National Junior League, Southern Premier Division, Copthall Barnet 22 June 2003

Match Result

Some superb performances, including a club u20 4x400m relay record, helped the junior ladies to fourth place in a fiercely competitive NJAL Southern Premier fixture at Copthall today. 

Ria Lyons, Hayley Mottram, Megan Foley & Sara Luck combined to record 4m 1.1 secs to beat the club 4x400m relay record which has stood since 1974. But this superb time was good enough only for fifth place on the day as the meeting ended with a race of the highest quality and Sara Luck's 57.8 secs anchor leg was still unable to make any impression on her opponents. Luck was even faster than in her flat 400m PB earlier in the meeting when she had sliced almost two seconds from her PB to clock 58.3 secs. The versatile 16 year old, who next week takes a tilt at the club u17 heptathlon best, also won the B high jump and ran a storming back-straight leg in the sprint relay.

The amazing Chloe Van Wulven was in superb form in her junior league debut.  She again cleared 1.65m to win the high jump before shattering her long jump PB with a massive 5.37m leap for runners up. Not content with this she tackled the 100m hurdles for the first time and despite making a mess of the first hurdle, which she met on the wrong leg, recovered to place third, running 15.9 secs, for third on the club all-time u17s list.

Wins were hard fought: in addition to Chloe and Sara's high jump double the only other successes went to a B triple jump win for Lynsey Clark and a B hammer victory for Mel Harrison. The pairing had an A & B discus runners up double, while Mel added a pair of thirds in the shot & javelin. Mel's throwing partner Vicky Thompson, who normally competes for Colchester but can take part in this league as her club don't enter, hurled the hammer to a new PB in A string second, and added a pair of B string shot and javelin seconds.

Kirsty Smith made up for her long jump disaster, when she failed to record a mark, when she place second in the triple jump.  

There was trio of track PBs, with Ria Lyons claiming two. She set the pace in the B 800m and although overhauled late on held on to record a new landmark.  She later added a 400m PB, when competing as a non scorer, and set the 4x400m off on their record run with the opening leg.  

Nicola Schofield carved over two seconds off her 400m hurdles, in third slot, while Nina Brennan went one better with a B string second place. Brennan also placed fourth in the sprint hurdles.

Megan Foley came close to 800m victory, leaving her charge too late as Shaftesbury's Lauren Reynolds got the judges verdict in a thrilling finish. Her relay partner Hayley Mottram added vital 400m & 200m points before getting in the record books with the relay team. Laura Jones equalled her 100m season's best, was close to her 200m time and anchored the sprint relay team to an excellent third in a fast 51.2 secs. Completing the team was Helen Roche, whose league debut in the 1500m earned her useful points.

The team are now placed fourth at the half way stage, and need to maintain this place to get to the national final. 

League table