Tara Bird achieved a win double in the 400m and 1,500m at the weekend

Woodford Green with Essex Ladies suffered relegation from the UK Women’s League Premier Division on Saturday.

Woodford Green with Essex Ladies suffered relegation from the UK Women’s League Premier Division on Saturday.

In the final fixture of the season at Swansea, a depleted Woodford Green team – missing several athletes due to injury and unavailability – plunged into the bottom two and were relegated by a single league point.

Tara Bird did her best to secure the team’s top-flight status with a win double in the 400 metres and 1,500m.

The 25-year-old clocked 54.47 seconds to win the 400m and stormed to a personal best 4.29.07 in the 1,500m.

There was victory too for Jo Ryan in the 400m B race in 56.71 and she later placed seventh in the 200m in 26.03.

With every point vital, team members competed in several events, with their efforts embodied by Kitty Eleyae who picked up points in the B 200m (seventh), long jump (fifth) and 100m (seventh).

In the B 100m Alicia Roberts-Brown was seventh and Katherine Foy, short on fitness, was eighth in the 400m hurdles and seventh in the 800m.

Zoe Watson was sixth in both the B 400m hurdles and B 800m and Bernadine Pritchett, never intending to race on the track this year, answered the call to try to stave off relegation and finished seventh in the 1,500m.

Likewise in the 3,000m Rachel Lund and Becky Hewitt answered last-minute calls and finished fifth in the respective A and B races, while Diana Kennedy, recently back from injury, was fifth in the 2,000m steeplechase.

In the B 100m hurdles Moe Sasegbon placed fifth, but was third in her preferred high jump with 1.70m and also stepped into the B shot put where she was seventh.

The 100m hurdles saw talented junior Holly Pattie-Belleli disqualified for a false start, she did however, bounce back to gain valuable points in the B javelin – coming sixth.

Hollie Redman was seventh in the javelin and discus and placed third in the B hammer.

The A hammer saw Lucy Marshall place third and also picked up seventh-placed points in the shot put.

There were valuable points picked up in the field by Ayamba Akim (second in the B high jump), Hannah Frankson (third in the B long jump and first in the B triple jump) and Stephanie Aneto (third in the A triple jump).

Consequently, Woodford Green finished seventh on the day with 145.5 points, leaving them with nine league points overall and relegated alongside Enfield.