Indoor round-up March 1st

Despite this being a key "winter" weekend with the National Cross Country Championships, and WGwEL's annual hosting of the Roding Valley Half Marathon, there was still some serious Track and Field action. mostly indoor, led by another significant improvement over 400m for 16 year old Paul Scanlan.

Competing in the England (Open) Indoor Championships at Birmingham's NIA, first year junior Paul Scanlan again improved over 400m. Paul comfortably qualified for the semi-finals winning his heat in 49.18 secs, and then placed second in his semi-final, with a significant personal best of 48.38 secs, a qualifying time for the Irish team for this summer's European Youth Olympics - a target Paul has been aiming for throughout the indoor season. The final, however was a disappointment, won by the athlete that edged Paul in the semi-final, Paul was badly baulked  -  a typical hazard of indoor 400m racing - and ended up walking the last part of the race, crossing the line in 5th, the final finisher of the 6 starters.

At Lee Valley on Saturday WGwEL athletes were in action at the McCain Indoor City Challenge. 400m man Nick Leavey stepped down to 200m and won with a useful 22.04 secs. In the pole vault, Maria Seager placed 3rd in the women's event with 3.80m, and Alasdair Strange 6th in the men's with 4.85m. In the triple jump Stephanie Aneto was 6th with 12.70m and in the shot Devon Douglas was 8th with 14.55m. HCA member Emily Moss was 5th in the 800m with 2m10.88secs.

Competing in Ann Arbor, Michigan, US based, Butler University student, Sarah Bird placed 7th over 5000m with 18m00.21 secs.

During last week Woodford athletes represented their universities at the inter university match at Birmingham. Alasdair Strange rested from pole vaulting and showed his versatility by recording useful performances at high jump and triple jump, with marks of 1.95m and 14.16m. In the long jump, Kim Murray recorded 5.74m and also 25.70 secs over 200m. Natalie Delahuntley also long jumped clearing 5.20m, and another long jumping was HCA member Gemma Weetman who cleared 6.22m to go to 4th on the UK rankings. Multi-eventer Gemma also recorded a useful 11.77m in the shot.

As the Australian outdoor season got into full swing, Yucef Abdi was in action over the 3000m s/ch at the Sydney Classic where he placed 2nd with 8m41.41 secs.