match 3, Horspath, full results

Meanwhile in the Vets League

The men's team won the final match of the Southern Vets AC League match at Croydon to secure first place over the three-match series, while the women's team finished third in the match and third overall.