Tue Jun 20 2023

NAL Report 2023 – Round 1 Basingstoke

Sunday June 11th saw a large Kingston squad descend on the Down Grange Sports Complex.

Eschewing the newly constructed, but small, stand, K&P established base just across from the cage, the javelin and high jump area - position 20 to the Track types reading this report. The branding on the large marquee and the pitching of the flag was matched by the distribution of the new tech shirts. It was pleasing to see that the larger members of the team were as thrilled with their wristbands as the YDL Lower Age Group athletes had been. If there was an award for best in Show K&P would have nailed it. A certain veteran hammer thrower even sported his tech shirt to compete in. It seemed no official would dare tell Mr Cook the rules about wearing official club vests.

With no external cage Basingstoke presented visiting teams with a crazy timetable that saw the day kick off with the Women’s Hammer staged at 9:30am.

Jess Westley came 3rd in Women’s Hammer with a throw of 38.13m; Camilla Thrush won the B string with a throw of 27.18m. They followed this up with some valuable points in the discus. In the Shot Camilla was joined by Eleanor* Arnfield.

Camilla and Jemima Harcourt also picked up season’s bests in the Javelin. Former K&P athletes Sophie Doherty and Laura Darcey completed an A & B double win for the home side in the Javelin.

Matching the achievement of former K&P athletes our current, but very long-standing Men’s Hammer team completed an A-B double. Gareth throwing 50.35m to win the A string with Chris Dack, throwing 33.42m to win the B. Whilst there was a bit of an air of a Vets meeting at the top of the hammer competition the younger athletes in the event, sporting recent BUCS t-shirts, were entirely unnerved by the forceful support for the Kingston B String. “Go Daddy” being the cry from nearby whenever Chris entered the circle.

Ella Manning, hotfoot from Loughborough University, leapt to 10 points in the LJ along with Jemima Harcourt, fresh out of her A Level bunker. Jemima was in action again in the High Jump, coming 3rd in the A string with 1.45m, backed up by Kira Holt bagging a very useful 5 points with a single jump. The High Jump was won by former Kingston athlete Laura Darcey.

Bilen Ahmet kicked the Men’s team off with a 3rd in Men’s Pole Vault and a season’s best vault of 3.80m. Mid pole-vault Bilen found time to fit in a B string 400m Hurdles, following on from Alex Thomas in the A string. Alex had kindly ventured to Basingstoke in a bid to escape nappy-changing duties. Alex ran again in the 2km Steeplechase which was won by Dan Eckersley in 6:01.30 a comfortable 17 seconds ahead of 2nd place.

Making her debut for the NAL squad Joely Bytheway ran a SB with 65.58 and 3rd in the A string long hurdles, backed up by Women’s Capt Ellie who won the B string. Alex and Bilen hoovered up some useful points in the Men’s race.

In the 800m Max Perez-Diaz and Jack Dickson (SB of 1:53.16) were both just pipped by strong Tonbridge athletes. Rebecca Keddie’s amazing season saw her edge her Tonbridge opposition. Ellie picked up another 5 points in the B string.

The Men’s Long Jump saw a dominant display by Ben Sopta-Sheldrake who won the A string just 1cm off his PB with 6.68m. Deji Lawal got a PB and 5 valuable points with 5.34m. Ben topped the LJ performance raising his PB by 10cm in the High Jump. Bilen sneaked in another 5 points.

In the 100m Kira enjoyed the opportunity to demonstrate her straight speed and placed 2nd with a PB of 12.5. Louisa Stoney, making her NAL debut and running for K&P for the first time in years, dragged herself from the seaside in Barry to win the B string and set an electronic and wind-legal PB of 12.27. Louisa won the B string of the 200m in 25.42 in a gusting +2.5m wind. Despite a slight headwind the Women’s 200m saw Caitlin Harvey pick up an electronic timing PB of 25.55.

In the Men’s 100m all of the top 5 came in under 11 seconds. Tom White raced his second fastest legal race in 10.83 coming 4th. In the B string Deji set a PB of 11.27 repeating this in the 200m with a wind assisted 22.60.

The Women’s Pole Vault was a scene of triumph for U17 Athlete Beth Norvil. Coming into the competition her PB was 2.83. She left not only with a new PB of 3.0m but also the A string title and the full 12 points for Kingston.

Racing for the first time over the towering 106.4cm barriers of the Men’s 110m Hurdles Eliot Ferguson placed 4th in 14.88 to rank 25th nationally in the Senior edition of this event. Not bad for a first bash at those hurdle heights! As ever Bilen was on hand to grab another 6 points through 3rd place in the B string. In the Women’s Hurdles Kira Holt had a worrying fall. She has had enough astounding displays from the season to date (including beating Dominique Blaize’s club record form 2008) to let that worry her and was soon ready to bounce back in the relay. In the B string Ella ran 15.37 and picked up 10 valuable points.

