Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow Athletic Club

Team spirit brought the National League team from Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow A.C. (WSEH) just rewards at their last .UK League match of the season Saturday. They placed 2nd in the match to the mighty City of Manchester club and in front of other highly funded big city clubs such as Edinburgh and Birchfield. This was despite the last minute withdrawals of the club’s top Javelin thrower, one of the clubs top sprinters and missing two of the club’s top sprint hurdlers.
The result placed the WSEH Ladies team fourth in the final league table for 2008 in the UK’s most prestigious athletics league.
Team commitment really was the key factor the team’s success on the day and the club’s top Hammer thrower, Joanne John, lead the way by competing despite badly spraining her ankle during training earlier in the week. Heavily strapped and prepared by the club’s physio, Bob Fudge, John placed a very creditable 4th in the “A” string with a superb 57.36 metre throw, before returning to Fudge for some post competition restorative work.
John, like others in the team, turned out to compete for this crucial club match, despite having the lucrative UK Challenge Cup Final at TVAC next weekend. Other selfless athletes who did this included top sprinter Helen Pryer and 400 & 800 specialists Dawn Wilson & Shelayna Oskan, who gained a double victory in the 400m races.
Throwers Emma Carpenter & Bola Ogun followed suit, as did top class Middle Distance athlete Kerry Harty, despite it meaning trips across from Northern Ireland on successive weekends.
More evidence of team spirit was evident in athletes adding a second event to their key discipline. This was lead by Oskan, who did the tough 800/400 double and then ran a leg of the 4x400 relay.
Laura Rogers competed in Pole Vault, her key event and the Triple Jump at the same time, perhaps sacrificing a narrowly missed personal best in the vault in the process.
Then Caroline Heaney added the sprint hurdles to her one lap race, despite having nursed a niggling injury for several weeks and Frances Smithson added the Javelin to the High Jump to cover for Rosie Semenytsh who is nursing a slight back strain to be on top form for the UK Challenge.
Add to this the selfless attitude of up and coming young multi-event athlete Bunmi Awokoya, who on several occasions, changed the events she was originally earmarked for to facilitate cover of gaps caused by drop-outs and the picture is almost complete.
Add to this Caroline Livingstone answering a call up to cover the last minute drop out of sprinter Chinedu Monye, Jo Botwright turning out to cover the Discus for injured Joanne despite still feeling some effects of a recent car accident, Maxine Clarke vaulting after having just got over a severe tummy bug, Christine Long completing her 800m race despite the manifestation of an injury during the race and U20s, Jenny Heckford and Vicky Fouhy racing having just returned from holiday and the picture is almost complete.
Whilst new signing, Laura McGawn, continued to impress with her willingness to compete regularly and in doubling and more in any of her strong mulit-events, Sarah Rossiter and Alison MacLeod both competed despite recently suffering from illness and injury. To complete the picture, Carolyn Dickie travelled down from Northumbria to join Jane Sheard in the 3000m race, to great effect.
Camaraderie was such that even a rare baton drop in 4x100 relay could not cast a shadow and the day was crowned with the spectacle of an exciting, successful 4x400 relay that had the crowd on its feet!