Another Impressive Away Day Display at the SAL

We have just heard today (Saturday) that our Liam Garrett won the England Athletics U20 5000 meter championship (at the age of just 17) in Bedford, while Seyfu Jamaal was eighth. Jem O’Flaherty, coming back from injury, was close behind. More to follow in next week's report.

Meanwhile on Friday night, several of our athletes excelled in the Stag Mile hosted by Barnet at our Finsbury Park track (full results next week). 

Last weekend was also a big one for Heathside’s track and field stars, with Heathside coming second in the Southern Athletic League’s meeting in Ipswich. Another standout was Pete Crockford’s V60 club record in the 800 in Watford, in a time of 2:31. And Tony Killilea competed in the 36thInternational Runners’ Decathlong in Germany coming 27th out of 77 men.

The previous weekend Thomas Archer won the U17 1500 in the Essex Schools’ Championships in 4:08.

Southern Athletics League Division 2E, Ipswich, Saturday June 15

Heathside put in an impressive all-round performance, coming second overall. First places went to the women’s 400m relay team (4:21), the women’s 800 meters (Jennifer Wing in 2:30), the women’s 1500 (Lily Woolcock in 4:54), the women’s 100m hurdles (Jennifer Wing in 20.9), and the women’s 2000m steeplechase (Lily Woolcock in 10:06). There were also several strong second places, with Cian O’Donnell runner up in the 100m (11.1),  the 200 (22.9) and in the triple jump (11.87). Other second places included Charles Hardy clocking exactly 2-minutes in the 800m (with William Ross 0.3 second behind him), and 4:06 in the 1500, Seyfu Jamaal running 15:22 in the 5000 and Catherine Shin leaping 9.65m in the women’s triple jump and throwing 9.28 in the shot put.

Heathside – our small but mighty team comes in second against tough competition - by Noelle

At our last SAL match, we were disheartened to come third. But the team did not let us down this time – in the face of tough competition against Dartford, Tonbridge, and the combined Ipswich/Colchester & Tendring host club, we came in a comfortable second place! 

The quality on display from the home club was perhaps best exemplified in the men’s 5000, where Johnny Millar (4th in the nationals, 14:23 PB) was warming up to represent Ipswich A string. However, he missed the start and didn’t race (apparently, he got confused with the timetable…). Despite this, Seyfu Jamaal’s fantastic time of 15:23 was still not enough to beat Ipswich’s B string!

With a team of just 17 men and 10 women to cover all events and officiate, we were able to gain first or second place in a huge number of events. The men came first or second for A and B string 100, 200, 800, 1500, and triple jump; A string 400, 5000, and 110H; and B string 400H, high jump, and long jump. The women came first or second for A and B string 800, 100H, 400H, steeple chase, triple jump, and shot; A string 1500; and B string 200, 400, and 3000. These placings brought us in an enormous number of points, boosting Heathside well ahead of Tonbridge and Dartford.

A few key shout outs: Jonathan Litchfield, as always, organised a superb team of officials and volunteers (Tony Killilea, Jessica Vinluan, Sebouh Takvorian, John Flahive, Kim Butler, Claudia Backhaus and Chris Dissanayake). Thanks to anyone else I have forgotten to add who helped out!

The best performance of the day was by Naomi Conlon in the last leg of the 4x400 relay. Despite being in first place, and over 40m ahead of the next team by the time she was a third of the way round the track, she was almost run down by an incredibly swift, 57s 400m runner. However, she held her nerve and pushed on, managing to get the win by one-hundredth of a second. Jenny Wing and Lily Woolcock contributed a vast number of points by competing in events they most certainly do not specialise in… Jenny picked up a javelin for the first time in her life while Lily tackled the steeple chase barriers with a smile.

The men also showed great flexibility to cover every single event bar one gap. A massive shout out to Joel Hawes who, despite injury, did the high jump, 110H, 400H, discus, hammer and javelin. Thanks also to Andy Barnes, who followed a sub-17-min 5000 with a steeple chase performance an hour later as well as a leg in the 4x400 relay. Further thanks to Adrian Essex, John Flahive, Ben Bloom and Chris Vincent for being willing to fill in events (sometimes very last minute), outside of their primary specialisations. Additional individual performance highlights include: Cian running a 11.1s PB in 100m in the A string race and 16-year-old Leon Seale running a fantastic 11.5s 100m to win the B race. Finally, our super middle-distance duo, Will Ross and Charles Hardy, placed first and second, respectively, in their races for both the 800 and 1500.

While our small but mighty team put in an incredible performance, we would love to see more Heathsiders at these league matches to boost our chances of reaching the top of the league. So put the next one in your diaries now: Saturday 13th July. COYH!

