SAL Division 3 North, Braintree 14 July

HARLOW ended their fourth round match in the SAL in second place behind high-flying Basildon. Also at the match was fourth placed Watford and as they could manage only fourth on the day; and with three teams all hopeful of promotion in direct competition at another of the day’s fixtures in Luton, Harlow will move up to at least seventh in the twenty-three team league.

The team was certainly the strongest that the club has been able to field this year for both the men and women and there were some strong performances:

Shemar Boldizsar was in a different class and ran with the confidence of a young man who knows he deserves to be on the national stage. He again ran under 11 seconds in the 100m and was a full second quicker in the 200m. He was ably supported by Dominique Diomonde who won both B sprints and reduced his 100m PB in the process. In the men’s longer sprint, Harry Woodall and Teale Cunningham recorded the same time, 53.4s, to claim both second places in the 400m.

Unfortunately, a last-minute drop out led to a reshuffling of the women’s sprints. Eilidh Malcolm ended up having to do all three sprints, which is not ideal, and she ran well. Her best performance time-wise was the 200m in which she set a new PB. Sister, Mairi, filled a gap for a valuable point in the 100m. Lucy Kemp and Lucy Minns covered the other sprints, gathering fourteen points in the process.

Distance events for the men were covered by a combination of Carl Paxman, Jamie Putt, Donald Campbell and newcomer, Harlow Tri Club chairman, Paul Schroder. For the women, all three Malcolm sisters, Grace, Eilidh and Mairi stepped up alongside Dawn Jones. It was a stiflingly hot day and the organisers took the unusual, and sensible, precaution of offering a drinks station in the longest runs. It is therefore unsurprising that times were less than optimal and happily all came through unscathed.

There was once again controversy in the steeplechase, only on this occasion it affected the men. This time it was not that they did less distance, as was the case last month at Parliament Hill for the women, but that they did more! They were told that it was not required to use the water jump in the first lap of a 3000m steeplechase, by circumventing the jump they actually ran nearly 200m further than the race distance. Perhaps the league organisation needs to review the alternating nature of distance at each fixture to avoid such confusion in the future.

The field events proved to be fruitful source of points for both men and women. For the men the duo of Dave Bauer and Glen Paxman were either first or second in each of the hammer, shot and discus events. And the one set of throws they did not compete in, the javelin, Carl Paxman and Craig Snook took first and third respectively.

In fact, Glen was involved in most events as he competed in the jumps alongside Teale Cunningham and Leo Chashchin. Chashchin was dominant in his jumps and picked up a hat-trick of first places and for the third straight week reached 3.80m in the pole vault. Cunningham was second in the high jump before dashing off and picking up a second in the 400 hurdles.

The women benefited from having both Naomi and Beth Harryman available. In addition with strong track representation Dawn Jones was able to focus on her field events also. The Harryman girls were in three events together and in each the battle really became a sibling one as they took five out of six first places available. The shot putt was probably the best private competition and Naomi came out on top with a last round throw that Beth could not respond to.

Jones was able to focus more on field events and won the triple jump and pole vault competitions. She also picked up two thirds in javelin and discus and a valuable point in the hammer. Also in the triple jump, making a welcome return from injury, was Ami Ashby. This was her first competitive outing in the event and she took second in the B event with a jump of 8.93m. The final women’s throwing spot was filled by Michelle Harryman. She threw a PB in the hammer and earned another crucial point for the team.

With the good turnout of athletes the team, rather than scratching around to see who still had energy or injuries, was able to field four strong quartets. The men’s teams were first in the 4 x 100 and second in the 4 x 400. The women’s teams finished second in both races.

Basildon 357, HARLOW 350, Braintree 287, Watford 281, Loughton 67

Meanwhile, in Birmingham over the weekend and representing his school county, Marley Sarling was in action for Hertfordshire. He threw a new PB of 46.82m to take seventh place. There were sixteen athletes who had made the English Schools’ standard; Ben East of Berkshire threw a massive 60.44m to claim the title.

After Marley said; “It was an amazing experience being selected to represent Hertfordshire for this year’s English Schools. It has inspired me to keep training hard and stay motivated”

And, whilst Shemar Boldizsar did not gain selection for the Junior World Championships in Finland last week, he can console himself with his first individual call-up for an England vest. He will be part of the England U20 squad at the U20 and U23 Home International in Swansea on Wednesday and will run both the 100m and 200m.

Commenting on the weekend’s news club chair Steve Lott said; “it’s been another great week for the club. A good SAL performance emphasises the team spirit that we’re slowly but surely building up. And we have club members going off to perform at a national and international level. I am immensely proud of all of them and hugely indebted to the small band of coaches and volunteers that are making this possible.”