Track and Field Round-Up, May 17th (Updated)

WGwEL senior athletes were in action over the weekend, with the men's "B" team at the Southern Men's League in Portsmouth, and others in action at the Manchester street races and the Halle throws international in Germany, whilst at Woodford the Club promoted its' annual multi-events fixture.

A small team travelled down to Portsmouth, and with several events not covered the overall team result was disappointing. Of those that did travel however there were some good performances. Essex 100m champion, Adrian Stamp placed 2nd over 100m with 11.2 secs, whist junior, David Olupitan was also 2nd in the "B" event with 11.3 secs. David then placed 4th in the 200m with 23.5 secs, with Dan Bray 2nd in the "B" with 23.4 secs. Dan also contested the "B" long and triple jumps recording marks of 6.44m and 11.81m for 1st and 2nd respectively, whilst Adrian recorded a season's best in the long jump with 6.56m for 2nd in the "A", and veteran Keith Newton was also 2nd in the "A" triple jump with 12.93m Best performance in the jumps however, came from Polish international, Robert Wolski who won the high jump with a fine 2.15m. Other track results included a 2nd over 400mH for Ben Phillips with 59.1 secs and a 2nd for the 4x100m relay squad with 44.6 secs. As befits a winner of the Club's winter consistency award, "The Ken Bray Trophy", Bertie Powell was disappointingly the only middle distance or distance athlete that was prepared to travel to Portsmouth, and he was rewarded for his efforts with a fine solo victory over 5000m with 15m16.5 secs, confirming he was over the stomach bug that had troubled him the week before in the Middlesex County Championships. The throwers covered all the events, with Chris Linque placing 2nd in the shot with 13.13m and winning the discus with 40.75m. and placed 5th in his non-specialist events the "B" hammer and javelin. Veteran, Fergus Harford threw a season's best of 38.21m to place 2nd in his specialist event, the hammer and then gained 5th's in the discus, shot and javelin "B" events.

At the Manchester, Powerade City Games, Joice Maduaka placed 2nd in 11.77 secs (-0.8), but, Olympic finalist, Sarah Claxton failed to finish over 100mH, HCA member Vicky Barr was 4th over 150m with 17.74 secs. Not on the track, but on the road in the 10km race, Hywel Care recorded a very fine 30m29 secs - 55 secs quicker than he recorded in the same event last year, which should auger well for his track form over 5000m and 10000m later in the summer. Emeka Udechuku travelled to Halle in Germany as part of the England team competing in the throws meeting there, placing 4th in the "B" discus competition with 56.65m.

On Sunday, at the Scottish inter-regional championships at Wishaw, Andy Frost won the hammer, again over 70m with 70.51m. Kevin Kane was 2nd in a tactical 1500m recording 3m54.86 secs, and later running 1m53.60 secs for 800m. Hurdler, Francis Smith won the "B" 200m with 22.64 secs (w?).

Last Wednesday, Woodford athletes were in action at Loughborough in the Loughborough University vs Birmingham University and the Army fixture. Emeka Udechuku representing his former university, Loughborough placed 2nd in the discus with 57.36m, and also representing Loughborough, Elaine O'Neil won over 100m with 12.00 secs (-1.2), as Ben Peacock won the "B" 100m with 11.87 secs (-2.1), and placed 2nd in the "B" 200n with 23.26 secs (-1.0). Representing the Army, Funshu Joseph was 2nd in the 100m with 11.35 secs (-0.5) and 3rd over 200m with 23.24 secs. Also representing the Army, Nigerian, Melbourne Commonwealth Games decathlon representative, Lee Okoroafo was 6th in the 200m with 23.91 secs (-1.5), and 5th in the discus with 34.34m.

Under the direction of Simon Wright the weekend saw WGwEL host the 10th of it's annual multi-events meetings. This was a high standard competition, and despite the rain late on Sunday afternoon there were some good scores with GB decathlon international Ed Dunfield of Birchfield Harriers winning with 7429 points, ahead of fellow international's Ben Gregory and Ashley Bryant with scores of 7319 and 7248 points. Dunfield's score goes to 3rd on this year's UK rankings which are headed by Woodford's Dan Awde with the 7616 points he scored in Italy last week. Woodford's James Wright, himself a former international decathlete but now concentrating on 400mH completed the first four events, 100m 11.17 secs (-2.4), Long Jump 6.72m (+1.1), shot 10.37m and high jump 1.76m. Dan's older brother Chris Awde also a former decathlete but no longer in serious training, completed the first three events, 100m 12.00 secs (+0.7), long jump 6.16m and shot 9.89m. The women's heptathlon was won by Sophie Skinner of Exeter with 5116 points