Several Woodford athletes across all age groups were in action indoors at the Essex Championships at Lee Valley. There were two Championship titles for U/15 sprinter Shona Vincent, and there were also titles for Shayne Dewar, Anna Clark and U/13 Abigail Reid. Several others won medals, and other Woodford athletes have also been in action elsewhere.
Several Woodford athletes were in action indoors over the weekend, both in the UK and overseas, where there was a sprint hurdles p.b. for Gabriella Ade-Onojobi, and a p.b. equalling run for Cameron Fillery.
Summer 2018: Gabriella Ade-Onjobi
We had twenty one young athletes arrive at Parliament Hill Fields for these annual championships and, although the ground underfoot was fairly dry, there were a few spots on the course which were a tad muddy. After a very cold week the weather was somewhat milder with a keen westerly wind blowing across the course.
Under 13 Girls
Leading up to the race some of the girls were getting a little nervous, but on the day they all seemed in good spirit with the nerves perhaps switching to the Team Manager who could not stand still for very long at all.
U13 squad: Larna, Kezia, Abigail, Emily, Molly, Tilly, Rosemary, Rose (photo: Nicola Morgan)
Its been a wee while since the Senior Women had a competitive team at the Southerns, so it was encouraging to have a squad of six out on Saturday, and among them a quartet of sufficient quality to place us in the first third, a not too shabby 20th, of the 71 scoring teams.
The names of the scorers are not different to those who have helped reinvigorate our Met League fortunes this winter and it was good to see them fare well over the classic 8k course, not so muddy as in previous years but never, ever to be underestimated. 703 women finished, in a larger field than in some previous national competitions.
A. McArdell, S. Phillips, Z. Watson, R. Lund
Rachel Lund (93) was first home with a very strong run in 32:51, this time ahead of Suzanne Phillips (116) in 33:25 whose struggle for traction from mile three onwards cost her precious places after her stud plate parted company somewhat unhelpfully from her shoe. By this time she may well have been in the sights of Alicia McArdell (138) who had a very gutsy run in her first Southern senior championships, hardly batting an eyelid at the extra 2 kilometres of The Hill, making it three in 33:55. Just shy of a minute behind her Zoe Watson (166) closed for the team, by her own admission, in much fitter fashion (34:41) than last year when she had a bad ’un.
In fifth was V50 Jenny Thomas (419) who made it round in 40:05 followed by V50 Alex Wardle (499) in 42:16.
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