Further T & F News, June 8th

Further Track and Field news over the weekend included a much improved "B" team performance in the Southern Men's League at West London, and results from Woodford athletes in action overseas.

After struggling in the first two SML fixtures of the season, Woodford placed 2nd with 114 points in a close competition at West London Stadium, where just 10 points separated the top 4 clubs. In the throwing events there was very nearly a clean sweep, with Woodford athletes winning 7 of the 8 events, and placing 2nd in the other. Devon Douglas won the "A" discus with 44.36m, the "B" shot with 14.00m and placed 2nd in the "A" hammer with 41.51m, as veteran Fergus Harford won the "B" with 37.50m. Chris Linque set a new personal best as he won the "A" shot with 14.08m , having earlier won the "B" discus with 42.60m. Tom Richards won the "A" javelin with 49.56m, whilst veteran and former international decathlete Paul Howard won the "B" with 46.49m. Paul also picked up useful high jump points with 1.55m for 3rd in the "B". In "A" string action, Britain's second highest high jumper of all time, and current world veterans record holder (M40), Dalton Grant placed 2nd with 1.95m. The long jump also brought a double victory with Nick Dowsett returning to form after injury and winning with 6.66m, with Adrian Stamp winning the "B" with 6.29m. In the triple jump, Peter Kirabo placed 3rd with a season's best of 13.45m, and veteran Keith Newton won the "B" with 13.15m

On the track, Adrian Stamp was also in action over 100m, placing 2nd in 11.1 secs, with David Olupitan, also 2nd in the "B" with 11.5 secs. Competing as guests in the 100m, Omololu Abiodun recorded 11.4 secs, Carl Rendora 11.8 secs and Lee Lovelock 12.3 secs. In the 200m Omololu set a personal best of 22.6 secs in winning the "A" string, with David 3rd in the "B" with 23.4 secs. Over 400m, Vincent Ogedengbe, who enjoyed such a fine season last year as a junior and is now in his first year as a senior, comfortably won with a 48.6 secs clocking, as did Andrew Mariani as he set a personal best in winning the 800m in 1m55.0 secs. Dan Yaxley was fractionally outside his personal best in placing 3rd in the "B" race with 2m01.6 secs. Over 1500m, Chris Symonds placed 2nd with 4m11.2 secs, whilst Jamie Nunn placed 4th in the 5000m with 16m15.7 secs, and Ben Phillips 2nd in the 400mH with 58.8 secs. The 4x400m team finished with a win in 3m28.0 secs.The gaps in a few events, some of which were due to call ups to BAL action at Copthall, made the difference between 2nd place and a comfortable victory, but the team will have been pleased with a much improved showing in this fixture.

Full results from the Southern Men's League match

Overseas, there was news of Joice Maduaka racing over 200m in Bydgosxcx in Poland, placing 7th in 23.44 secs (-0.4), and Graham Hedman, 3rd over 400m in 46.82 secs in Valbonne, France.