It was a case of near and yet so far for the senior team at the last SAL match of the season. With the team in second place in the Division but up against top place Bexley we had to win to go up. At the end of the day we lost the match by a tantalising five points – 237 – 232 despites some heroic efforts all round.
The day started well with Frano Vainio Doiseul in his 400 hurdles debut out dipping the Bexley athlete to win by 3/100th of second in 55.30. The day continued in the this vein with us leading by one or two points for the first half of the afternoon. There were fine performances all round, a double first in the 5k by Andy’s Inglis and Whelan, a Long Jump, Triple Jump double by under 17 Daniel Falode with his triple Jump taking him close to the UK top ten, double first in both the 400 hurdles and sprint hurdles by Katrina Cosby and Jade Fitt who then both “volunteered” to do the High Jump, there were volunteers for the steeplechase too – Well done Rose Baker, Lara Atkinson and Roderick Cookey Bresi. In the throws Vitor and Bonnie Brito Costa added great points whilst Paige Macheath won the women’s Javelin and 59 year old Andy Kruszewski won the Discus
In the second half of the afternoon Bexley slowly got ahead and the points gap grew to twelve at one point, but good results in the 1500 – Caroline Ford adding the 1500 A string win to the 800 she had achieved earlier, plus youngsters Lara Atkinson, Josh Olawunmi and Ayub Salaad adding extra points brought us back into contention. We shared points in the final events – the Discus and relays then Bexley were disqualified in the Men’s 4×4 and we found they had no Track Judge so we gained an extra five points for all the officiating works we were doing. At the end of the day it was not quite enough however and with Kent AC winning their match elsewhere they leapfrogged us into second in the Division and will go up with Bexley
Overall this year has been a good one with both our Under 15 and Under 20 teams getting promoted in the YDL. Our senior team is getting stronger and is more of a team than a group of individuals. Onwards and upwards for next year !