Track and Field Round-Up, July 19th

Weekend Track and Field action centred around the new England Closed Championships held at Gateshead Stadium on Saturday and Sunday. This new event on the calendar was of a very mixed standard, with a number of the UK's top athletes either on their way to Barcelona for the European Championships, or in Canada for the World Junior Championships. Whilst some events were strong, with many of the next best athletes on show, others were weaker, with much smaller fields than should be expected of a national championship. The journey to Gateshead, and the windy conditions that materialised as forecast no doubt put off some. However, Woodford athletes gave a strong showing, picking up two national titles, from Nick Leavey over 400m and Emeka Udechuku in the discus, and there was a Commonwealth Games qualifying mark for the second time in two weeks for Stephanie Aneto.

Nick Leavey's victory over 400m in a personal best of 46.52 secs was a fine run in the conditions, and confirms the progress that he has made in the last few weeks as he is now realising outdoors the potential that he had so often shown when racing indoors. Nineteen year old Vincent Ogedengbe also impressed, finishing 4th in 47.19 secs, having qualified in a personal best of 47.08 secs when winning his heat. In the discus, Emeka Udechuku added to his multitude of national titles with a throw of 57.56m, with Tom Norman 5th, throwing a season's best of 54.68m. Stephanie Aneto finished 2nd in the women's triple jump, and was over the Commonwealth Games qualifying mark for the second time in two weeks as she recorded a personal best of 13.24m (+1.2). Behind her in 5th was Zainab Ceesay with 12.72m w ( +2.8). There was also a second women's silver medal, from Tracey Duncan, in the 400mH with 59.63 secs, and a bronze in the long jump from Kim Murray with 5.85m (+0.9).

In the men's shot, Carl Fletcher was 4th with 16.67m, and there were also 4th places for Lucy Marshall in the women's hammer with a season's best of 53.72m, Diana Kennedy in the 3000m S/ch with 11m28.80 secs, and Ayamba Akim with 1.69m in the high jump. In the women's Pole Vault, Maria Seager continued her recovery from injury, placing 6th with 3.65m, the same height as HCA member Louise Shortland cleared for 8th. In the men's 110mH, Dan Davis was 7th with 14.8 secs, and in the women's 800m Tara Bird was 8th with 2m08.08 secs. Ezekiel Ewulo, was below his recent fine form in the long jump, placing 12th with 6.98m, and in the women's javelin, Emma Smith was 10th with 38.26m. HCA member Martin Lloyd was 4th in the high jump with 2.11m, and another HCA member Damien Moss made the 800m final with a heat time of 1m51.82 secs, but unfortunately fell in the final.

Full results from the England Closed Championships available here.

In the Scottish Championships at Dunfermline, there was a Woodford 1st and 2nd in the hammer from Mark Dry and Andy Frost, both of whom had shown fine early season form when they each recorded Commonwealth Games qualifying marks but have recently been troubled by illness and injury. Mark won with 66.95m from Andy with 65.62m, and they will now be looking to recapture their best form as the season progresses towards the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October. In the 400mH Francis Smith was 2nd in a very close race, recording 53.63 secs.

The LICC meeting took place at Lee Valley on Saturday, and whilst full results are awaited, there was news of a pb over 800m for Omar Mansour who recorded 1m53.25 secs in the BMC races held in conjunction with this meeting. Gavin Lewis recorded 1m 54.75 secs and Alex Cornwell 1m57.79 secs