Essex Championships
Anthony Oshodi, in his first year as an under 20, improved his recent personal best in the shot by over a metre to take the title in a new CBP, and Club U/20 record of 17.60m and move to second on this year's UK rankings. Anthony picked up two further medals as he placed 3rd in both hammer and discus with 44.60m and 46.88m. Another to move to second on this year's U/20 UK rankings was Peter Clarke as he won the hammer with a personal best of 61.73m, following younger brother Harry who had taken the U/17 title with a pb of 47.56. Kurt Martyr was 4th in the hammer with 43.03m. Ahead of Anthony in the discus, in second, it was pleasing to see Lee Mathurin back in action with a pb and new Club U/20 record 48.57m. Sam Turner took the U/20 javelin title with 51.13, whilst Tom Richards took bronze in the U/17 event with 47.89m, and young James Bangart took the U/15 title with 35.07m. In the U/17 discus there was silver for Youcef Zatat with 40.07m, and he was also 6th in the javelin with 43.53m .
Of the senior throwers, Devon Douglas took both shot and discus titles, with new pb marks of 14.88m and 43.03m. Behind Devon in the discus Chris Linque picked up silver with 42.19m, having earlier placed 4th in the shot with 12.08m. In the hammer Fergus Harford was 4th with 36.83m. Other men's field action was led by a gold for U/17 triple jumper David Crisp with 13.54 m, gold also in the U/17 high jump for Billy Falconer and there was silver in the senior men's long jump for Nick Dowsett with 6.42m. Vet 40 Keith Newton took the senior men's TJ title with 13.54m, whilst there were Vet championship medals for Martin Holgate, second over 400m and Richard Holland in the 1500m
Women's field performances were led by another shot title for Britain's number one, Jo Duncan, with 14.88m. U/20 Sam Moodie also picked up gold with 1.60m high jump, and U/17 Rachel Dean took the TJ with 10.88m and bronze in the long jump with 4.79m. In the U/20 hammer, Sam Smith took the title with.........and senior Hollie Redman placed........and in the discus....... U/15 Ebony Bobb-Semple was 6th in the LJ with 4.35m. There was a silver for U/15 Catherine Birch in the DT with 24.95m
Middle distance track performances were led by Jessica and Ronnie Sparke. Jessica enjoyed a comfortable win over 1500m to take the senior title in 4m27.32 secs whilst younger brother Ronnie led a host of fine Woodford peformances in the U/20 1500m; Ronnie ran out winner with a fine 3m54.32 secs, ahead of Omar Mansour on 3m 56.16secs, Alex Cornwell 4th in 3m56.88 and Gavin Lewis 7th with 4m02.91 secs. The previous day Omar had displaced Ronnie as Woodford's fastest U/20 over 800m this season by just 0.01 secs as he recorded 1m53.77 for silver. In the senior men's 800m there was bronze for Ashley Mildenhall with 1m54.06 secs ahead of Andrew Mariani, 5th with 1m57.02 secs and Jon Long with 1m58.32 secs in 6th. In the senior 1500m Andrew Mariani returned to pick up bronze with 3m58.46 secs, whilst Jon Long was 7th with 4m05.64 secs. In the U/17 men's 800m there was a fine pb for Ben Phillips, placing second with 2m01.15 secs. Liam Blaikie made the final where he placed 8th in2m12.26 secs, after a 2m05.5 secs heat clocking. Just missing out on final spots were Chris Sear 2m05.8 secs and Daniel Yaxley, 2m06.7 secs. Another to just miss out on the final was James Stockings in the U/15 event but he did record a pb of 2m17.0 secs. In the senior 5000m Angus Holford placed 10th with 16m46.88 secs.
Other women's middle distance efforts were led by Georgie-Lou Sales who took the U/20 1500m title with 4m37.8 secs, and picked up silver in the 800m with 2m16.08 secs. Another picking up two medals was U/20 Kathrine Foy, who competed in the senior 800m and 400m, placing third in each with times of 2m15.89 secs and 59.65 secs, after a 59.22 secs pb in her heat. That senior 400m final saw Katie Skelding pick up silver with a time of 56.49 secs, and later place 5th over 200m with 25.00 secs (w?).
Decathlete James Wright, now considering a serious move to 400mH, ran out winner in 56.08 secs, although struggling with his stride pattern over the last three barriers. The U/20 flat 400m saw sprinter Eugene Ayanful place 5th with 51.57 secs and Alex Brown 6th in 53.42 secs. Both were much quicker in their heats, with Eugene recording a pb of 50.16 secs, and Alex 50.25 secs. Chris Vickers just missed out on the final with 51.97 secs. The U/20 200m final saw three Woodford athletes compete; Eugene was best placed with 22.02 secs (+2.0) for third, Ben Peacock 7th with 22.32 secs (+2.0) and Sam Watts, easing up, 8th in 22.35 secs. Sam had earlier produced a fine pb to qualify, recording 21.78 secs (+1.6). Nnamdi Umeh just missed out on the final with 23.03 secs (+1.6). The previous day over 100m, Sam picked up bronze with 11.03secs (-1.0) with Ben 5th with 11.33 secs (-1.0) and Nnamdi 6th with 11.65 (-1.0) secs. Whilst on the Monday over 200m there were 3 finalists in the U/17 200m: Paul Scanlan 5th with 23.69 secs (-1.6; 23.41 ht +0.9);Tom Larkin 7th 24.05 secs (23.40 secs heat) and Peter Kirabo 8th 24.67 secs (23.89 secs heat. These 3 were all back in action for the 400m U/17 final on
In the U/15 Boys sprints there were two medals for Keira-Lamar McCook - 3rd over 200m with25.12 secs, (-1.0) and second over 100m. Joseph Dewar recorded 13.57 secs in his 100m heat, placed 5th over 200m with 26.80 sesc (-1.0) and 6th over 80mH with 12.71 secs (-2.3) after a 12.67 secs heat. Of the U/15 girls there was a bronze over 300m for Georgina Ferarri, whilst in the U17 women's 300mH Sophie Fuhr placed 5th with 49.84 secs. In the U/17 80mH Hollie Pattie-Belleli was 8th with 13.14 secs, after a 12.95 secs heat. Hollie later had a nasty fall in the TJ and was taken to hospital as a precaution, but we understand all was ok.
Woodford HCA members in action at these championships were: Jo Ryan, who took the women's 400m title in 55.44 secs and later silver in the 200m with 24.42 secs (w?); Rachel Giwa, who took the U/20 women's 200m with 24.85 secs w (+2.8); and Ross Clarke, 2nd over 800m with 1m53.25 secs and 1st over 1500m with 3m54.17 secs. Second claimer Ed Messer was 7th over 800m with 1m59.68 secs and 4th over 1500m with 3m59.82 secs.
Full results of Day One here
Full results of days two and three will be here when available