It has been a long time coming, but the National Athletics League, first scheduled to commence in 2020 and operating purely on a local level in 2021, has now had its first proper national round of matches in 2022, reports Pat Calnan. The Premiership fixture at Manchester’s Sports City provided a kaleidoscope of performances with some meaty early-season postings from a number of the top athletes in the country, a rack of personal bests from some of its up-and-coming stars and heroic efforts from athletes who were just proud to represent their clubs in the top division in the UK.
Adding to the enjoyment was the pleasant sunny weather and, with the Man City v Newcastle match moved to Sunday, there were no booze and drug-fuelled renditions of “Blue Moon” and “Blaydon Races” to disturb the peace and tranquillity of premier league athletics.
Blackheath & Bromley did not win a premier division match in either the British Athletics League or UK Women’s League but took the team honours by a small margin from Shaftesbury Barnet after eight hours of competition.
The happiest athlete of the day was Jacob Paul of Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow, who ran his fastest time in three years in winning the men’s 400m hurdles in 49.89. Having run outside of 51 seconds in his opening two races, the Marina Armstrong-coached athlete hadn’t been expecting to improve to sub-50. He said: “I’m very happy with that. The strides were okay and I felt strong on the home straight. I’m sure I can go faster as we haven’t really started our speed work yet.” An achilles injury in 2020 left him with his foot in a boot and meant he missed too much training to perform as he would have liked in 2021. Last winter he had a couple of niggles, none of which were serious and it looks like it will be a race between himself and training partner Chris McAlister (Thames Valley Harriers) to break the league record of 49.40.
Scott Lincoln had been hoping to pepper around the league record of 20.76m in the shot but had to settle for 19.73m. “Things that have been working in training haven’t been working in competition,” reflected the Shaftesbury Barnet Olympian, “but it is what it is.” He still won the contest by over four metres, but there will be much more to come.
He was among a number of the country’s top throwers who chose to compete at the venue which will host the trials for the World Championships this year. Among these was Birchfield’s Jessica Mayho, who won the hammer by more than eight metres with 64.51m. This was down on what perhaps she might have hoped, though she was quick to dismiss the 9.35am start as a cause. “I train this time of the day so I can’t use it as an excuse.” Her focus remains firmly on the trials.
Clubmate Craig Murch was pleased to be over 70 metres in the men’s event in his first competition of the year. He said: “The circle is little slow here, and is better for discus throwers, but it was a good opener and it was good to represent Birchfield. I feel there is more to come. My target is to get over 74 metres”
With Chris Shorthouse and Phoebe Baggott picking up B-string victories, it was maximum points for the Stags, as it was in the discus for Shaftesbury Barnet. Here, Nicholas Percy continued his good start to the season. With a 63.47m new best already under his belt, he took the men’s contest with 61.28m and Shadine Duquemin edged out Windsor’s Amy Holder in the women’s contest with a throw of 53.47m. Under-20 Alexandra Baltazar Hall and Greg Thompson provided the B-string wins.
The North London outfit also enjoyed great success in the hurdles races with Hayley McLean continuing her early-season success in the 400m hurdles. Her 57.25 the previous weekend had been her fastest ever opener and she improved again to clock 57.22. The reigning England Athletics champion said: “The rhythm was good and there was nothing messy.” Having posted these times, she will now be looking to take the next jump and go under 57 and home in on the England Commonwealth Games standard of 56.00.
In the short hurdles, Jessica Hunter impressed as she clocked 13.63 despite running into a -1.9m/s headwind, a season’s best and her quickest since 2019. For the men Edson Gomes took the honours with a very useful 14.02, in his first race of the season.
Closest race of the day was the men’s 100m with just eight hundredths of a second separating the first four home. Birchfield’s Olympian Leon Reid and B&B’s European junior 4x100m gold medallist Jeriel Quainoo were both given 10.48 with Louie Hinchliffe third for the City Of Sheffield (10.51) and Shaftesbury’s John Otugade fourth in 10.55. Still an under 20, Quainoo was “pleased to get the legs rolling” and he came out on top in the 200m, his favourite event, winning in a personal best of 21.37 to Reid’s 21.40. However, a hamstring issue kept him out of the relays.
Eve Wright (SB), also a relay gold medallist at last year’s European Juniors, dominated the women’s 100m, coming in home in 11.71. Trafford’s Jazmine Moss edged the 200m by two hundredths from B&B’s Louise Evans in 24.15, again into a headwind.
The hosts also provided both winners of the 400m with England under-23 champion Hannah Kelly taking the women’s race in 54.49 and Kevin Metzger prevailing in the men’s contest with an encouraging 46.40 in a race that saw the whole field under 49 seconds. The former triple jumper was satisfied with his performance and felt strong after opening his season in Bermuda last month. Like many, he is targeting the British Championships as well as wanting to run as fast as he can.
Running faster than he has ever run before, Angus Harrington (B&B) got his tactics spot-on in the 1500m as he controlled the race to win in 3.57.01, with team-mate Harry Cox second over the line to secure maximum points. The south London club also provided the oldest and youngest A-string winners of the day in Scott Overall and Fleur Todd-Warmoth.
Olympic marathon runner Overall moved away from the field over the closing laps of the 5000m to finish a couple of seconds ahead of the City of Sheffield’s Alex Durant. “The first lap felt like marathon pace,” said the 39-year-old. “I didn’t want to go that early. 5kms are a bit short for me now and I won’t be doing anymore marathons. I’m best suited for 10ks.
