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British Athletics LeagueA very respectable 4th place finish overall in the league was indicative of the higher quality of Team Southampton performances throughout the year. With three 3rd place finishes in our matches all our regulars performed well and were helped by several new signings and new higher claim athletes. Strong from their qualification for the BAL cup final Team Southampton confidently entered the final BAL match assured of avoiding relegation. Just as last year Ben Richardson scored the most points for the club taking all 4 A string victories in his chosen event in the process, ably helped by compatriot sprinter Gareth Price to total 10 victories in the short sprints. In the field Adam Richardson performed his usual duties as club mainstay and prolific points scorer but the loss of Nik Iliffe was more than made up for by the versatile Max Peisker and Paul Derrien, Max would take part in 5 events whilst Paul would contribute points in 6 separate events over the course of the year. The men will be glad to get rid of Leeds, Channel Islands and Edinburgh from the division so hopefully fixtures next year will be closer to home. |
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UK Women's LeagueLast year the UK women’s team finished 4th in the league but they managed one better this year mainly due to a stronger showing in their final match. Grace Clements, Emily Young, Sarah Ellis, Becky Tune and Rachael Lewington would compete in all 3 fixtures as far afield as Swansea and Liverpool with Sarah coming the closest to maximum points in the Javelin A string dropping only one position in the final match. Emily nearly obtained maximum points in the B string long jump, again only dropping a single place in the final match but couldn’t topple Grace as the maximum points’ scorer in an eclectic combination of events. A string victories would come from Sian Scott (400m & 400m H), Sarah (Jav), Grace (LJ), Vicki Foster (Shot), the 4x100m and 4x400m teams. |
Southern Men's LeagueDespite only managing 6th on the league table Team Southampton finished 3 points behind 1st (in 3rd) at Basingstoke and 2nd by just one point at Abingdon, if they would have won those two matches they would have been 2nd in the table and would have been promoted but now the team will have to wait until next season to prove themselves. Only 3 athletes would take part in all 3 fixtures this year: Derek Warn, Nick Wevill & Abe Newell though by far our most versatile athlete was Derek, not only did he contribute points in 8 separate events but he was always on hand with his camera to provide lots of the photos you’ll find on this site. Maurice Hicks was again the outstanding contributor of points to the squad losing only a single point in his 4 matches. Besides Maurice special mention should also go to Sean Foord who remained unbeaten in the 200m A string in his 4 participating matches before moving up to the British League, Ben Parnell would repeat the unbeaten streak in his 4 matches but this time in the B string 400m. |
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Southern Women's LeagueIn only the second year of the current league format our women once again finished top of the table though this year it was by a bigger margain. They proved unassailable comfortably winning all 5 of their matches and only once didn't manage to score over 100 points. 4 athletes competed in all 5 fixtures, Emily Young, Karla Drew, Vicki Cronin and Rachael Lewington though nobody managed a clean sweep of victories this year, the closest anybody came was Karla who managed 4 'A' string victories (and a 2nd place) in the 100m Hurdles. Once again Becky Tune proved her adaptability at different events scoring points in no less than 7 separate disciplines throughout the year, and in doing so scoring the most points for the club, though she was not alone. Emily Young and Rachel Rogers also competed in 7 separate events throughout the year with Emily gaining only one point fewer than Becky overall. Team Southampton's league victory is in large down to fielding near full teams and it was good to see lots of the club regulars returning year after year to compete, Vicki Foster, Debbie Callaway, Anna Stevens, Becca Carozzi, Ceri Mitchell and Sarah Ellis (& sorry if I've missed anyone) all proving reliable point bankers for the club. Note also that Sarah also won the 'A' string Javelin in all 4 matches she competed in this year.