Essex School Championships, Chelmsford, Saturday June 8

Young Heathside star Thomas Archer once again excelled, winning the U17 1500 meters in 4:08.83. This is more than seven seconds shy of his PB, but fast enough to take first place. 

London Schools’ Championships, Battersea, Saturday June 8

Our results included a seventh place for U17 Rufus Tansey in the 100 meters in a time of 11.80 (0.08 faster than in his second heat). In the U17 800m Sam Ingram came fifth in his head in 2:15.48.

Watford Open, Watford, June 11 2019

One of the highlights was Pete Crockford breaking his own club V60 800 meter record in a time of 2:31:20. This is what Pete had to say:  “It was another raining night in Watford, though not as windy as Stevenage had been on Monday ... and this time I did manage to improve my record... having taken 3 attempts to break David Spencer’s seven-year-old record by just 0.3 of a sec... knocked a whole further 1.4secs off, to record 2:31.20.”

Other highlights included a PB for Rosa Serafini (2:13.72), a PB for U15 Lucas Maher in 2:10.30 and a PB for U15 Michael Smith in 2:20.13. Another of our youth stars, U17 Ruairi McGonagle clocked up a time of 2:03.20.

ESAA English Schools T&F Cup/SE England Regional Final, Hillingdon, June 13

Among the junior girls, the Watkins sisters, Issy and Milly, featured strongly in this one. In the 800 meters Issy ran the 800 in 2:40.4 and Milly in 2:53. In the long jump Issy leapt 3.73 m and in the javelin Milly threw 8.49m. Among the Intermediate Girls Mia Manttan ran 5:05.3 in the 1500 and leapt 1.35 m in the high jump. 

South Downs Way 100 miles, Saturday June 8

Heathsider Dominic Jones took 9th place in this event in a time of 17:02:26. 

International Runners’ Decathlon, Sommerda, Germany, May 30 – June 2

Tony Killilea came first in the M55 category and 27thoverall (out of 77 men). The 10 running events range from 60m to 10,000m. Tony reports that it was a hot, sunny day. “I set myself the target of achieving a faster time in every event than I had done last year. I managed this in every even apart from the 60m and the 10,000.’

Parkruns

Last Saturday 68 Heathsiders ran in Parkruns, with first places for Rebecca Bunting (18:06 in Dulwich), Olivia Desborough (19:20 in Highbury Fields, Rosa Serafini (19:52 in Macclesfield), Chiara Borg (20:47 in Grovelands), Keith Burrows (17:31 in Western Springs) and Tom Bedwell (19:00 in Bedfont Lakes). 

https://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=2017&eventdate=2019-6-15 

Results

Southern Athletics League Division 2E, Ipswich, Saturday June 15
1st Ipswich Harriers/Colchester & Tendering AC 262 pts
2nd London Heathside 188 pts
3rd Tonbridge 163 pts
4th Dartford Harriers 114 

100m SM
Cian O'Donnell 11.1 A 2nd
Leon Seale (U17) 11.5 B 1st
Ashley Braithwaite 12.0 ns
Ricco Sobers 12.5 ns PB
Ajami Hinds 12.3 ns
Joshua Ndionyema (U17) 12.4 ns PB

100m SW
Yanna Raykov 14.7 A 4th PB
Jennifer Wing 13.5 B 3rd

200m SM
Cian O'Donnell 22.9 A 2nd
Cameron Nesbett-morgan (U20) 24.2 B 2nd PB
Ashley Braithwaite 24.7 ns
Joshua Ndionyema (U17) 24.9 ns
Adrian Essex (V65) 28.4 ns