He is nearly two and a half times as old as Todd-Warmoth, whose manner of victory in the women’s 1500m was not dissimilar. She did not have a set plan for the race but, feeling strong, took on the pace on the penultimate lap to finish five seconds clear of Glasgow Jaguars’ Hannah Cameron, who had earlier won the 800m. The 16-year-old’s time of 4:28.11 was a personal best by over eight seconds but her main priority this year is selection for in the 3000m at the European U18 Championships. The qualifying standard is 9:38.00 and she has run 9:16.35 in a mixed race, a time which has given her the B&B club record in four age groups from under-17 to senior women.
Previous holder of that club senior record was Tanya Blake, who at one time held the world best for the 3000m steeplechase. Her coach, Andy Frankish, now has Manchester’s 2000m steeplechase winner, Morgan Squibb, under his wing and she enjoyed a near gun-to-tape victory to cross the line in 7:05.47. Remarkably, Magnus Tait (Glas Jags) won the men’s race by nearly a minute and, with no disrespect to any of the athletes who took part, the overall standard was woeful with 80 unused points over the two races as just 12 out of a possible 32 athletes competed. The women’s 3000m won by Birchfield’s Hannah Robinson in 9:55.92 and also had only seven finishers.
Yet the chase was probably where B&B won the match as they scored a whopping 20 points in the men’s race using two athletes who had not done the event before. Blair Wilson, who was set to compete in the British masters pentathlon the following day, was second in the A string, while first-year under 20 Thomas Sugden, who had earlier competed in the 800m had permission from his mum to run and won the B-string.
Wilson’s reward was to receive the club’s Steeplechase Challenge Trophy, an initiative from club past president Chris Haines, who ran in the first National One match in 1969, aimed at increasing interest and participation in the event. The trophy now has a third base and his investment paid big dividends for the club.
The versatility shown by Wilson and Sudgen was mirrored by the meeting officials as connoisseurs of the sport will have noted Conrad Milton, coach to former European cross-country champion Hayley Yelling, forsaking his normal timekeeping duties to help in the smooth running of the pole vault. He was rewarded with the sight of the City Of Sheffield’s George Heppinstall winning with a clearance of 5.00m. Having won the competition, he decided not to go higher.
William Lane made it maximum points in the B string and the Yorkshire squad were particularly strong on the men’s side all afternoon with Harry Russell and Sam Cullen racking up maximum points in the 800m and Joe Dunderdale and Nathan Ramsay doing the same in the javelin. Dunderdale won the event by more than 10m with 69.58m, down on his recent opener of 75.37m, but the 2014 Commonwealth Games representative looks like he is in shape to surpass the qualifying standard for this year’s championships in Birmingham. Emma Hamplett (Birchfield) won the women’s contest with 48.41m and, with a 52.28m to her credit this year, she is another to have produced her best performances for three years.
Among those also seeking the Commonwealth standard is Kelechi Aguocha (B&B), who won the high jump with an outdoor best of 2.14m. The qualifying standard is 2.25m but he does have the confidence of having cleared 2.22m indoors. In second place, Bristol & West’s Charlie Husbands bettered his PB three times over the course of the afternoon, ending up with 2.08m, a nine centimetre improvement. It’s why the league is important.
Unusually, the first four in the women’s shot were all under-20s with current UK junior No.1 Teddy Tchoudja (Glas Jags) winning in 13.88m and Cleo Agyepong (B&B) setting a new best of 13.57m in second.
Six athletes finished with 1.70m in the women’s event but it was Birchfield’s Bernice Coulson who took first on count-back. The Midlanders also enjoyed success in the horizontal jumps with BUCS triple jump champion Joseph Gilkes winning the men’s long jump with 6.94m, and Janet Browne taking the women’s triple jump with 12.04m. Gilkes had to settle for second in the men’s event where Daniel Lewis (SB) prevailed in 14.86m to add to team-mate Eavion Richardson’s one-centimetre victory in the long jump. In the women’s vault, Sophie Dowson (B&B) and current Scottish rankings leader Courtney MacGuire (Glas Jags) both had good afternoons, clearing 3.80m.
The relays didn’t disappoint and the men’s 4x100m saw Birchfield win in 40.85, just one hundredth of a second from Shaftesbury Barnet. The North Londoners had to settle for the runners-up spot again in the women’s race as Trafford sped to victory in 46.56.
They made no mistake in the women’s 4x400m, however, winning by over five seconds in 3:50.91. Similarly the City of Sheffield dominated the men’s race finishing over four seconds clear with 3:14.38.
Everything completed, and it was just a wait for the results, which was easier said than done. All will know that there were issues with the system which was a huge frustration as, when working smoothly, it will be a big upgrade for the running and presentation of the meetings. Currently final placings are still provisional.
Overall, the match organisation went well, with officials working hard to make it run smoothly and to time. However, with clubs and athletes travelling from all over the UK to the land of the Eccles cake, many were surprised to find no trackside catering facility to purchase said item or anything else, not even a brew.
All the clubs will have taken positives away from the match and look forward to the next round of fixtures on June 4. Birchfield, B&B, Glasgow Jaguars and Bristol & West travel to Kingston to compete against Thames Valley, Harrow, Newham and Notts, while Shaftesbury, Windsor, City of Sheffield and Trafford head to Eton, taking on Woodford, Cardiff, Swansea and Southampton.
