Watford Harriers began the newly formed Southern Athletics League with a share of first place in the opening match at Woodside.

Under-20 athlete Jack Noone produced arguably the best performance of the day winning the triple jump with a jump of 13.22m which was just 7cm shy of his best. He also came second in the long jump with a personal best of 5.99.

Thrower Ray McKenna has started the season in fine style and is currently ranked fifth in the M35 category at the shot and sixth in discus. He came within a few centimetres of his season's best when winning both of these events. He also gained a PB when obtaining second place in the hammer, with a substantial improvement on his previous best.

McKenna was very well backed up by Mark Gurney in the discus. As an U-17 this was his first competition with the heavier men’s discus and javelin and he did very well to win the ‘B’ string of both of these events.

A very good day in the throwing events was completed by Dan Tarrant who won the javelin. He also won the high jump, 110m hurdles, came second in the 400m hurdles and won the ‘B’ string pole vault and competed in both relays.

There is currently a very strong U-17 middle distance group at the club and although none of this group won their main events, there were some very good performances against older athletes. Ben Rochford in the 1500m and Harvey O’Brart in the 800m impressed moving high up the national rankings. They were well supported by Tom Verbana, who despite feeling under the weather put in a leg of the short relay as well as his more normal 1500m race and Corey Keane who even managed to win the ‘B’string 200m as well as running well in his specialist 800m distance.

Liam Sulaman won the ‘B’ string of both the high jump and triple jump and ran a good leg in the relay.

Nick Harris won the 2000m steeplechase, ‘B’ string 100m hurdles and came second in the 400m hurdles.

Josh Dombey made his first appearance for the club for probably four years and off of absolutely no training done very well to gain second place in the pole vault. There were also wins for Graham Mayoh in the ‘B’ string steeplechase, with Matt Adcock coming second in the 5000m on his first track outing for several seasons and Zac McDonough won the ‘B’ string of this event.

The women’s teamis best performance came from Chloe Rixon when winning the triple jump with a jump of 9.69. This was 16 centimetres shy of her PB, achieved at an indoor meeting at Lee Valley earlier in the season. She also did well in the 100m and relay team.

Paige Smith put in encouraging performances in the long jump and 200m while Tatiana Peters came second in the ‘B’ string 400m with a performance that might see her elevated to the ‘A’ string event in the near future.

Chloe Dearman managed to perform well in the 200m, 800m and the relay.

Natalie Wickings ran very strongly to win the 1500m and also came second in the ‘B’ string javelin. Liza Croft, on her debut for the club, ran a very good race to secure second overall in the 1500m and win the ‘B’ string of the event.

There was another very strong showing from Helen Johal when coming second in the 3000m. This moved her up to fourth in the F40 national rankings, even though she has only recently returned from injury.

With the club currently short on throwers, Zoe McQuire made her debut for the club gaining invaluable points in all four throwing events and was well backed by team manager Christine Dearman.

The real stars of the women’s team were without doubt the sisters - Angela Halford and Alison Putko, both competing in no less than five individual events and a relay. They made their debut at both high jump and steeplechase which is a new event for area leagues, gaining first or second place in virtually every event they done.