What is not to be proud of? – last Saturday we were not going to be cheated of our rightful position by 3.5 points were we?
This time all our throws were good, all our jumps were long and I didn’t just look at the pole vault and think ‘I should
really’……..I did! And temperatures soaring towards 30 degrees didn’t frighten off our endurance toughies or anyone
else for that matter, Woking AC weren’t at the beach we were out to WIN!
And the result? A MASSIVE win against Bracknell on their home soil, and, I might add, the highest points scored by any team in any match out of all of the 12 division 1 SAL matches held so far, which is pretty cool in my book, so be proud and let’s keep it going. More PB’s more wins, more fun yet to come!
A big welcome from the team goes out to Nerys Tullett who fearlessly tacked the 400mh for the first time with a convincing win and 4 points in the A string, Nerys also ran a brilliant leg of the 4 x 100m a great new little asset for the team!
Talking of hurdles, usually one of the team managers biggest headaches, on this day we really pulled it out the bag as alongside Nerys’s win Florence scored full points in the B string 400mh. Then, on the ladies 100mh Lucy debuted with a brilliant win in the B string 100mh, Sam 2nd in the A string (with shin splints!). And the boys a full house of points, wins in the 100mh from Kas in the A string and Dave in the B string and wins in the 400mh from Ian with a new PB, Knocking .31 second off of his World Masters performance in Finland and Dave winning the B string despite feeling ‘below par’ all day! What a result!! 😊
Ian must have gone home with a big grin on his face as he also ran a PB by 1 second in the 400m and came in with a brilliant winning last leg of the 4 x 400m – getting better with age Ian! …As is our Tash who ran yet ANOTHER PB on the 400m AND 200m ns! – what’s the secret guys?… I want some!
JUMPS!! – yes, we can jump too, George and Rory scoring second places on high jump to be followed up with wins across the board with Kas jumping a SB to win A string long jump and George winning B, then George and Dave (ill!) on pole vault, 2 wins, George jumping a PB to win A string triple and Dave winning B string by nearly 1.75m (yet feeling worse as the day went on!)
The ladies filled all the jumping spots too scooping 2 wins at the pole vault with Sam jumping beautifully and yours truly (not such a pretty sight but hey it was 4 points!). Lovely Lucy earned us more well-deserved points on the high jump and long jump, Sam kept busy coming second in the B string high jump AND winning the B string triple – all with a bit of shin splint going on! Our Florence never seems to walk away from a match without a PB – today it was on the triple jump! Well done Flo! And I mustn’t forget our relative newbie Laura Kersley who long jumped a huge 4.94m for second place in the A string! AND ran a PB in the ns 100m! Come back any time you like Laura.
On the throws, Eleanor worked her magic as usual with 2 wins and 2 seconds for lots of lovely points. Great to have Orla back with us and throwing brilliantly, with a close PB to win discus and a win on hammer (both wins by over 5m!), also throwing a PB in the ns javelin which would have won the B string…..Awesome! Lucy had a busy day, along with everything else she also scored 2nd in the B string shot and of course Flo won the A string javelin by nearly 10m, which some might say was just showing off! – well you show ‘em Flo! 😊
Another old fave’ back on the team is Roy Chambers, still got it Roy with a win on the javelin and a shot not too far off of a PB, I think it’s safe to say ‘HE’S BACK!’
Kas had a quiet day today, he only did 100mh, long jump, shot (2nd) and discus (win) which is why he had time to play in the steeplechase water jump with his friends (see Woking AC facebook for pics). I’d say a well-deserved rest before running both relays! And I have no doubt he’ll be back covering the usual 6-7 events (not including relays) and scoring max points at the next match. Our other ‘iron man,’ resident firefighter Dave was really under the weather today, not in peak performance at all which I would say was reflected in his performance of only 5 events but it wasn’t as he won every single one of them! …. Hard as nails our boys are!. The youngster of our multi-event lads George not only smashed out some great jumps but also won the A string javelin, it’s a shame he can still only do 5 events as he has FAR too much energy left at the end of a match!
Also on throws our reliable ‘Kellys’ never let us down, Paul taking 2nd place on hammer and Rory throwing a massive PB in the A string hammer AND discus! (did you bribe him dad? – well thank you!).
