Fine discus throwing by Woodford's young athletes
It was a very difficult weekend for track and field athletics with the real heroes being the officials who braved rain and high winds to keep the National Young Athletes League at the Woodford Green track on Sunday and the Essex Championships at Thurrock on Monday going. The weather at Woodford was so bad that the pole vault had to be cancelled, depriving the home club of valuable points.
Nevertheless there were some fine performances by young Woodford Green athletes at both meetings with the club winning the league match from Herne Hill and Bedford and County.
At Woodford Joe Liscalis, despite the terrible conditions, threw the discus for a National Standard Grade 1 Under 15 distance of 40.56m, putting him in No 1 spot in the UK for 2010. He then followed this up with an even better performance at Thurrock with 42.94m.
Also at Thurrock, Youcef Zatat won the under 17 discus with an Under 17 Grade 1 performance of 48.34m.
Back on the Saturday at Woodford, Holly Pattie-Belilli returned to top form with triple wins running 13.3 sec for the 80m hurdles, 47.7 sec for the 300m hurdles and clearing 1.45m in the high jump, all in the same wet and windy conditions.