The Men’s Discus saw an impressive display by a Loughborough student duo from Southampton to win both the A and B strings. The K&P athletes had their own battle with Aaron Marlow on 34.44m and Gareth Cook on 32.53m. In the Men’s Shot last year’s top male points scorer Nick Owen, opened his account with 2nd place on 12.92, a place matched by Chris Dack in the B string on 12.83m – both were season’s bests.

The Men’s Triple Jump saw an NAL debut for U17 Athlete Nico Clarke adding 35cm to his PB with 12.5m. The Women’s Triple Jump rewarded Ella Manning with a PB of 10.25m. In the B strings both Joely Bytheway and Tom White picked up 4 useful 4 points – Tom’s one attempt being his only ever TJ on Pof10 it set a PB at 11.38m.

The 400m yielded a lot of points: Surrey Champion Caitlyn Harvey and Jack Dickson came 3rd in the A string matches in 1:00.15 and 50.22; Joely Bytheway set a season’s best; Sam Atkin’s NAL debut resulted in a PB, 8 points and 2nd place in the B string in 50.27 -

When an athlete asks specifically to do an event, and only one event, that they don’t have a history of the Team Manager can be forgiven for expecting great things. On his maiden outing at 3000m Conor Foley astounded not only the K&P massive but possibly himself, winning the A string in a time of 8:45.80, 9 seconds ahead of 2nd place. James Robertson set a season’s best of 9:52.09.

In the Men’s Javelin we had the Surrey Champion, Aaron Marlow and the ever-present Bilen Ahmet. The event was dominated by Havering’s No 2 ranked U23 Peter Brinton-Quinn who threw 63.88m.

The 1500m saw more PBs for the Men’s team. Michael Webb-Bourne ran 4:10.80 and Jack Stracey ran 4:16.51. The Women’s event saw Rebecca and Ellie take to the track again.

And so it came to the Relays. The Men’s 4x100m team consisted of an untried combination of Tom White, Max Perez-Diaz, Deji Lawal and Eliot Ferguson. Leading at the 1st and 2nd takeovers Kingston were looking comfortable. Coming into the 3rd changeover Eliot took off at a fantastic race which left everyone willing Deji to the handover. Realising disaster was on the cards Eliot reined it in, Deji passed the baton and the Track Judge waved a white flag. With Tonbridge’s A string 100m hot on his heels Eliot had his work cut out but crossed the line in 42.74s. Some takeover practice and the old Polytechnic Harriers record set in the White City Stadium in 1963 (41.2s converted from 41.4s in the old 4x110yds) might be achievable.

The Women’s 4x100m Relay side saw one of the club record holders from the Olympic Park quartet of 2019, Kira Holt on Leg 2, joined by Louisa Stoney leading out with Caitlyn Harvey on Leg 3 and Ella Manning on the anchor leg. With none of the dramas of the men’s race the old mark of 48.92s has now been lowered in a dominant display to a new Senior record of 48.69s.

Both relay outfits won their races lifting Kingston up to a handful of points off 2nd place in the standings. There were only 3 events left to play out – the Women’s Steeplechase and then the two 4x400m relays. The Home team had a steeplechaser but weren’t going to be able to put out a relay team in either event so 2nd place was in sight as we had two incredibly string 4x400m teams. Then the clouds darkened and the Track Referee made the sensible decision to curtail the meeting. Before anyone could moan about the decision the heavens truly opened and torrential rain came down.

The marquee demonstrated some interesting acrobatic skills. The team decamped to the now deserted new stand to wait for the coach. Owing to a booking clash the coach sent to pick us up for the return journey was a vast luxury affair with multiple large flatscreens, a kitchen and tables.

Second place was just missed but it was a great all round performance. A club record, plenty of PBs, and a host of Season’s Best performances.

I’d like to thank the Officials for helping is achieve maximum points on the day. Sophie Harcourt, David Joslyn, Camilla Thrush, Gareth Cook and Nicola Perrin helped me put out a full Field team. On the stands we had Ann Szulc from Sutton & District fill in as our Track Judge. Stewart Dickson was our Timekeeper. A full set of Officials yields 45 points. Missing just one loses the bonus and can set you down to a maximum of 25 points so it’s vital we keep filling that part of our team.

Thanks to all the athletes, officials and supporters. Bring on Round 2 in Chelmsford on Saturday 15th July.

Richard White
Team Manager

* For the NAL record our Women’s Captain Ellie continues to be referred to as Eleanor. Whilst she will take on anything to gain points for the club she might need help form her team mates to pluck up the courage to email PowerOf10 that she’d like to be known as Ellie. Someone please help her out.