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National Young Athletes LeagueIn our first year in the Southern Premier division Team Southampton did incredibly well to only narrowly miss out on the plate final by a single match point and all the athletes acquitted themselves well in what was a far higher competition than most of them were used to. The club achieved a first place finish at Woodford and 3 2nd place finishes at their other matches; With 11 boys and 10 girls taking part in all 5 matches the club showed they are more than capable of turning out full teams of enthusiastic athletes and that all added to the jubilant atmosphere, particularly in the latter stages of the final match. It was only girls who managed to score maximum points in their chosen events this year, Vicky Mould (70m H) & Jenny Beckingham (800m), though only Jenny would achieve this in the A string. The top scoring athletes were Justin Hunt for the boys with 45 points in a combination of hurdles and triple jumping but his total was eclipsed by three girls who all scored over 50 points: Vicky Mould (sprints), Anna Stevens (long throws) and Emma Cowell (HJ, LJ and Hurdles... seemingly anything involving jumping!) There were strong individual performances from English Schools finalists Bradley Awuah-Peasah (100m) and Fred Young (long throws) including several intimidating club records. Again performing in style was the Javelin gold medallist at those championships, Freya Jones, also scored maximum points in the shot and javelin in all the matches she competed in. The team will be looking to build on their momentum from this season and hopefully secure a top 5 finish in the table next year. |
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Wessex LeagueLast year in the track roundup I wrote that the ‘Wessex league is a much more light hearted affair’ but now I would like to unequivocally retract that remark, on attending the final fixture at Southampton I was ‘bullied’ by an Isle of Wight lady proclaiming that I was scum and that my team would never beat hers, in retrospect I wish I could have thanked her for all the IOW athletes who come and compete for us in the senior ranks but you never think of something clever to say at the time. It gives a sense of the fierce rivalry that there now is in the Wessex League but unfortunately Team Southampton finished just one point behind the Isle of Wight in second position. The final result should be viewed in context however, we won all but one of our matches coming 2nd in the final match and finished 2 places higher in the league table than we did last year. Justin Hunt & Anna Stevens deserve special mentions for competing in all 4 Wessex leagues along with all 5 national young athletes leagues and being the top (or near top) points scorers in both. Ignoring the overlap between NYAL and Wessex there were impressive contributions from Melody Young (54 pts) & Beth Sharpe (53 pts) over the ladies sprints; Ben Ninnim and Sam Derham would each contribute 47 pts but though Sam chose to simply dominate his attended sprint events (with 6 A string victories) Ben would chose to amass his points in the unusual combination of throws, hurdles and high jump. The number and talent of enthusiastic youngsters in both the junior leagues is impressive and bodes well for the club’s future. I have only highlighted a few select performances here but there were many other consistent performers quietly contributing to our high league placings. |
Club Records:It may surprise some to learn that this was the first year that athletes could officially achieve records following the decision to start again from scratch following the formation of Team Southampton in October 2004, records have been back-dated so any set in 2008 would be the best in the past 3 seasons. In the seniors Ben Richardson improved on his record set last year running a faster legal time than his 2007 (+4.4 m/s) achievement, there were slight improvements from Ceri Mitchell, Sian Scott, Darryn Campbell and James Groocock in their respective events and new signings Rory Constable (U20) and Max Peisker left their marks in the triple jump & hammer. Both mens’ relay teams and the women’s 4x400m would set records though admittedly in some cases helped by HCA athletes (who by the way are ineligible to set individual records). The junior records fell faster than a Jenga tower in an earthquake simulator. Without reverting to just listing records Bradley Awuah-Peasah set an impressive 100m mark of 11.16 seconds and Fred Young set 3 records in the shot, discus and hammer. However Richard Humby & Chris Lang seem to be trying to get their name on the page as much as possible by repeatedly equalling their personal bests, Chris achieving 1.80 in the HJ 5 times! Sophie Jones (300m, TJ); Anna Stevens (DT, HT) and Vicky Mould (100m, 70m H) achieved 2 records each whilst Emliy Jenkinson achieved 3 (800m, 1200m, 1500m). Freya Jones’ club javelin record at 44.23m set at the English Schools is also the UK U15 javelin record and nearly 20m further than the club U17 record, look out for that one being broken next year(!) Out of the 9 junior club relay records 6 would fall in 2008 showing impressive strength in depth. |
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Championships:At the end of the day Athletics is an individual sport and it is the primary goal of the club to enable Athletes to reach their full potential in their individual events, to this end there were some impressive 2008 performances in the various national or area championships by Team Southampton athletes.
Top 4 performances: |
I apologise for any errors and omissions, I have attempted to keep this round-up as factual as possible to avoid bias - any errors or criticism then mail teamsouthampton@hotmail.com.
Also feel free to mail if you want to add to this 2008 summary.