Women's Southern League 2001: Match 5, Swindon

Well, it just goes to show how far we’ve come this season when we’re disappointed with 2nd place in a league match. Still, with a very small team of seniors and juniors multi-eventing, we actually performed incredibly well.

Illness, injury, holidays, car break-downs and the Under 17 AAA’s all put paid to the size of the team. Nevertheless, as always, the girls pulled together and other than the U17 races, and a number of junior races, all events were covered.

The track wasn’t in great condition, due to vandalism. As a result, the pole vault didn’t take place. The triple jump, hurdles and hammer/ discus were also effected by the state of the facilities. Even sections of the track kerbing had been ripped up.

We had only four under 15s: Shereena Miller, Amy Doyley, Catherine Olawore and Emily Collins who pulled out all the stops in their maximum 3 events. A PB for Shereena Miller in the 100 metres of 13.7 was followed by a marvellous fight to the finish in the 4x100 relay where the girls snatched first place in a tough battle.

The seniors too saw a number of PB’s. Jennifer Culley is showing a talent for the 400 hurdles as well as the flat and achieved a PB of 61.8, streets ahead of the other athletes in her race. Danielle Kandaros also set a PB of 71.8 in the 400 hurdles. Vicki Goodwin moving down to the 400m as well as the 800m earned a 60.7 first place.

In the hammer we had two PBs from Paula Cruz (20.27) and Danielle Kandaros (17.55), and in the 3000m Catherine Eastham knocked another 20 secs off to get down to 12.28.5.

If we’re to win the league we need to pull out all of the stops and field a strong team for the final match as our points lead is getting ever more narrow.

Teams: 1 Swindon 195.5; 2 Belgrave H 180; 3 Chichester 154; 4 Watford 106; 5 Bracknell 105.5

Senior Women

100m: 5 J.Smiter 15.6; 2 D.Kandaros 14.2. 200m: 1 J.Culley 25.7; 3 J.Smiter 32.9. 400m: 1 V.Goodwin 60.8; 3 D.Kandaros 67.2. 800m: 2 V.Goodwin 2:19.3; 5 J.Poloni 2:54.8. 1500m: 3 D.Hearne 5:49.4; 2 C.Eastham 5:54.3. 3000m: 3 C.Eastham 12:28.5; 2 D.Hearne 13:19.6. 100mH: 2 M.Kinght 16.6; 2 D.Kandaros 18.7. 400mH: 1 J.Culley 61.8; 1 D.Kandaros 71.8. HJ: 1 M.Knight 1.60; 1 N.Smallwood 1.55. LJ: 1 N.Smallwood 5.08; 1 M.Knight 5.04. TJ: 4 V.Goodwin 8.69; 4 J.Smiter 8.63. PV: cancelled. SP: 1 M.Knight 10.58; 1 P.Cruz 8.46. DT: 1 P.Cruz 27.38; 2 S.Howard 15.93. JT: 1 M.Knight 31.97; 1 P.Cruz 29.64. HT: 2 P.Cruz 20.22; 1 D.Kandaros 17.55. 4x100m: 2 Belgrave 57.8 (J.Smiter, M.Knight, D.Hearne, V.Goodwin). 4x400m: 1 Belgrave 4:22.5 (V.Goodwin 62.1, J.Smiter 73.9, J.Poloni 71.1, J.Culley 55.4).

Under 15 Girls

100m: 1 S.Miller 13.7; 4 A.Doyley 16.1. 200m: 1 S.Miller 27.9. 800m: 2 C.Olawore 1.25; 2 A.Doyley 1.15. LJ: 1 S.Miller 4.20; 4 E.Collins 3.07. SP: 4 E.Collins 3.68. DT: 1 C.Olawore 17.10; 3 A.Doyley 11.60. 4x100m: 1 Belgrave 55.9 (C.Olawore, E.Collins, A.Doyley, S.Miller).

Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.