Herts Phoenix Women were unable to retain the title which they had won in 2006 and 2007 in the Southern Women’s Track and Field league and ended 2008 in third position. The team travelled to Colchester last Saturday 30th August for their final match and were up against 3 local Essex teams - Colchester, Chelmsford and Basildon who used the advantage of a local fixture to field strong teams. Unfortunately, Herts Phoenix who were not fielding a strong team finished in 4th place in the match. Results now available on this web site.

For the Senior squad the match started with the Hammer and Long Jump. In the Hammer, Eve Miller continued her recent good form to come second in the A string with a throw of 31.92m. Eve was supported in the B string by injured Triple Jumper Danielle Currie filling in to come 4th with 15.79m. The Long Jump saw Claire Jaggard returning to the team for her first match of the season having been away at University and Claire jumped well to come second in the A string with 5.35m. In the B string Natalie Farman struggled with her run up and with only one scoring jump out of three, Natalie came third with 4.77m.

The track events began with the long hurdles. Rebecca Hore came second in the U17 300m Hurdles with a time of 49.9s and in the 400m Hurdles Emma Kavanagh ran well to win the A string race with 67.6s and Hayley Kruse was third in the B string with 75.5s.

In the field, Eve Miller followed straight on from her Hammer to come 4th in the Discus with 18.33m and Eve was supported by 400m runner Steph Sattin who threw a personal best of 16.70m to come second in the B string. Next up on the track was the 100m sprints where the athletes were running into an unfavourable headwind. Claire Humphries was third in the A string with a time of 13.2s and Claire Jaggard was second in the B string with 13.4s.

The 100m sprints were followed by a very fast 800m race which combined the A string and B string runners into one race. Competing for Herts Phoenix were Millie Phelan and Laura Whitehead. Both girls came fourth in their respective strings with Millie clocking a time of 2.30.9s and Laura 2.33.0s.

The team were more successful in the 3000m that followed, where the in form Natasha Taylor ran a personal best time of 11.02.2s to end a very successful season for her and in the B string Julie Simmons ran well to also come second with a time of 12.08.3s

In the High Jump, Millie Phelan was delighted to clear 1.60m, a new PB and a height that she had been a target for a while now. Millie came second in the A string. In the B string the versatile Nat Farman cleared 1.55m. During her High Jump Millie also had time to pop over to the shot which took place at the same time to throw 7.61m to come second in the B string. Hayley Kruse was 3rd in the A string shot with a put of 8.16m.

The sprint hurdles came next with both Herts Phoenix 100m Hurdles athletes struggling with their 3 stride pattern in the headwind. Claire Jaggard did not finish the race and in the B string Natalie Farman took second place. In the U17 80m Hurdles Claire Humphries easily won the A string with a time of 12.2s and Rebecca Hore ran well to win the B string race with a time of 14.0s

This was followed by the 400m. In the A string Steph Sattin continues to show promise in an event which is still new to her and dipped under 60secs for the second time this season to come second in the A string with 59.9s. In the B string coming straight from her sprint hurdles race, Rebecca Hore was third with 66.7. The 200 m sprint followed the 400m and in the A string Claire Humphries was 3rd with a time of 26.5s and in the B string Claire Jaggard took second spot with a time of 27.2s. The final track event was the 1500m with the team only able to field one athlete. In this race Clare Marsh came 4th in a time of 7.25.0s.

The last two field events were Triple Jump and Javelin. In the Triple Jump Hayley Kruse jumped 10.05m to come 3rd in the A string and Chloe Anne Currie was second in the B string with 9.34m. The two Herts Phoenix Javelin throwers were Katie Grehan and Natalie Farman. Katie had not thrown for a month having been away on holiday and was below her best but still threw well enough to claim second place in the A string 32.79m. Nat Farman in her 4th event of the day, again used all her skills as a Combined Eventer to win the B string with a throw of 28.69m.

Finally in both relays the senior teams came 4th. The 4 x 100m team was Humphries, Kruse, Sattin and Jaggard and the 4 x 400m team was Whitehead, Hore, Kavanagh and Sattin.

The junior squad started the afternoon with the High Jump where Sacha Dowling was 4th in the A string with 1.30m and Ella Lloyd was 3rd in the B string with 1.10m. On the track Frances Slater ran well to win the A string 100m in a time of 13.0s and Abbie Griffiths was 3rd in the B string with 14.0s. At the same time as the 100m, Sarah Miller was securing her first win of 3 in the throws. Sarah won the A string Shot with 9.50m and later went on to win the A string Discus with 27.52m and the B string Javelin with 21.90m. Sarah has enjoyed a very successful season and next year will give the senior squad more strength in the throws disciplines when she moves up to this age group.  Also, very successful in the throws was Hannah Lok who competed with Sarah in all 3 throws. Hannah was second in the B string Shot with 7.68m, 3rd in the Discus with 17.82m and won the A string Javelin with a new personal best throw of 26.33m.

Next on the track was the 800m where Ella Lloyd was 3rd in the A string with a time of 2.39.5s and Abbie Griffiths won the B string race with 2.39.2s. In the Long Jump Sacha Dowling jumped well to come second in the A string with a leap of 4.47m and Katie Burr was 4th in the B string.  Next on the track Francis Slater was 3rd in the 75m Hurdles with a time of 13.3s and Sacha Dowling came  4th in the B string race. In the 200m Frances Slater was 3rd in the A string and Ella Lloyd was 4th in the B string and the only runner in the 1500, Katie Burr came 4th with 5.47.2.

Finally the U 15 sprint relay team of Dowling, Griffiths, Burr and Slater were 3rd with a time of 55.5s.

The match result was    
1    Colchester    156.5
2    Chelmsford    146
3    Basildon    133
4    Herts Phoenix    132.5

Final League Table
               Team                                                        Match Points    League Points
1st          Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow AC        840.5                    19
2nd         Reading AC                                                   807.5                    16
3th          Herts Phoenix AC                                          783                       16
4th          Guildford & Godalming AC                             770.5                    17
5th          Colchester Harriers                                       740                       16
6th          Radley AC                                                     707                        14
7th          Horsham Blue Star Harriers                          694                        13
8th          Dacorum & Tring AC                                     688.5                     12
9th          Stevenage & North Herts AC                        677.5                     11.5
10th        Chelmsford AC                                             669                         11
11th        Newquay & Par AC                                      653.5                      11
12th        Brighton & Hove City AC                              651                         13.5
13th        Basildon AC                                                 612                         10
14th        Ealing, Southall & Middlesex AC                  590.5                        8
15th        Crawley AC                                                 493.5                        7
16th        Ashford AC                                                 293                           3

Ian Burrows and Lisa Currie (Herts Phoenix Women’s Team Managers)