Back on to the track some exciting sprinting from both the boys and girls at this match – there were some amazing performances at the Walton Rosenheim on the Wednesday beforehand, lots of questioning as to whether the times would be official or not – at the last peek they are! So, Kenny back on form was in A string following a close PB performance at the Ros’ unfortunately bit of a hammy tweak but still scored 2nd A string, Harry also running back to form on Wednesday scored 2nd 100m and 200m and followed up with a leg of each relay!
Did you know we had a new Doctor on the team?? Well, he’s not a medical Doctor but a PhD (which is pretty cool) and we call him Doctor rather than Michael, why?, I do not know but so be it and I really don’t care as he is getting quicker and quicker at each match, on Saturday he ran a seasons best 200m, an excellent 100m and most shocking of all, a tremendous leg of the 4 x 400m! – noted!!!
For the ladies, what a joy to have Emily back on the team back from Uni, always smiling and always winning! 2 wins in the 100m and 200m and a speedy leg of the 4 x 100m. Team mate Jayne scored second place on the B string 200m and ran close to her PB in a ns 100m. Alexis scoring 2nd place in her 100m also contributed a great leg of the 4 x 100m.
On the 400m, besides Tash’s PB our Lauren from Camberley ran a huge PB for 2nd place in the 400m and followed up with a speedy leg of the 4x400m relay – watch this space, lots more to come here I sense!
FINALLY (it never ceases to amaze me how much ‘stuff’ goes on at these matches!) the MIDDLE DISTANCE! – all heroes in my book in that heat, as Martin summed it up quite succinctly ‘I wouldn’t say it was fun’! – how very polite I thought. Martin had just run his first 5000m on the track winning the B string with an absolutely amazing time of 16:12, he then went on to run a PB in the 1500m for a ‘warm down’ scoring 2nd place, what a trooper! Running the A string 5000m was Connor, if you were watching you will have seen how BADLY he wanted to dip under 16 minutes in that last 100m – and he DID! By approx. 0.01 second! 😊 FANTASTIC! (and bonkers all at the same time!). Charlie, for reasons known only to himself ran a ns 5000m in that heat and did it in 18:11 which is certainly not to be sniffed at!. Joining Martin on the 1500m Ben Golding was back and ran a great B string having just got over Covid (not sure that’s what the Dr ordered!?). Also joining us today was Olly Weedon running a ns 1500m for a PB in 4:56, I used to train with his dad, which makes me yay old!
The 800m I have always found is also not much fun but Theo didn’t hold back today and ran a 2 second PB for a 2nd (just) in the A string with a very respectable 1:57. On B string Drew did similar! A 2 second PB for 2:06!, all that hard work at training is certainly paying off.
Steve Tait, what would we do with out you? He cycled to Bracknell then ran the 2k steeple for us for a cool down before cycling home – thank you Steve #hero.
Our ladies didn’t let us down on the middle distance either, on the long haul, Lou ran just outside a PB on the 3k for a win and Lucia won the B string by a country mile – and didn’t they look great running through the shower? It was like something out of a film! As Lucia is training for a quick 5k it seemed only sensible for her to then run the 1500m, in which she only went and ran a PB, so its looking good Lucia! B string 1500m was filled last minute by our superstar-ess Chloe, having run a 2:18 800m she used the 1500m as a warm up for the steeple, well THAT paid off as she won the A string with an AMAZING 6:59 smashing the club record and hurling herself into 18th UK ranking in the senior women category. For this I award Chloe the ‘golden scrunchie’ that much sought after accolade! Lou made easy work of the B string steeple for max points and smiled all the way around – a joy to watch! Our (and Camberley’s) Sandra ran a great B string for 2nd place and just a shade off her PB, well done Sandra. I must mention Tia here – well done Tia for running the 3k, dad got lost on the way and she turned up with about 3 minutes to spare – a sterling effort Tia – next time allow a bit of contingency for dad! 😉
The day was rounded off nicely by some great relays, a great run in by Ian on the last leg of the 4 x 400m followed by an exciting altercation with one of the officials – luckily Kas politely told her what she had failed to observe, politeness gets you everywhere in life, so they weren’t disqualified – PHEW (it was VERY dubious anyway!).
A BIG BIG thank you to all the officials and parent helpers, without you there is no ‘US’ so we are ever grateful.
Next match Tonbridge 13th August – lets see if we can creep a little more up the table (5th now from 10th).