SAL match 5 - Race report
Great result for our SAL team at the last match of the season in Ware on Saturday 17th August: after a tense fight with home club Herts Phoenix, we managed to squeeze our second win of 2019 with a small margin. Thanks to all that have competed in the season: our team finished in sixth place in the league, an improvement from last year and only 2.5 points away from promotion.
About 30 Serpies travelled to Ware on Saturday 17th August to compete in our fifth and last match of the SAL season. Few of our regulars were missing due to various commitments and injuries, so was a bit tougher than usual to fill in all the gaps. However, everybody who came was willing to go the extra mile and that made a huge difference to help with our win by only five points!
Final standing for the day was
- Serpentine 313
- Herts Phoenix AC 308
- Ilford AC 208
- Peterborough AC 187
- Newham & Essex Beagles AC 186
- West Norfolk AC 0
In spite of the windy conditions, we had some great results during the afternoon
- Sarah P won the 1500m (with a sprint!) after a tactical race while Ben Tolputt (who was back to SAL after few years's break) was first in the 5000m with Tim P in second place
- Dave R and Andy R clean swept both low and high hurdles races with some very strong runs; and so did Peter G and Tony M in the pole vaults
- Victoria Brown paced her win in the 2000m steeplechase very well with Abi Williams confirming her ability to hurdle in third place
- Ben S managed a PB in a very competitive 800m race that saw the winner clocking 1:55
- Lewis G had a very convincing debut in the 1500m with Lee finishing just behind also confirming his improvements this season
- With a very windy home straight, sprint conditions were not the best ones, but Sodiq A, Ashwin J, Ben S, Jeremy F, Rhi N, Hel J, Anna H and Catkin had some strong performances to bring some valuable points to our team, with the ladies running a PB and SB respectively in the 400m.
- Out throwers had possibly the hardest day of the season, with some of the other competitors throwing further (and shouting louder - always a sign) than we had seen for a while: well done to Mary D, Hel J, Laura C, Alex M, Tony M and Peter G for their effort
Massive thanks to our officials Ian and Sally Hodge, Daisy Gladstone, Josie Wildridge, Sammy Li and Malcolm French for their help with running the match and for ensuring 20 points to our team.
Our team finished the season in 6th place in Division 3N with 24 points (2 wins, 1 second and two thirds), only 2.5 points away from promotion and with a improvement from last year's result. Full details can be found on the SAL website
No more matches for 2019 (and good luck to our Rosenheim teams competing on Wednesday in the Finals), but everyone is very welcome to join our T&F social on Wednesday 9th October after the club runs: details to follow on a separate email, but put this date in your calendar and join us for some drinks to toast to our achievements and celebrate T&F club champs and winner of the captains' awards.
Submitted: 20 August 2019