First SAL match in Cambridge - Race report

Our SAL team travelled to Cambridge on Saturday 29th April for the first match of the season and our debut in Div 2 after last year's promotion.

Picture from First SAL match in Cambridge - Race report

Our opponents for the day were London Heathside, Cambridge & Coleridge (hosting club) and Ryston Runners.

In spite of a decent turnout of Serpies with 24 people taking part, we had a few last minute drop-outs from our middle distance and throws specialists and we knew that competition was going to be tough. LH and C&C were head-to-head'ed from the beginning to win the match and RR took a lead on us from the start, which we didn't manage to close in spite of getting more points in the second part of the day. If anyone was in any doubt that the standard in Div 2 is a lot higher than Div 3 then they won't be doubting now.

Our fielders had a particular tough day, where although getting some PBs and SBs, our best results of the day were from the women's captain Mary D, who came second in the hammer, and from Daisy G, who was second in the triple jump B string. It went a bit better on the track, where Serpies are normally more comfortable: men won both strings in the 5000m (Ben T and Simon B) and Miles K confirmed his great form with three second places in 100m, 200m and 400m; our ladies had a great steeplechase race coming second and first (Ellen O and Victoria B), whereas Richard P broke his own club record (by 0.1s!) and came second in the 2000m s/c. Congratulations to him!

Final scores of the day were:

  1. London Heathside 223.5
  2. Cambridge & Coleridge 217
  3. Ryston Runners 190.5
  4. Serpentine 144

Full results can be found on our website and on the SAL site.

Thanks to our officials and helpers on the day (Ian and Sally Hodge, Sammy Li, Sarah Maisey and Richella Doyle) for making it happen and also scoring some points for our team.

The next SAL match will be in Hemel Hempstead on Sunday 21st May and we need to improve our results: we are confident our league position can only get better as we are currently in bottom place :-) It would be great to have some of our U17 and U20 athletes from the junior squad take part as you'd make a big difference. Everyone is welcome to take part and if you are not sure you are good enough, this is what a newbie from Saturday posted on Facebook

"This was my first ever athletics event and I loved it. The Serpie coaches, captains and team members are so supportive and helpful - thank you all! I entered discus and hammer and was delighted to score a few points for the team. My highlight was another competitor asking, after my weedy hammer throws, 'So, what's your main event?' which made me laugh out loud."

Looking forward to seeing many of you in May

Nick Barberis
SAL men's captain

Submitted: 2 May 2017

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