Summer 2024 track & field season success!
As it did in 2022 and 2023, the 2024 summer season has gone really well for the club.
In the National Athletic League – we compete in the top division and finished 5th this season to secure our place in the highest level of club athletics.
In the Youth Development League Upper – for under 20s and under 17s – we compete in the top division in our region and with results including a second place and a third place, we in finished 3rd this season.
In the Southern Athletics League – for seniors, under 20s and under 17s – we compete in the top division and finished 2nd this season.
In the Youth Development League Lower – for U13s and U15s – we finished 2nd, with a 3rd place and three 2nd places in the 4 matches.
In the Alder Valley League, which is a development league for U13s, U15s & U17s, we had a huge number of athletes compete and achieve great development – for example academy athletes enjoyed 40 third places, 50 second places and over 30 first places and secured over 100 PBs!
We have 475 active members, i.e. athletes training and competing. We are a thriving and welcoming community athletics club.
National Athletic League
We are proud to be one of the top eight clubs in the country, who compete in the Premiership Division. In 2021 and 2022 when the premiership division was 16 clubs, we finished in the top 8 to qualify for National Finals. This year, as we did in 2023, we finished in the top 5 to secure our place in the highest level of club athletics
After the first match of the season, team manager Lesley Pearson said “What an amazing Team effort! Wow you all did amazing. We finished 3rd on the day! Brilliant, amazing, mind blowing team performance. What a great start to the season, thank you to every athlete and their support team of coaches and parental support. A big thank you to our officials, with a full complement of qualified officials we receive the full quota available 50 points!! That’s a lot of points for the team that really do make a huge difference”.
After the second match of the season, Lesley said “Wow what a mixture of weather conditions we had at the 2nd NAL match at Woodford Green yesterday! Thank you to all of the officials and athletes who turned out for the team, you all did an amazing job! We went into this match needing a good result to try to secure a good position going into the 3rd and final match of the season. We really do have an incredible bunch of athletes and coaches who worked together to help fill gaps. We had 6 brilliant wins on the day and we had loads great examples of athletes stepping out of their comfort zones and stepping up for the team, examples that make the difference between the teams final finishing position. We had 7 athletes rewarded with PB’s and 8 with SB’s, congratulations. We had 6 x 1st place, 5 x 2nd place, 7 x 3rd place, 11 x 4th place, 13 x 5th place, 18 x 6th place, 7 x 7th place and 4 x 8th place. Every team has to provide a full complement of highly qualified officials to secure an additional 50 points for the team. Luckily for WSEH we had our full quota standing out in the pouring rain for the team to get rewarded with maximum points. Points that are so precious, thanks to all the officials and the 50 points you secured for the team. You were all amazing and all deserve a mention as every performance whether you felt it was good, bad or OK was so important to the team, as the points meant we finished 5th on the day, 2 points ahead of 6th! An amazing performance from the team and we filled every event on the day, something I can’t remember us ever doing before. We remain 3rd in the table going into the last match of the season”.
Youth Development League Upper
We compete in the top division in our region, delivering a high level of competition for under 17s and under 20s.
After the second match of the season, team manager Nick Pearson said “Thanks to an amazing team effort we managed to finish a in a very strong second place. We had an incredible amount of wins and PB’s throughout the day, but most importantly to the team performance, we had a great spirit of team support and cooperation, we managed to get most events filled, lots of athletes gained invaluable points in events they weren’t used to, and this made such a difference. As the day came to an end, once again, we managed to rally athletes together into 8 relay teams and finished the match strong, earning more relay points than any other club. It was a brilliant day and lots of fun”.
Southern Athletics League
We compete in the top division of the Southern Athletics League, which offers really good competitive athletics for athletes across the club. In 2021 we finished 2nd, in 2022 we finished just 2 points behind the winners, in 2023 we finished 3rd and this year we finished 2nd, to once again be one of the top clubs in the south of England.
Team manager Irene Speller:
“A big thank you to our SAL team at Medway over the weekend. it was a super day thanks to a great team of athletes, officials & coaches who helped pull everything together on the day. And also to such a supportive group of parents. What a lovely day we had. The commitment & team spirit it took to endure the long day created by the match being in Gillingham and the weekend closure of part of the M25 was justly rewarded. WE WON THE MATCH !! And retained our position as SAL league leaders, with just one match to go”.
“Many thanks to the athletes who competed at the second match of the season, several of whom stepped in to cover events. Everyone’s efforts were greatly rewarded with a massive win!! It was a great day of athletics, full of typical commitment & team spirit, which produced great performances, both individually and team-wise. The match results were: WSEH – 335 / Ipswich & Colchester – 242.5 / Southampton – 234 / Medway & Maidstone – 207 / Dartford – 201 / Winchester – 140.5”
“A big thank you to everyone who was there for an enjoyable, exciting and VERY successful day yesterday. We won the match with an impressive margin. No mean feat, when you consider 2 of our rivals are also in the 8 team Premier Division of the National League (NAL). A great start to our 4 match SAL series. The match scores were: WSEH 325 / TVH 281.5 / Harrow 227.5 / Wycombe & Chiltern 218 / Bracknell 197 / Medway & Maidstone 156. So thanks and many congratulations….. To the athletes, our super coaches and our brilliant team of officials and volunteers”.
Youth Development League Lower
Team manager David Chilvers:
“An excellent end to the league season with another 2nd place and overall 2nd in the league with 24 points only 2 points behind Bracknell and 4 points ahead of Bedford. Matt Heffer and I would like to thank all the athletes, their parents and coaches, volunteers and officials for all their time and support throughout the season and for the tremendous excitement and fun that has been generated”.
“What an exciting day at Hemel Hempstead on Sunday. The athletes really dug deep and put in amazing performances which meant that Windsor achieved FIRST PLACE beating Bracknell by at least 16 points! This means that after 2 of 4 matches Windsor, Bracknell and Bedford are tied at the top of the YDL League Table with 12 League points each. We had 23 wins, 25 second places and 13 third places: – OUTSTANDING! I would like to thank all of the parents and athletes for travelling all the way to Hemel Hempstead and creating such an electric atmosphere for the athletes especially for the close duals down the home straight. A special thank you to the many reserve athletes who came in at the last minute to replace those who were injured and did so well!”
“What an exciting day at Bedford yesterday. The athletes were all absolutely amazing putting in an astounding amount of skill, determination and resilience which meant that Windsor achieved third place overall (486 points) but FIRST PLACE on the track with 253 points! We managed to beat Bracknell by just 1 critical point but beat the large home Bedford team by 25 points! There were so many exceptional performances that there are too many to single out here! Although our smaller field team at Windsor meant that we came third overall, it is an excellent result for us and places WSEH in a great position to climb the table over the next 3 meetings. We had 26 wins, 19 second places and 12 third places: – OUTSTANDING! There was a 100% attendance which contributed to the result. I would like to thank all of the parents and athletes for travelling all the way to Bedford and creating such a great team atmosphere especially for the excitement of the relays. A special thank you to those who did multiple events and an extra special thank you to the reserve athletes and their parents who travelled to Bedford and provided their support throughout the day!”