Southern Athletics League - Match 1 at Walton-on-Thames

South Bucks got off to a great start at the first Southern Athletics League match of the season at Walton-on-Thames on Saturday.
 
After being promoted from Division 3 last year, team managers were keen to see how the team fared in the new division. Despite having a few athletes missing, the team had a great day achieving second place in the match of six, only headed by hosts Walton AC.
 
There was sunshine at Walton but a cool, blustery wind.
 
Women
There was a double win in 100m with Christina Poulsen winning A string and Sarah Cross B string. In 200m Christina was second and Lailah Pope second in B string. Emily Smith took a further win in 400m A string and Aoife McAuley made a solid 400m debut to be second in B string. Lily Jessop-Tranter was fourth in A string 800m with Amy Hogbin third in B string. Lucy Wilkinson ran strongly to win A string 1500m with Ivy Uhart fourth in B string. More South Bucks wins came courtesy of Ellie Shield and Samantha Usher in 3000m, Ellie logging a PB of 10.56.2 to win the A string.
In the field Aoife was fourth in B string high jump, Sarah first in B string, both clearing 1.40m. In long jump Aoife was third in A string and Lailah third in B string. Caroline Parkinson won pole vault with 3.00m. Sarah was third in A string shot, fourth in A string javelin with support from Ellen Taylor in shot. Emma Caddell and Amy Hogbin scored useful points in discus. Ellen looked after A string hammer.
The 4 x 100m team was second and the 4 x 400m team of Amy, Lucy, Lily and Emily were impressive winners in 4.13.8. T20 athlete Fiona Calder had a busy day in non-scoring 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, long jump and javelin.
 
Men
Kieran Shah pulled up in A string 100m and was out for the day. Caleb Hambrook looked after B string and Caleb and James Twallin ran well in 200m. James and Jean-Louis Plaatjies were second and third respectively in 400m. High quality 800m races saw David Clark fourth in A string and Isaac Jessop-Tranter third in B string. David was third in A string 1500m and Sammy Bennetts third in B string. Myles Caddell was fourth in A string 3000m with Tom Starck third in B string. Myles added a well-paced win in 3000m steeplechase later in the day.
Ryan Wells scored well all day, winning 100m hurdles, long jump, triple jump and B string javelin. Alex Wells and Leo Selcon Park scored useful points in shot, discus and hammer, and Ed Morris had a busy day with second in A string javelin and contributing well in 400m hurdles, high jump, long jump and triple jump.
The 4 x 100m team was fourth and the 4 x 400m team third.
 
The league works on a round-robin basis so the next match at Abingdon on June 18th sees the team competing against five different clubs.