National Junior Women's League, Southern Premier Division, Ware 19 June 2005

Emma Christmas set a new club u20 javelin record as the u20 women almost certainly have booked their place in the national final by placing third in their Southern Premier fixture at Ware on Sunday. 

Emma had recently threatened Kate Brewington's club u20 record of 34.63m with a series of efforts over 34m. Another good series here included a vital 34.72m throw which was a 30 cm improvement on her best and 9 cms further than the club best. It earned her second place points for the team, which was missing several athletes due to A-levels and other commitments.

The heatwave conditions at Ware made life difficult for the athletes and the sprinters again suffered a strong headwind in the straight which also took the edge off longer distances.

It was perhaps no surprise that in the longest track event no one was willing to make the pace and the first few laps passed in a pedestrian pace before Megan Foley took things on. After that there was only one result and Megan stormed away for a convincing victory as teammate Robyn Matson's late charge brought her second place overall and B string honours in the combined race. It was a good effort as Megan had placed third in the 800m just 45 minutes earlier. Her B string partner Hayley Stibbs demolished the B string event with an impressive last lap that brought her home five seconds in front of the field.

Lynsey Clark was in good form on a busy day in the sun. After contributing useful points in shot & hammer she lap stepped up for her speciality events, the discus and triple jump, which as usual were both underway at the same time at opposite ends of the ground. A good season's best discus effort brought her A string victory and she was then able to concentrate on the triple jump where she hopped, stepped & jumped a new PB for 4th place.

Runners up spots came from both B discus and javelin. Lynsey's younger sibling Lauren was 2nd in the discus B and new signing Kim Box was 2nd in the B javelin - although she had to put in a safe throw in the third round to score points after two long efforts were ruled out by the judges. Kim also scored points in the shot.

Chloe van Wulven had a busy day, tackling two new events. She started with the pole vault and was well clear on her first attempt, but the bar came down after she landed. Her remaining efforts however were not as good, so she "no heighted". She made no mistake in the 400m hurdles however where she started cautiously and came through in the last 200m, just failing to catch the winner, and setting a good PB in the bargain.  She later placed third in both high jump & sprint hurdles and ran a good opening leg of the sprint relay.

Versatile Katie O'Sullivan made a vital contribution to the cause in five events. She was third in the B high jump, 4th in the sprint hurdles and also scored valuable points in the hammer (PB), pole vault and 400m hurdles. 

Lucy Rodgers was another to tackle her permitted five events, placing third in both 400m A and 200m B, fourth in the long jump in a new PB, and running both relays. Christina Kalejaiye tackled four events and was second in the B long jump, 4th in the 100m, 7th in 200m and anchored the sprint relay team of Van Wulven, Rodgers, and Christmas to third place.  

Other points were added to the cause by 1500m pairing of Helen Roche and Vicky Smith, 5th and 3rd respectively and Jenny Szantai who shrugged off a knee injury to tackle two events. 

Middle distance ace Katie Richardson successfully stepped down to the one-lap event. She came close to victory in the individual B string 400m event but brought the meeting to a thrilling close with her final leg in the 4x400m relay. Lauren Clark led the field home with a good first leg effort, and Robyn Delivett's second leg kept the team in the hunt in third. Lucy Rodgers closed the gap on second place Woodford, handing over to Katie Richardson, who took the baton a few metres adrift of Woodford's 800m winner Jess Sparke, as Blackheath established a winning lead. Katie & Jess battled it out and in an eyeballs-out last 150m Katie prevailed with a stunning last leg of 57.5s, to bring the team home second.

With the fourth & final league fixture to come at Carshalton on 24th July, barring disasters HMAC will finish in the top four in the division and qualify to face the top four northern teams in the national final at Derby in September. 

  Link to full results (PDF)

* Club U20 record

Non scoring

400m - 1. Robyn Delivett - 63.8s; 2 - Jenny Szantai - 65.5?

DT - Kim Box ?28.??m