Victory in the Middlesex Youth Athletics League 2018 - fixture 3 - Finsbury Park

Sunday 17th June saw the club host this season’s third Middlesex Youth Athletics League meeting at Finsbury Park.  In it’s second season the League grows in popularity and Sunday saw a record 687 performances and 14 meeting records over the action packed afternoon schedule.  The league aims to give young athletes from North and West London’s 10 leading athletic clubs a taste of a range of different events with particularly large representations in the U11, U13 and U15 age groups.


As in the previous two fixtures the young Heathsiders excelled with a host of PB’s securing overall victory with a total of 997 points pipping Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers by 4 points. Both the Under 11 Boys and Girls won their age groups as well as the U15 Girls, with 2nd places for both the U13 Girls and Boys.  It was a real collaborative effort and thanks goes to all those athletes who took up the challenge of competing in less favoured events to help the team.


With one fixture left on 22nd July at the Allianz Stadium we remain in 3rd position behind Highgate and Shaftesbury BH but have almost halved the gap to the leaders to 176 points.

The current overall league scores are as follows:


Middlesex Youth Athletics League 2018 (after 3 of 4 meetings) 

Age Cat        Team in 1st Posn.    Points    LH Postn.   Points

U11B            London Heathside    357        1st              357
U13B            Highgate H               466        2nd             402
U15B            Ealing S&M              498        3rd              347
U17M           Shaftesbury BH        422        4th              138
U11G           London Heathside    324        1st               324
U13G           Ealing S&M               421       3rd               409
U15G           Highgate H               590        2nd              451
U17W           Highgate H              405         3rd               218
Overall         Highgate H              2765       3rd              2616

The U11 Boys again won their age group with another collection of superb performances from Benji Bediako who won all three of his individual events: the long jump, the 75m and 800m. In the latter he posted a new PB running down on the last lap Tom Cadwallader (Shaftesbury BH) who had beaten him in the two previous fixtures, this is a developing rivalry to watch.  Support was provided by Thomas Morton who finished 3rd and 1st in the respective B races.  Debutants Jerome Henry finished 2nd in the Vortex with 32.74m and Alex Konstantaves recorded the 4th fastest time of the day of 11.69 in a non-scoring 75m heat as well as 1st in the B string Long Jump.   The boys had enough personnel to finish by running two relay teams with the A team 2nd and B team 6th.


The U11 Girls also finished first with 106 pts, 1 point ahead of Shaftesbury, this is a young team with many U10’s.  Strong performances on Sunday included Elkie Baker who ran personal bests in both the 800m and 75m as well as winning the vortex and anchoring the 4x100m to 2nd place.  Other contributors included Leila England with PB’s in the 800m and Long Jump and Kiara Corkin who might have slightly paid the price for equalling her PB of 8.10 earlier that morning in the Highbury Fields Junior Park Run.  Debutant Avery Hemir-Robinson’s non-scoring 2.86m in the Long Jump was the 4th longest of the day.


A strong representation from the U13 Girls saw them finish 2nd an agonising 4 points behind Ealing S&M.  The girls performed exceptionally with a host of PB’s and like the U11 many of the girls are competing for the first time in this age group.  Leila Tempesta followed up a PB in the 100m (14.15) with another in the Shot Putt.  Issy Watkins also recorded a PB in the 100m before improving her High Jump PB 2cm by jumping 125 cm, she also managed 548 in the 1500m demonstrating her wide ranging athletic ability.  Hattie Munday performed solidly in 75m Hurdles, High Jump, and 1500m while Amara Odeogberin achieved personal bests in 1500m, Discus and 70m Hurdles.  Debutant Dominion Morakinyo although a non-scorer showed her potential with 14.72 in the 100m and 5.00m in the Shot Putt the 5th longest throw of the day.   The team rounded their afternoon off finishing runners up in the 4x100m relay only 0.06 sec behind Ealing, the difference between winning the match and finishing 2nd.


The U13 Boys also finished 2nd this time 7 points behind Highgate.  The tone for the afternoon was set by Spike Blake winning the 800m in a PB of 225.  But the outstanding contributor was Daniel Robb who improved his PB in the 100m B race by 2 seconds with 13.69 the 2nd fastest time of the day, he followed this with 14.2 in the 75m Hurdles again the 2nd fastest of the day and winning the High Jump with 130 cm breaking his previous PB by a massive 10cm!  Elsewhere Thomas Wasserman improved his 100m PB by a second as well as in the Shot Putt in finishing 3rd.  Stan Hassan in his 1st competitive High Jump won the B competition with 125 cm.  Other point scorers included Henry Pulham and Javahn Robinson.  The team finished off with 2nd place in the relay.    


