Track and Field Round-Up May 4th (Updated)

Senior Track and Field action over the weekend centred around the British Universities Championships at Bedford, and the Men's "B" team in action at the Southern League at Braintree. There was also news of a useful season opening performance from Nusrat Ceesay in the US.

Best performance amongst the WGwEL athletes representing their universities in the wind and rain at Bedford over the bank holiday weekend came in the women's long jump where Kim Murray took the title with a jump of 5.82m.

Also making it to a final, was GB junior international, Junior Ejehu, who finished 5th in the 200m with a time of 21.85 secs (w?), after recording 21.84 secs (w?) in his semi-final. In the heats of the 1500m there was a pb for Andrew Mariani where he recorded 3m54.73 secs to qualify for the semi-finals, but he was unable to progress any further after recording 4m11.73 secs. There was also a pb over 400mH for James Meadows with 58.3 secs in his heat, but he too was unable to progress any further with 63.22 secs in his semi-final. Omar Mansour comfortably qualified from his 800m heat with 1m57.70 secs, but he also was unable to progress beyond the semi-final where he recorded 2m01.10 secs. Junior GB cross country international Ronnie Sparke, comfortably qualified for the 5000m final with a 14m50.40secs heat time, but did not finish in the final. Other results included; Gareth Turner 400m heat, 52.10secs; Adrian Stamp, long jump 6.24m; Elycia Belt, discus 28.91m; Pavidra Sivahahddarajah, 200m, 29.09 secs ( a week after running the London Marathon!), and HCA member Emily Moss, 400mH 62.87 secs. Full BUCS results here.

The Men's "B" team competed in the first Southern Men's League at Braintree, and with a number of gaps, notably in some of the jumps, the sprint hurdles and middle distance and steeplechase, the team struggled overall to finish 5th. There were however some encouraging individual performances. Emeka Udechuku took the match discus with 55.48m, and then threw as a guest in the second match of this double fixture were he achieveed a season's best of 59.08m. Also throwing as a guest was Devon Douglas who recorded 43.29m in the discus and 14.37m in the shot. On the track,  there was a 5000m winning double form Bertie Powell and Jamie Nunn with times of 15m10.5 secs and 15m45.4 secs respectively. Dan Bray continued his comeback and comfortably took the 400mH with an encouraging 54.6 secs,a and there was a pb for John Pride as he placed 2nd in the "B" event with 58.8 secs. David Olupitan and Ivor Mbaeyi picked up useful points in the sprints, as did Nmandi Umeh (53.9 secs) and Omolulo Abiodun (53.1 secs ) in the 400m. Although not his usual distance Tom Larkin stepped up to the 800m and recorded 2m05.7 secs. In the field, Peter Karibo gained useful points in all three jumps, veteran Keith Newton won the "B" triple jump with 12.48m, another veteran Fergus Harford gained points in all throws, whilst junior Tom Richards recorded a pb in the javelin with 50.40m as he placed 2nd. The 4x100m relay team placed 1st and the 4x400m team 3rd. Full SML results here.

Competing in the BMC meeting at Street, Alex Cornwell recorded 4m00.66 secs over 1500m, whilst n the US competing at the Steve Scott Invitational at Irvine California, last season's UK 400mH champion, Nusrat Ceesay opened her season with a victory over that distance in a time of 58.91 secs. At the same meeting, HCA member, GB 400m international, Vicky Barr, lowered her 100m pb to 11.90 secs (w +1.5) in placing 6th, and was 2nd over 200m with 23,86 secs (+0.5). Sarah Bird was in action at Lisle, Illinois where she placed 8th over 5000m with 18m10.71 secs

Back to the field, where Mark Dry competed in a hammer competition at an Open Meeting at Birmingham University, winning with a useful 69.44m, and  whilst not a track result, but over a track distance, new member Kevin Kane placed 2nd in the Greenock road mile in a time of 4m02 sec, one sec behind the winner.