Herts Phoenix Senior Women & Senior Men took part in the BAL Cup last Saturday at the Copthall Barnet Stadium. Unfortunately, with the Women finishing 4th and the Men 7th, neither team qualified for the final of the Cup to be held at Bedford on 6th September.

In the Womens event, after struggling with no throws in the last few matches Eve Miller returned to form in the Hammer. Eve claimed second place with a new Personal Best throw of 32.23m which will give her confidence to make further improvements in the remaining matches of the season.

First places were gained in the 100m Hurdles from Stephanie Gaynor and Laura Wake in the 200m. Both these athletes were still in good form following their medals won at the English Schools Championships the previous weekend. Steph won the hurdles race in a time of 14.21s and Laura showed good strength at the end of her 200m to win in 25.16s.

Third places were achieved by Katie Grehan in the Javelin, Nikki Silva in the 400m with a time of 60.29 and Natasha Taylor in the 3000m. Laura Whitehead claimed 4th spot in the 1500m with a time of 5.11.45 and Natalie Farman 4th spot in the Long Jump with a leap of 5.12m

Helen Van Kempen made her return to the team having been absent with injury for most of the season and was 5th in the 100m race.

The match finished with a medley relay of 200,200,400,400 which was contested with the team of Laura Wake, Stephanie Gaynor, Natalie Farman and Nikki Silva finishing in 5th place.

In the Mens match, due to holidays and other commitments only five athletes were available to compete, although they all performed well despite the very blustery conditions.

A couple of false starts unsettled the athletes in the 110m hurdles race, but Simon Wombwell finished strongly in 4th place recording 15.45s.  This event was followed by the 400m race which saw Chris Saville run a season’s best time of 50.33s to claim 4th place. Ian Tobin secured another 4th place in the Long Jump with a leap of 6.42m followed by a season’s best time of 23.20s in the 200m race to finish in 6th place.

Alec Wing was another of the team to compete in two events, throwing the Javelin 32.00m to finish 7th and then running a new personal best time of 11.86s in the 100m race finishing in 8th place. The fifth member of the team was veteran athlete Mike Dixon who finished in 7th place in the Pole Vault clearing 1.80m.

Team Managers: Ian Burrows & Adrian Newman