The U15 Girls won their age group by 7 points over Highgate. The win was built on strong all round performances typified by Nell Swinhoe (3rd) and Mathilda Heath (a new PB by 17 sec) in the 1500m and solid  sprinting by Olivia Salagubaite and Lanee Frederick as well as contributions from Fabienne Weston (Hurdles, Javelin and Hammer), Erin Heritage (Hammer and Hurdles) with the afternoon completed by a 2nd place in the 4x100m.


The U15 Boys finished 3rd with several significant PB’s.  Rufus Tansey achieved PB’s in both the 100m and 200m while in the 800m Ruairi McGonagle finished 2nd (211) with Jack Davis Black winning the B race (221) and breaking his previous PB by 19 seconds.  Team members admirably volunteered to take on the other events with Ruairi improving his PB in the Shot Putt by over 2m finishing 5th and Oliver O’Connor winning the B competition having not thrown competitively since 2016.  The 4x100m relay team finished 2nd.


In the U17 Women age group the team finished 3rd with Dora Curtis achieving PB’s in both 100m and 200m while Laura Barbenel finished 3rd and 2nd in the A races.  In the 1500m Mia Manttan, the newly crowned U15 Middlesex Schools and County Champion, stepped up an age group to win in 503 a new meeting record, Mimi Blake finished 1st in the B race.  The team rounded off finishing 2nd in the 4x100m relay.   


The U17 Men finished 4th with a small team, Lemi Mideska and Sid Diamond both achieving PB’s in the 800m and Stan Brown improving his PB in the long Jump by almost 25cm.


Finally as has been said elsewhere many thanks again to the whole team of LH officials, timekeepers, team managers, coaches and volunteers that ensured the day went so successfully.


The results are as follows


U11 Girls finished 2nd with 106 points


75m   

Kiara Corkin   12.66 A 5th  PB
Elkie Baker  12.26 B 1st  PB
Tyler Swaby-Gayle  12.30 ns  PB
Suraya Frost  12.33 ns PB
Avery Hemir-Robinson 12.56 ns PB
Leila England  12.94 ns

800m  

Kiara Corkin  301.45 A 4th
Elkie Baker  306.77 B 4th  PB
Leila England   324.49 ns PB

Long Jump 

Kiara Corkin  2.77m A 5th  
Leila England  2.51m  B 3rd  PB
Avery Hemir-Robinson 2.86m ns PB

Vortex 

Elkie Baker  22.83m A 1st
Avery Hemir-Robinson 11.32m B 6th  PB

4x100m  

London Heathside 66.92 2nd

U11 Boys 1st with 130 points

75m  

Benji Bediako  11.23 A 1st
Thomas Morton 12.6 B 3rd
Alex Kanstantaves 11.69 ns PB
Jerome Henry  12.96 ns PB  
Noah Beckoff  13.08 ns  PB
Lucas Hobson   13.45 ns PB
Dylan Hobson  13.83 ns PB

800m

Benji Bediako  234.85 A 1st  PB
Tomas Morton  255.52 B 1st  PB
Noah Beckoff  257.90 ns PB
Lucas Hobson  314.31 ns PB
Dylan Hobson  319.23 ns PB
Nico Cote  320.33 ns PB

U11B Long Jump
Benjy Bediako  3.75m A 1st
Alex Kanastantaves 3.62m B 1st PB
Adam Nkoso 3.26m ns 

Vortex  

Jerome Henry  32.74m A 2nd  PB
Tomas Morton  11.40m B 5th
Noah Beckoff  19.60m ns PB
Nico Cote  18.54m ns PB 

4x100m  

London Heathside A 62.52 2nd
London Heathside B 73.43 ns

U13 Girls 2nd with 149 points

100m  

Leila Tempesta  14.15 A 2nd  PB
Issy Watkins  14.72 B 3rd  PB
Dominion Morakinyo 14.72 ns PB
Danae Odeogberin 15.20 ns
Meghan Crill  16.71 ns PB
Libby Judd-Hawkes 16.92 ns PB
Allegra   17.07 ns PB

1500m  

Hattie Munday  549.25 A 5th
Issy Watkins  548.33 B 4th

Milly Watkins  559.74 ns PB
Libby Judd-Hawkes 634.33 ns PB

Amara Odeogberin 645.24 ns PB

75m Hurdles 

Hattie Munday  14.72 A 4th
Amara Odeogberin 16.35 B 3rd PB
Meghan Crill  16.23 ns PB
Lucy Corkin  16.67 ns PB
Allegra   17.80 ns PB