200m SW
Noelle O'Regan 27.4 A 4th
Naomi Conlon (U20) 27.4 B 2nd

400m SM
Ben Bloom 56.6 A 2nd PB
Christopher Vincent (V35) 63.3 B 3rd PB

400m SW
Noelle O'Regan 62.0 A 3rd
Naomi Conlon 62.6 B 1st PB
Ella Conlon 64.8 ns

800m SM
Charles Hardy 2:00.0 A 2nd
William Ross 2:00.3 B 1st
Ben Bloom 2:05.6 ns

800m SW
Jennifer Wing 2:30.0 A 1st
Lily Woolcock 2:32.8 B 1st

1500m SM
Charles Hardy 4:06.4 A 2nd
William Ross 4:16.1 B 1st

1500m SW
Lily Woolcock 4:54.5 A 1st
Jessica Vinluan 5:58.6 B 3rd

3000m SW
Jessica Vinluan 12:20.7 A 4th
Kimberli Butler 13:43.4 B 2nd

5000m SM
Seyfu Jamaal 15:22.3 A 2nd
Andy Barnes (U35) 16:49.2 B 3rd

100mHur SW
Yanna Raykov 20.1 A 2nd
Jennifer Wing 20.9 B 1st

110mHur SM
Joel Hawes 24.5 A 2nd

400mHur SM
Joel Hawes 82.6 A 3rd
Adrian Essex 98.2 B 2nd 

400mHur SW
Yanna Raykov 79.0 A 2nd
Kimberli Butler 99.5 B 2nd

2000mSC SM
Andy Barnes (V35) 7:27.8 A 3rd
John Flahive (V50) 7:50.7 B 3rd

2000mSC SW
Jennifer Wing 8:11.1 A 2nd
Lily Woolcock 10:06.8 B 1st

4x100m SM
DNS

4x100m SW
London Heathside 54.4 3rd

4x400m SM
London Heathside 3:54.4 3rd

4x400m SW
London Heathside 4:21.2 1st

High Jump SM
Joel Hawes 1.45m A 3rd PB
John Flahive 1.40m B 2nd

High Jump SW
Jennifer Wing 1.35m A 3rd
Lily Woolcock 1.20m B 3rd

Pole Vault SM
Cian O'Donnell 2.50m A 4th
Adrian Essex 1.90m B 3rd

Long Jump SM
Carlos Mingoes 5.61m A 3rd
Mark Lawrence 4.95m B 2nd
Adrian Essex 4.08m ns

Long Jump SW
Catherine Shin 4.68m A 3rd
Claudia Backhaus 3.73m B 3rd

Triple Jump SM
Cian O'Donnell 11.87 A 2nd
Mark Lawrence 11.09 B 2nd

Triple Jump SW
Catherine Shin 9.65m A 2nd
Claudia Backhaus 7.35m B 2nd

Shot Put SM
Nathan Cyrus 8.75m A 4th
Ajami Hinds 8.10m B 3rd
Mark Lawrence 9.01m ns

Shot Put SW
Catherine Shin 9.28m A 2nd
Noelle O'Regan 8.50m B 2nd
Kimberli Butler 4.61m ns

Discus SM
Joel Hawes 29.57m A 4th
Mark Lawrence 25.94m B 3rd

Discus SW
Noelle O'Regan 26.22 A 3rd
Claudia Backhaus 13.46m B 4th

Hammer SM
Joel Hawes 26.95m A 26.95m A 3rd
Adrian Essex 17.18 B 3rd

Hammer SW
Noelle O'Regan 23.37m A 4th
Catherine Shin 12.90m B 4th

Javelin SM
Joel Hawes 28.90 A 4th
Ashley Braithwaite 26.6m A 3rd
Nathan Cyrus 37.71m ns

Javelin SW
Claudia Backhaus (V40) 10.30m A 4th
Jennifer Wing 9.04m B 4th

ESAA English Schools T&F Cup/SE England Regional Final, Hillingdon, June 13
Junior Girls
800m
Issy Watkins 2:40.4
Milly Watkins 2:53.0

Long Jump
Issy Watkins 3.73m

Javelin
Milly Watkins 8.49m

Intermediate Girls
1500m
Mia Manttan 5:05.3

High Jump
Mia Manttan 1.35m

Watford Open, Watford, June 11 2019
800m
SX2 3rd Pete Crockford (V60) 2:31.20 PB New Club V60 Record
SX3 6th Arthur Reed (U15) 2:27.52
SX4 2nd Michael Smith (U15) 2:20.19
SX4 6th Jennifer Wing 2:26.13
SX6 6th Ray Edwin 2:21.68
SX8 3rd Rosa Serafini 2:13.72 PB
SX10 8th Lucas Maher (U15) 2:10.30 PB
SX12 3rd Ben Bloom 2:05.72
SX14 10th Ruairi McGonagle (U17) 2:03.12

Essex School Championships, Chelmsford, Saturday June 8
1500m U17M
1st Thomas Archer 4:08.83

London Schools’ Championships, Battersea, Saturday June 8
100m U17M
H2 3rd Rufus Tansey 11.88

Final 7th Rufus Tansey 11.80

800m U17M
H2 5th Sam Ingram 2:15.48

South Downs Way 100 miles, Saturday June 8
9th Dominic Jones, 17:02:26

International Runners’ Decathlon, Sommerda, Germany, May 30 – June 2
27th (out of 77 men) Tony Killilea (1stV55).

Report by Gavin Evans with big thanks to Simon Baker, and also to Tony Killilea, Dominic Jones and Pete Crockford.