Promotion into Southern Athletics League’s top flight was the prize for City of Salisbury track and field athletes after another brilliant performance at Hemel Hempstead in the last of the summer season’s fixtures.
For the second consecutive year, the triumphant club were good enough to scoop the league division championship too.
Against three rival teams, they threw everything they had into Saturday’s competition despite their now-recovering club captain Alex Mundell being sidelined by a traffic accident just the day before.
This result for the Salisbury club is extraordinary and unlocks entry into the South’s elite division for the first time, the culmination of their best ever campaign despite an unwelcome 15 month absence from their home track at Five Rivers that ended only in the early months of 2019.
The track squad’s outstanding success comes hot on the heels of the club’s road-runners’ multiple wins at individual and team level in the Hampshire road race league as reported two weeks ago.
Club president Dave Amey, a member for more than six decades, said:
“We have never reached this level in track and field athletics before, or even been close to it – it’s a huge achievement and I’m so proud of the effort put in by the whole team, including our officials and my fellow coaches. Looking at the clubs we’ve defeated this season, we may not always have been the strongest but we’ve managed to fill almost every event in every match.
It’s the willingness of our athletes to work their collective socks off that has produced the success we can now celebrate.”
Winners on the day were: Hammer: Ben Jones 45.47m; 5,000m: Jaymee Domoney 16min 5.7sec; 110m hurdles: Brad Cannon 17.3sec; 400m hurdles: Hamish Mundell 59.7sec; Long Jump A: Richard Holt 6.39m;
Long jump B: Dan Brown 5.85m; Triple jump A: Richard Holt 12.95m; Triple Jump B: Dan Brown 12.00m; Long jump A: Skye Allen 4.85m; Long jump B: Martha Royle 4.48m; Triple jump A: Skye Allen 10.61m; Triple jump B: Hattie Legg 9.2m.
Among City of Salisbury’s new opponents next season starting in April 2020 will be the South of England’s top track clubs including Windsor, Slough, Eton and Hounslow; Blackheath; Thames Valley Harriers; and Southampton AC.
Work is currently underway to resurface and improve Salisbury’s only 400m track, with completion scheduled in September.
By John Ruskin
*credit to Shane Wilkinson for tirelessly supplying action photos, superbly capturing the occasion every time for each of the events throughout the season.