High Jump 

Issy Watkins  1.25m A 2nd  PB
Hattie Munday  1.20m B 1st

Shot Putt 

Leila Tempesta  4.27m A 5th  PB
Danae Odeogberin 3.62m B 4th
Dominion Morakinyo 5.00m ns PB

Discus  

Amara Odeogberin 8.71m A 6th  PB
Rebecca Beliossi 7.55m B 4th  PB

4x100m  

London Heathside 59.71 2nd

U13 Boys 2nd with 156 points

100m  

Thomas Wasserman 14.74 A 5th PB
Daniel Robb  13.69 B 2nd  PB
Javahn Robinson 13.92 ns PB
Constantine England 14.86 ns PB
Henry Pulham  14.94 ns PB
  
800m   

Spike Blake  225.81 A 1st  PB
Stan Hassan  DQ B
Constantine England 254.8 ns PB
Max Deasy  241.92 ns PB
Ivor Joslin  248.1 ns PB

75m Hurdles 

Henry Pulham  16.95 A 4th
Daniel Robb  14.20 B 1st  PB

High Jump 

Daniel Robb  1.30m A 1st  PB
Stan Hassan  1.25m B 1st  PB

Shot Putt

Thomas Wasserman 5.89m A 3rd PB
Henry Pulham  4.57m B 3rd

Discus

Javahn Robinson 11.79m A 4th

4x100m  

London Heathside 57.51 2nd

U15 Girls 1st with 167 points

100m  

Olivia Salagubaite 13.46 A 4th

Lanee Frederick  14.26 B 4th  PB

Shari Knight  14.90 ns PB

200m  

Olivia Salagubaite 28.19 A 3rd 
Lanee Frederick  30.44 B 3rd  PB

1500m  

Nell Swinhoe  511.10 A 3rd
Mathilda Heath  517.17 B 1st  PB
Ella O’Flaherty  553.83 ns
Edie Friedlander 553.88 ns PB

75m Hurdles 

Erin Heritage  14.99 A 4th  PB
Fabienne Weston 17.71 B 2nd  PB

Long Jump 

Lanee Frederick  4.03m A 4th  PB

Shot Putt 

No Competitors

Javelin   

Fabienne Weston 15.26m A 4th

Hammer 

Erin Heritage  17.63m A 3rd
Fabienne Weston 12.60m B 1st  PB

4x100m  

London Heathside 56.87 2nd

U15 Boys 3rd with 121 points

100m  

Rufus Tansey  11.92 A 2nd  PB

Benjamin Foldarin 12.57 B 1st PB
Vionne Allen  13.80 ns PB
Etienne Munday 13.90 ns PB
Anthony Oliver  14.17 ns PB

200m  

Rufus Tansey  24.97 A 3rd  PB
Benjamin Foldarin 26.85 B 1st 

800m  

Ruairi McGonagle 211.56 A 2nd
Jack Davis-Black  221.54 B 1st  PB
Leo Hanson  226.81 ns PB

Shot Putt 

Ruairi McGonagle 6.77m A 5th PB
Oliver O’Connor  4.94m B 1st

Long Jump

Etienne Munday 4.50m A 4th

4x100m  

London Heathside 52.68 2nd  


U17 Women finished 3rd with 100 points

100m  

Laura Barbenel  13.54 A 3rd  PB
Dora Curtis  14.05 B 3rd  PB

200m  

Laura Barbenel  28.2 A 2nd   PB
Dora Curtis  28.8 B 1st   PB
Morgane Bedos  29.8 ns PB

1500m  

Mia Manttan  503.43 A 1st New Meeting Record
Mimi Blake  512.84 B 1st

4x100m  

London Heathside 55.84 2nd

U17 Men finished 4th with 59 points

200m  

Lemi Mideska  26.27 A 4th  PB
Stan Brown  30.92 B 2nd  PB

800m  

Lemi Mideska  212.57 A 5th  PB
Sid Diamond  212.46 B 3rd  PB
Oliver O’Connor  228.33 ns PB
Lewis Selwyn  233.03 ns PB

Long Jump 

Stan Brown  3.76m A 3rd  PB

Final Overall Scores
London Heathside 997 pts
Shaftesbury Barnet 993 pts
Ealing S&M 982 pts
Highgate Harriers 891 pts
Barnet & District 611 pts
Cookham 481 pts
Queens Park Harriers 290 pts
Serpentine 266 pts
Enfield & Haringey 250 pts
Trent Park 202 pts

Simon BakerComment