Southern Athletic League Division 3 North, Lee Valley

HARLOW’S 2018 senior season began with a ‘home’ match at Lee Valley on Saturday 14 April. Conditions were perfect for a good day’s athletics and Harlow’s athletes took full advantage, coming second to a strong Woodford Green side; a side that included some of their British Athletics League squad.

The result was all the more remarkable as only nine men and ten women covered forty-eight individual events and the four relays between them and there were several notable absentees for the team.

The day began with 400m hurdles where Glen and Carl Paxman ran to second and third place. Mairi Malcolm was the club’s only representative for the women and she was fourth in her debut.

There were some solid performances in the sprints: Harry Woodall picked up fifth and fourth in his 100 and 200m respectively, whilst team mate Glen Paxman was second and fourth in his two races.

For the women there were two athletes making their debut for the senior team in the sprints. Louise Owen was fourth in her race and Lucy Kemp was fifth in hers. Lucy then ran 200m and was fifth again with Eilidh Malcolm fourth in the other 200m scoring race.

Next on track were the 800m races. Jamie Putt and debutant Alfred Corrigan ran for the men. Grace Malcolm, on her senior debut and Katie Champion ran for the women. Putt and Corrigan were second and third for the men, with Champion and Malcolm claiming a first and third for the women.

The sprint hurdles were sadly under strength will only four male and four female competitors. Nevertheless, the Paxman twins first and second places, and the two second places for Katie Champion and Louise Owen scored a valuable twenty-one points.

It was a similar story for the Steeplechase, only here the Harlow quartet of Jamie Putt, Carl Paxman, Katie Champion and Grace Malcolm were all first securing maximum points for the club.

The 1500m was altogether more competitive Alfred Corrigan was involved in a fantastic tussle for fourth in his race. Carl Paxman was second in his race. Eilidh Malcolm and Dawn Jones were fourth and third in the two women’s races.

With rules limiting participation to a certain number of events according to age, Harlow could not field athletes in the 5k races losing the possibility of more points and lost ground on Woodford as a result. Happily, some ground was gained as two newcomers, Ella Piron and Monika Iyinbor, both ran the 3k for women: Ella was third in the first race and Monika first in the second race.

The field events proved to be a valuable source of points for the team and there were some notable performances.

Unfortunately the women could not contest the high jump but Leo Chaschchin and Glen Paxman won both men’s high jump events.

Dawn Jones was third in the women’s Pole Vault and Glen Paxman was first in the second men’s competition. However, performance of the day came from Chaschchin, who came second in the first competition with a height of 3.52m. The significance of this is that he broke a club record that has stood for over thirty years.

Chaschchin’s good day continued as he smashed his PB in the Triple Jump to take first place. Once again Glen Paxman collected good points with a third place in the B event, and Dawn Jones was also third in the women’s match.

Paxman and Chashchin were once more the selected competitors for the Long Jump and again did well: Paxman was second and Chaschchin first with a consistent set of jumps all over 6m. Louise Owen and Lucy Kemp were fifth in both women’s events.

Beth Harryman was second in the women’s shot, with Mairi Malcolm third in the second points event. This result was mirrored for the men by Glen and Carl Paxman.

Glen and Kieran Bull contested the discus for the men and both were fourth. Harryman and Katie Champion both enjoyed good competitions as both were throwing discus for the first time competitively. Harryman was second in the first event and Champion third in the second.

On a day when the team was missing the experience of Dave Bauer, the busy Paxmans were third in both Hammer competitions, while Dawn Jones was fifth in the women’s event. Javelin was more fruitful as Glen was third in the first event and Carl first in the second one.

The day ended with the relays and Glen, as team captain, had marshalled the team well enough to ensure that all four relays could be contested by the men and women alike. This was an important calculation as relays score more points. Unfortunately, both men’s teams were disqualified, while the women were fourth in both 4×100 and 4×400 races.

The final result saw Woodford in first place (318), Harlow in second (279), Ilford (226), Huntingdon (195), Newham and Essex Beagles (176) and Loughton (66).

Afterwards, club Chair Steve Lott said; “This was always going to be tough opening fixture as Woodford narrowly missed out on promotion last year and are always strong. And both Ilford and Newham always have strong sprinters. Today we were indebted to the all round performance and the willingness of athletes to put their bodies on the line, literally, for the team cause. Many congratulations to them all.
In addition to the athletes I must also pay tribute to all of our volunteers and officials who ensured that our home match passed off successfully.”