Page 28 - Summer2018Gazette

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The Southern Athletics League 2018
A season of outstanding success

Our final league position was Match Two:
As we embark on the 2019 second in our division finish- 20th May 2018 – Battersea
track and field season I wanted ing one league point behind A month later we headed to
to share some reflections on our Chelmsford although with more Battersea Park which somewhat
performance in the Southern league points. All in all this was bizarrely was the home match
Athletics League in 2018. The an outstanding performance for Chelmsford Athletics club.
SAL team comprises male and from the team as a whole, more This was out most difficult
female athletes with anyone in of which later! match of the season as we were
the U17 age category and above For those of you who weren’t impacted by a combination of
being eligible to compete. We are aware, I took over the running exams on some of the younger
in division one which covers the of the teams from John Wake- athletes and other events which
whole of the south of England man and Mark Purser who had depleted the team. Despite this
which sits about two division set a high bar by finishing sec- we still managed to finish the
two leagues (east & west) and ond the previous year. With this match in second place 13 point
three division threes(north, east in mind we went into the first behind the eventual league
and west) match with some trepidation winners and 19 points ahead of
and an eye on the extremely Belgrave Harriers with 10 A and
high bar they had set. B string wins over the course of
the day.
Match One: Highlight of the match was
18th April 2018 – Norman Caelan Raju beating Will Shar-
Park man over the 110mh (Caelan’s
We started with a home match first time at the event)!
and had a terrific turnout,
ending up winning the match
with a massive 253 points which
left us 52 points ahead of 2nd
place Crawley. A great way to
start the season with terrific
performance across both the
track and field where we won 18
of the A string events and 20 of
the B string events as well as all
of the relays.
Special shout out has to go
to Isabella Hilditch who won
female athlete of the match for
her outstanding performance in
the 100mh.