NAL Premiership Round 2 – Derby – Saturday 5th July
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Start lists, timetable and results on OpenTrack
Written by Alex Seftel
Harrow AC survived a late comeback by reigning champions Thames Valley Harriers to win by just two points at the National Athletics League Premiership match in Derby.
In a nail-biting battle, Tony Bush’s team led the overall standings almost the entire day, which had started on the track with Windsor, Slough, Eton and Hounslow’s Tyri Donovan breaking the league record in the 400m hurdles.
Thames Valley hauled themselves six points in front with one event score left to be added – only for the men’s triple jump to provide an eight-point swing in Harrow’s favour.
That made it two consecutive match wins, putting the ball firmly in their court ahead of the decider in Birmingham in August, as they lead by two league points and 18.5 match points.
Efe Uwaifo’s mark of 15.58m in the triple jump ultimately sealed the win, with victories also coming the way of fellow Great Britain internationals like discus thrower Nick Percy (59.74), long jumper Alice Hopkins (6.10) and 400m runner Poppy Malik (52.45).
But there was no doubting the most impressive performance of the day as WSEH’s Donovan smashed his own NAL record with a world qualifying mark of 48.46s.
Donovan, who set the previous record of 49.23 in Eton last year, sailed clear to also usurp his own recent best of 48.84 in Geneva last month. He is now seventh on the UK all-time list, having beaten the stadium record that had jointly been held by Kriss Akabusi and Max Robertson since 1987.
Another massive lifetime best came the way of Sheffield and Dearne’s Lee Thompson – his first improvement over 400m in five years.
Having knocked on the door with three recent 200m bests – including 20.90 at the same stadium to win the Northern title last week – he raced to the line brilliantly in a time of 45.58. That finally took down the European indoor medallist’s 46.20 clocking from 2020.
Thames Valley fought extremely hard – as Chris McAlister had promised. Nicole Kendall and Sophie Elliss locked out the women’s 400m hurdles races for a second match in a row, before UK leader Emma Nwofor impressed with a 100m hurdles win in 13.25.
Jody Smith then pipped Harrow’s Luke Dorrell on the line in the men’s 100m by 0.02 seconds in 10.49. That result could arguably be a microcosm, demonstating the closeness of the match.
But echoes of Eton wrapped around the Moorways Stadium, just like the swirling wind on the day. Malik repeated her top spot in the 400m, while her partner Divine Duruaku did the same, with a shiny new high jump best of 2.20 to boot. There was something of a surprise in the men’s long jump though, as under-17 athlete Daniel Emegbor led a Harrow 1-2 with 7.47, thirteen centimetres in front of Uwaifo.
TVH Team manager Phil Wetton was roaring and jumping up and down as Will Perkin narrowly beat Harrow’s Neil Johnston in the men’s 1500m, and further damage was done with those in blue and white winning the men’s 4x100m, before a sensational one-two for Ella Burfitt and Charlotte Buckley in the women’s 3000m.
The mixed relays had concluded and teams were posing for photos as the final result came through, leaving Thames Valley disappointed but proud of their fightback as Harrow had been 12 points in front with 29 of 38 events scored.
Birchfield Harriers achieved an excellent third place overall, helped by a brilliant mixed 4x400m win through Hiba Mahgoub, Jake Watson, Efekemo Okoro and Ava Freeman. That followed Adele Nicoll’s 16.66 put to win the shot and Will Ritchie-Moulin’s wonderfully clean 110m hurdles race, which saw him cross the line in 13.97.
Having triumphed in the women’s 4x400m in Eton, this time Glasgow Jaguars‘ time to shine was a 4x100m victory for Kishi Aremu, Lucy Fraser, Charlotte Bevan and Lois Garland. That helped them seal fourth overall.
There wasn’t much to separate the teams though, with 16 points the difference between third and seventh.
Beyond Donovan’s success, fifth-placed Windsor enjoyed expected hammer wins for Charlotte Payne and Jake Norris, with Payne getting a season’s best effort of 68.73 and Norris throwing 73.98.
Sheffield’s much-improved showing also included Rob Shipley continuing his undefeated streak in NAL 800m races, while Adam Hague cleared 5.38 to head the pole vault field.
Phil Norman’s 2000m steeplechase win was one of the best moments for Woodford Green with Essex Ladies as the Tokyo 2020 Olympian won in a time of 5:33.74, a massive 28 seconds clear of his competitors.
Fresh from competing for GB at the European Athletics Team Championships, Daniel Bainbridge won the javelin in 71.62 for Shaftesbury Barnet.
