Written by Daniel Rees
Championship Promotion Match – Bedford – Saturday 3rd August
Shaftesbury Barnet and City of Sheffield secured an immediate return to the top-flight after finishing first and second at the Championship’s promotion showpiece in Bedford.
After suffering relegation last season when the Premiership was restructured, Shaftesbury scored 539.50pts to Sheffield’s 539pts on Saturday as both sides fended off challenges from Tonbridge, Swansea, Cardiff, Trafford, Belgrave and Havering.
Indeed, efforts from Tonbridge’s international decathletes Harry Kendall and Lewis Church, as well as a thrilling victory in the men’s 4x400m relay, almost took the Kent outfit to the Premiership for the first time.
Dropped points in the men’s short sprints and women’s middle distance events, however, meant they missed out on second place by 23 points.
Shaftesbury got off to a characteristically strong start by scoring full points in the first event of the day, the men’s hammer, courtesy of James Hamblin’s 52.24m and Greg Thompson’s 49.95m.
They then took 18 out of a possible 22 points in the men’s 400m hurdles – a tally matched by Sheffield – before the women secured a maximum return in the same event thanks to Hayley McLean’s 58.48sec and Azaria Nwankwo’s 1:06.19sec.
Meanwhile, talented U20 Nicolas Maczugowski dipped under 54sec for the first time after running a huge PB of 53.22sec for Cardiff.
But it was Tonbridge who then picked up momentum in the early afternoon thanks to a string of wins in the field events.
The 2023 English Schools high jump champion Matilda Secker jumped 1.73m to finish second on countback to Cardiff’s Hannah Tapley, and Ella Thomas won the B-string with 1.68m.
The promotion chasers then took 20 out of a possible 22 points in the men’s 800m – Benjamin Gardiner ran 1:53.59sec to finish second in the A-race behind Sheffield’s Robert Shipley, whilst Jordan Chalmers won the B-race with 1:58.11sec.
In the women’s 800m, it was Cardiff who led the way as Rhiannon Hawker and Anna-Rose Merchant each enjoyed comfortable wins.
Swansea’s sprinters came to the fore in the 100m as Stanislav Kovalenko and Dan Beadsley ran wind-assisted times of 10.39sec and 10.42sec.
The Welsh club enjoyed another clean sweep in the men’s 110m H as Jake Cover ran a legal PB of 14.55sec, with Evan Cole running a wind-assisted 15.63sec.
Greg Thompson then added to his hammer victory with a second-place finish in the shot, and Daniel Bainbridge and Milan Trajkovic later took full points in the javelin.
Though the London club led from Tonbridge at the halfway point, Sheffield then pushed to displace the leaders.
They took advantage of Shaftesbury’s failure to field any competitors in the women’s 3,000m, scoring 20 points from performances by U20 Katie Gardner – normally a steeplechaser – and Ellen Sagar-Hesketh.
Alicia Barrett dominated the 100m H when she won by more than 0.6sec from Havering’s in-form Ruby Tillson, whilst Eniola Ajagbe edged the B-string from Shaftesbury junior Nia Forbes-Agyepong.
Former American collegiate thrower Sophie Merritt-Drew then won the women’s shot put A-string with 12.63m, and teammate Caitlin Rimmer finished second in the B-string with 10.47m.
Despite struggling with gaps across the team, Trafford enjoyed a few bright patches – Rio 2016 Olympian Seren Bundy-Davies took second behind Welsh compatriot and Swansea athlete Hannah Brier in the 400m, whilst Amber Brown took second in the triple jump with 11.53m behind Sheffield’s Jasmine Hulland.
In the 2,000m steeplechase, Kate Meeson ran a PB of 7:30.28sec and Bethany Reid ran 7:35.56sec as the Manchester club scored 17 points.
Former powerhouse Belgrave delivered their strongest performances of the day in the women’s 1500m, with Felicity Williamson-Sarll running 4:38.58sec to finish second behind Swansea’s Megan Carter-Davies; Mimi Corden-Lloyd won the B-string with 4:49.38sec.
Havering paid the price for absences across nine separate events, but there were still stand-out performances to savour from Michael Shonibare – who ran 47.73sec in the 400m A-race – and Matthew Agnimel who ran 48.15sec in the B-race.
Swansea Harrier and Tokyo 2020 Olympian Joe Brier showed produced a superb 46.52sec over the same distance.
When the relays came round, one of the best races of the match was won by Tonbridge AC whose quartet of Henry Marshall, Benjamin Gardiner, Jack Higgins, and Kieran Eland combined to hold off an onslaught from Sheffield’s anchorman David Chapman in the 4x400m.
By that time, however, Shaftesbury and Sheffield had effectively sewn up an immediate return to the top-flight, leaving their competitors to battle it out again in the Championship next season.
