Indoor Round-Up 18th January - Updated

The second weekend of the South of England Indoor Championships at Lee Valley brought seven medals for WGwEL athletes, and several personal best performances.

The one gold medal winning performance came from discus specialist Tom Norman who took the shot with a new personal best of 14.90m. There was a very fine silver in the triple jump where Tosin Oke cleared 16.68m, finishing just 8cm behind world champion Philips Idowu. There were further silver medals for Kim Murray in the long jump with 5.89m, Rachel Dean in the U/17 triple jump with 11.19m, and for Nick Leavey in the senior men's 200m with 22.04 secs. Tim Abeyie in fact crossed the line first, but was disqualified for a lane infringement having clocked a good 21.59 secs in his semi-final. In the junior 200m, Paul Scanlan continued to improve his personal bests as he picked up a bronze medal with 22.60 secs. There was a further bronze medal for Junior Ejehu in the U/20 60m, also with a personal best of 6.89 secs,

In the senior men's 60m, last season's European Junior 100m bronze medalist, Eugene Ayanful, placed 6th in the final with 6.83 secs, after a fine personal best of 6.78 secs to qualify from his semi-final. Colin Wilson was also in good form, progressing to the semi-final, where he was disqualified, but he clocked a season's best of 6.87 secs in the 2nd round. Hurdler, Dan Davis recorded 7.03 secs in his heat. In the women's 60m three WGwEL athletes progressed to the semi-finals, with Azaria Francis the quickest with 7.80 secs, Katie Skelding recording 8.00 secs, and Kim Murray, 8.15 secs. Both Katie and Azaria also made the 200m final where Katie placed 4th in 25.99 secs, but Azaria did not finish, having recorded 26.06 secs to qualify. In the men's U/20 60m, last season's World Youth 200m finalist, Saw Watts recorded a personal best of 7.09 secs to finish 3rd in his semi-final.

In the 1500m events, the senior women's was a straight final, where Bernadine Pritchett placed 5th with 4m52.62 secs and Diana Kennedy 6th with 4m52.82 secs. The men however had to cope with heats and a final on the same day, as Gavin Lewis placed 8th with 4m12.74 secs after recording 4m02.98 secs to qualify. Others in action included Peter Kirabo who was 12th in the men's U/20 Triple Jump with 12.71 secs, Chris Linque who was 7th in the men's shot with 11.71m, Chris Vickers who recorded 23.97 secs in the men's 200m heats and Hollie Pattie-Belleli who recorded a personal best of 9.43 secs as she progressed to the U/17 60m Hurdles semi-final. HCA members in action were Martin Lloyd, who picked up a bronze medal in the high jump with 2.15m, and Louise Shortland who was equal 4th in the pole vault with 3.40m.

In Manchester at a specialised pole vault competition, Maria Seager equalled her personal best with a clearance of 4.05m. Christian North and Alasdair Strange were unable to produce their form of the previous weekend, with Christian clearing 4.83m, and Alasdair no-heighting.

In Glasgow, at the Scottish inter-regional championships, Francis Smith opened his indoor season, comfortably winning over 60mH with 8.21 secs, and placing 3rd over 200m with 22.76 secs