Southern Women’s League, Crawley 12th July

A TEAM of just twelve athletes secured third place for Harlow’s women in the penultimate round of the Southern Women’s League competition. Once again it was a tale of club spirit triumphing as late withdrawals and illness on the day disrupted the team.

All the senior women filled in as many events as the timetable would allow and there were still some noteworthy performances:
In the Senior High Jump, Dawn Jones secured second spot with a height of 1.45m and Annabel Owen (1.25m) took second in the B event; Hannah Owen (8.23m) and Jones (9.73) also took both second places in the Triple Jump; Mel Allam (24.42) and Ellie Williams (18.01) were third and second in the Javelin. And, whilst neither Bridget Owen nor Rachel Kyobe are throwers the two points they each collected for sixth places in the Hammer were vital in the context of the match. Rachel clearly should not have been competing, becoming feverish on the journey down, but insisted on doing ‘just throws’.

In the Under 15 competition Nicole Chambers had a good day with three second place finishes in the 100m, 200m and Long Jump respectively; Louise Owen ran her first club 75m Hurdles, picking up third place in the process. And there were two solid debuts for Katie Champion and Chloe Cox. Katie was second in the 800m, second in the 200m B race and won the A discus. Chloe won the Girl’s A Shot and had only intended coming to see how a league match worked!

Women’s Team manager, Steve Lott said, “There is a hardcore group of women that I am indebted to. They are unfazed by anything and are prepared to do pretty much any event for a point or two. Their spirit is infectious and it is having a positive impact upon our younger athletes; having such characters in the club certainly makes us stronger.”