National Athletic League Championship West Division, Match 2 Yate 22nd June 2024

• Firstly, what a great day of quality competition.
  We had some amazing performances and had a great tussle with Swansea and Cardiff through the afternoon. We had club records in three of the relay races, plenty of Pb’s and some debut NAL appearances.
  A debut performance and win for Freya Bradley in the 3000m, she lead from gun to finish with a Swansea athlete shadowing her until 2 laps to go when Freya slowly applied the pressure and pulled away for a fantastic 9m33.98s Pb.
  Daisy Harvey improved her 400m Hurdles best to 70.27s to take a win in the ‘B’ string event backing up Stephanie
  Brooks who won the ‘A’ race with a performance consolidating her recent excellent form.
  Amelia Brandon had a superb day of Pb’s, firstly in 100m Hurdles with a 14.90s to take 2nd in the ‘B’ Race and then followed up in 100m (13.00s) and 200m (26.86s) in the non-scoring races.
  Abby Barnfield moved her Hammer Pb on to 42.52m securing a 3rd place in the ‘A’ string with Leah Hale showing some good form again with a 37.22m effort to win the ‘B’ string.
  Keira Devereux and Laura Chance paired up in the 800m race and took ‘A’ and ‘B’ string wins with convincing runs while Eleanor McIntosh making her team debut took a clear 400m ‘A’ race win with Katie Robbins also a clear 400m ‘B’ string winner.
  For the first time in our NAL history we had a Steeplechaser in the Womens 1500S/C, Grace Cardwell back from Oxford University used her 400m Hurdling skills to negotiate successfully the S/C barriers in a new event for her, a good Pb at 5m57.23s and 3rd place was welcome points scoring for the team.
  Lily Bailey continued improving her recent form with a 1m66 High Jump just missing out on her 1m70 attempts.
  Martha Barratt showed her Javelin potential with her debut team performance. Arisa Burgess and Sophie Hornung in the Pole vault pushed the team score along with another 20 points between them. Good supporting work in the field from Jo Smerdon and Libby Davidson also kept the score accumulating.
  Isabel Walkey, another team debutant, ran another sub 25s clocking in the 200m for a further ‘A’ string victory. Ella Bowell made it another sprint victory in the ‘B’ 100m while Kirsty Treglown missed equalling her Pb by one hundredth in the 100m ‘A’ race for 3rd. The short sprint quartet of Isabel Walkey, Amelia Brandon, Ella Bowell and Kirsty Treglown brought the 4x100m team home for a victory and new club record of 47.94s, a second and a half knocked off the previous mark.
  Highlight of the day has to be our Womens 4x400m relay team, the quartet of Teresa Iannetelli, Stephanie Brooks, Eleanor McIntosh and Katie Robbins trounced the opposition and bettered the club record by eight seconds, recording 3m54.20s which is currently the 16th ranked 4x400m performance on Power of 10.
  For the men, there were also a number of debut performances and Pb’s. First time appearance for Josh Maggs who shaded his 100m best with a 10.82s and Mackenzie Ritson with a fine 22.34s in the ‘B’ 200m.Also first timers Thomas Darton and Paul Gardiner who took on the 5k and rewarded with Pb’s of 16m03.03s and 16m28.29s respectively.
  Dale Webb another team newbie Pb’d with 8m35.28s in the 2k S/C backing up Alexander Wilson who took the ‘A’ string win with another Pb of 6m19.33s.
  It was ‘A’ and ‘B’ string wins for our men in 400m, 800m and 1500m. Kane Lee battled hard with some great front running just missing his Pb by 7 hundredths of a second. Elliott Chard won the 800m ‘B’ race. Our strong 400m pair Isaac Cory and Ben Wells continued the victory runs with 46.98s and 49.20s respectively, while Greg Hayward and Seamus Robinson did likewise in the 1500m.
  Iwan Slade made a welcome Pole Vault contribution of 3m41 with his first team appearance and Louie Nelson Pb’d in the Triple Jump with 11m72.
  Louis Tutcher who was competing primarily in the Hammer to get an U18 European qualifying standard, which he did achieve, well done Louis, also made his first team appearance in Discus with a Pb of 39m37 and Shot. James Viner heaved the Hammer out to 49m31 for a first place ably backed up by Matt Spicer stepping in to ensure more points scores for the team.
  Luke Ball and Adam Brooks cleaned up with victories in the High Jump and Sam Brudney, Dominik Gordon, Will Taylor contributed to the team totals.
  After some drop outs the scratch 4x100m team, Hillier, Tutcher, Ritson and Brudney showed excellent team spirit never faltering to give 100%.
  The mens 4x400m team, Cory, Wells, Wilson, and Ritson took a victory with 3m22.58s breaking the long standing club record from 1989 (K.Blandford G.Howell M.Wassell M.Kloiber), almost 35 years what took you so long boys!
  Also scoring a massive 50pts for the team our fantastic team of Officials. A huge team that had to substitute for other clubs shortfalls and of course all our Chiefs, Start team, Scorers, Referees, Photo-finish, Equipment handlers and general helpers that make the meeting a possibility. I’m sure I may miss some of them but here they are:-
• Graham Brooks Field Ref
• Sandra Woodman Starters Assistant
• Mike Smerdon Field Ref
• Carol Strange Starters Assistant
• Jason Wyatt Track Ref
• Paul Thorn Equipment
• Matt Viner Chief Timekeeper
• Heather Nelson Photofinish
• Patrick Chance Timekeeper
• Charlotte Viner Results Recorder
• Andrew Moyes Track Judge
• Barbara Smerdon Results Recorder
• Stuart Woodman Chief Starter
• Matt Muggeridge Assistant Team Manager
• Stuart Nunn Starter
• Ken Goodger Field Judge
• Debbie Brooks Field Judge
• Bob Lavis
• Camilla Merrett Field Judge
• Neil Miller
• Jeremy Dale Field Judge
• Ellen Taylor Announcer
• John Smerdon Field Judge
  A great second place in the match should secure our place in the NAL for 2025 and a good level of competition for our athletes, third and final match on 7th July in Yeovil.
• Swansea 593
  Yate 549
  Cardiff 509
  Basingstoke 400
  Yeovil 381
  Southampton 38