Track and Field Round-up

WGwEL athletes were in action at the Bedford International Games on Sunday, and at the BMC Manchester Grand Prix on Saturday. The weekend's warm weather helped the arthletes at Bedford and there were pb's for Elaine O'Neill, Kim Murray and Hannah Frankson. There were also some good performances at Manchester the previous evening.

Elaine O'Neill, in placing 3rd over 200m with 23.58secs (-0.1), improved her pb for the second time this season and set a qualifying mark for the European U/23 Championships. Two jumpers also set pb's at Bedford, Kim Murray recorded 6.08m (-0.8) for 3rd in the long jump, and Hannah Frankson recorded 12.86m (-0.6) for 3rd in the triple jump, behind Stephanie Aneto who was second with 13.02m w (+3.1). In the men's long jump Ezekiel Ewolu was 4th with 7.12m ( 0.0), whilst Sayo Ojo jumped 13.22m in the triple jump.

Also sprinting well was junior Eugene Ayanful, who recorded a season's best of 10.77 secs (0.0) to win the "C" race. In the throws, Emeka Udechuku set a season's best in the shot with 17.51m for second, and won the discus with 53.97m. In the hammer, Alistair Williamson was second with 60.37m, and Stuart Harvey was 4th in the javelin with 68.84m. Junior Anthony Oshodi was just outside his recent pb in the shot with 17.55m for second in the U/20 event. Another junior, Maria Seager, was 4th in the pole vault with 3.65m.

At the BMC Grand Prix meeting on Saturday evening in Manchester, Tara Bird placed second over 800m with 2m04.39secs, and NZ para-Olympian Tim Prendergast recorded a useful 15m14.49 secs over 5000m. Another performing well over 5km was Martin Cryer, who has missed recent track seasons, but showed useful road relay form, and recorded 14m35.40 secs for 4th in the "B" race. HCA athletes, Damien Moss took the "A" 800m in 1m48.04 secs, and there was a pb for Ross Clarke in the the "D" race with 1m 51.92 secs. Full results and details of other Woodford performances here

Racing in Belgrade on Friday evening, Joice Maduaka placed 3rd over 100m with 11.59 secs and 4th over 200m with 24.42 secs.