Loughborough International

A number of WGwEl athletes competed at the Loughborough International on Sunday. This traditional early season fixture sees Loughborough University past and present take on teams from England, Scotland, Wales, GB Juniors and a combined British Universities team. The match result saw England run out comfortable winners and, despite the unhelpful wet and windy weather, there were a number of fine performances, including useful season's debuts from internationals Emeka Udechuku and Graham Hedman, and a European U/23 Championship qualifying mark over 800m from Tara Bird.

Despite being beaten in the last 50m by Scotland's Clair Gibson, Tara Bird (Eng) in 2nd had the consolation of recording her second fastest ever time of 2m03.71 secs, inside UKA's qualifying mark for the European Under 23 Championships of 2m04 secs, and was pleased with running the second lap a little quicker than the first. Tara later contributed the fastest leg (54.3 secs) to England's winning 4x400m relay squad. Woodford's youngest member competing, Ronnie Sparke, had a fine run over 3000m, recording a personal best of 8m21.46 secs, and although finishing behind several senior athletes, competing as a guest he was the first junior and just pipped the athlete picked to represent GB Juniors in the match. Two other juniors in action were Junior Ejehu (GB Juniors), over 200m 5th with 21.92secs (+0.1), and Eugene Ayanful in the guest 150m event, 4th with 16.15 secs.

Britain's number one discus man Emeka Udechuku (L'boro), having a low key start to the season having recently got married, had a solid discus effort of 57.68m for 2nd, and then 16.72m in the shot. In the latter, Carl Fletcher (Eng) was just ahead with 16.88m for 3rd in the match. Also in good throwing form, with a pb, was Mark Dry (Scot) in the hammer with 66.33m for 4th.

Graham Hedman made his season's debut over 400m where, from the outside lane, he recorded a solid 47.2 secs for 3rd. Fellow 400m international Nick Leavey raced over 300m and placed 3rd in 33.8 secs,  later recording 47.2 secs on the second leg for the winning England 4x400m team. There was some fast hurdling from Callum Priestley over 110mH who was second in 13.87 secs, with Daniel Davis also 2nd, in the "B" race with 14.51 secs. Over 400mH Francis Smith was 5th with 52.96 secs.

Of Woodford's HCA members in action, Damien Moss was the most impressive with a fine win over 800m in 1m49.76 secs; Ross Clarke was 3rd in the "B" 1500m with 3m52.09 secs; Martin Lloyd high jumped 2.11m for 2nd, and Jo Ryan recorded 55.7 secs over 400m.