Track and Field Round-Up, June 1st
The Bank Holiday weekend was a busy one for WGwEL athletes. There were three throws medals from the South of England U/15 and U/17 Championships at Ashford, some good middle distance performances at the BMC Grand Prix in Manchester, and many Woodford athletes were in action in the windy conditions at Bedford in the Inter-Counties Championships.
At Ashford there were Southern silver medals in the discus for both Youcef Zatet and Joseph Lascaris. Youcef was 2nd in the U/17 event with 43.45m, whilst Joseph was 2nd in the U/15 event with 43.38m. Joseph is currently ranked 2nd. in the UK for his age group, and Youcef 3rd. In the U/17 hammer, Harry Clarke threw a personal best of 57.98m to place third, and ranks 5th in the UK currently.The BMC meeting at Sports City Manchester on Saturday evening took place in damp conditions, and in the "B" race in placing 7th Kevin Kane set a season's best of 3m46.84 secs. In the "C" race leading juniors, Ronnie Sparke and Alex Cornwell were 9th and 12th recording times of 3m50.63 secs and 3m53.48 secs respectively. Over 5000m, Matt Barnes-Smith took time out of a busy exam schedule to place 14th in a high quality "A" race with a good 14m21.90 secs, whilst Hywel Care placed 5th in the "B" race with 14m25.07 secs, a personal best by 1.5 secs.
The Inter-Counties Championships at Bedford took place in blustery conditions with wildly fluctuating wind readings for the sprinters. One of those to record a good, wind legal time was European Junior 100m bronze medalist Eugene Ayanful, as he won his heat in a season's best of 10.50 secs (+1.3). Eugene qualified from his semi-final with a windy, 10.61 secs (+4.4), only to be disqualified from the final later. Also in action in the 100m heats, and equalling his personal best was Adrian Stamp who recorded 11.04 secs (+1.3). The strong headwind in the back straight was not helpful for fast 400m running, but Nick Leavey nevertheless picked up a bronze medal in 3rd with 49.50 secs after qualifying in 49.09 secs. Nick was also 3rd over 200m with 21.48 secs (w?) after recording 21.49 secs w (+2.4) in his heat and 21.52 secs (+1.4) in his semi-final. Another to pick up a bronze medal, over 800m was Ronnie Sparke with 1m54.31 secs, behind Oli Heeks in 2nd with 1m53.35 secs. Over 110mH Dan Davis continued his recent good form placing 2nd in a windy 13.84 secs (+4.4) after a 13.90 secs w (+2.3) heat. A further track medal came from Diana Kennedy, 3rd in 3000m s/ch with 11m28.35 secs. Over 1500m, Georgie-Lou Sales was 5th in 4m38.03 secs, and in action in the heats, over 400mH were Dan Bray who clocked 55.43 secs, and James Wright with 57.10 secs, whilst in the women's 400m heat, HCA member, Jo Ryan recorded 57.81 secs.
In the field there was a gold as Emeka Udechuku took the discus title with 59.06m, and behind him, despite the official results showing an extremely unlikely 55m effort for Chris Linque, Chris did however throw a personal best of 46.76m , whilst Devon Douglas threw over 49m for the first time with apb of 49.08m, and also threw 14.28m in the shot. Christian North improved his season's outdoor best in the pole vault as he placed 3rd with 5.00m, and also 3rd in the women's pole vault was HCA member Louise Shortland with 3.60m with Kirsty McIntosh 5th with 3.40m. Further bronze medals went to Stephanie Aneto in the triple jump with 12.30m (+1.2), and Stuart Harvey in the javelin with 66.67m whilst in the men's long jump, Ezekiel Ewolu went one better placing 2nd with a fine 7.57m w (+ 2.4). Other field results include, Hollie Redman 10th in the discus with 40.25m, Sarah Smith 5th in the hammer with 49.87m, sister Emma Smith in the javelin with 35.03m, and Zainab Ceesay 4.76m in the long jump.
Competing in Hengelo, Joice Maduaka placed 8th over 100m with 11.74 secs w (+3,3), and in mid-week representing Loghborough, Emeka Udechuku won a discus competition with 58.26m as did Mark Dry in the hammer with 69.84m, whilst Andy Frost edged his season's best forward with a victory at Grangemouth with 70.93m. In the US, in what looks to have been a tactical NCAA qualifying race Felicity Milton placed 10th in Austin, Texas with 34m53.17 secs.