Track & Field Round-Up July 26th
Jess Sparke's return to track action after the transition from a successful winter to the summer track season was interrupted by injury was marked by a fine performance over 3000m at the BMC Belfast Grand Prix. Finishing 2nd to the US athlete Liz Maloy, Jess improved her 2 year old personal best by over 12 seconds, recording 9m 08.49 secs, a time that ranks her 7th this season's UK lists. At the same Belfast meeting, Kevin Kane won the "C" 800m in 1m53.12 secs, and Andrew Mariani the "D" race in 1m55.07 secs. Kiwi ParaOlympian, Tim Prendergast finished 2nd in the "C" 1500m in 3m55.25 secs.
Videos of the Belfast races courtesy of athleticos.org
At Saturday's Birmingham Games meeting, new England Champion, Nick Leavey, improved his personal best for the second week in succession, winning his heat in 46.50 secs. Nick did not contest the final. Last season's UK Champion over 400mH, Nusrat Ceesay, competed in her first race for some months following injury, winning her heat of the 400mH in 59.99 secs. Nusrat also did not compete in the final, where HCA member Emily Moss placed 6th in 63.02 secs having clocked 62.75 secs in her heat. In the women's 400m another HCA member, Jo Ryan, was 2nd in 55.20 secs, whilst in the women's sprints Azaria Francis, another back in action after injury, made the 100m final, placing 8th in 12.60 secs (-0.8) after a 12.46 secs (+0.3) heat. Katie Skelding recorded 12.52 secs (-1.1) in the 100m heats, but in the 200m made the final, placing 5th in 25.50 secs (0.0), having recorded a season's best of 25.18 secs (+1.3) in qualifying. In the men's 110mH Dan Davis placed 4th in 14.28 secs (w?), and in the field, Kim Murray was 6th in the long jump with 5.93m (+0.1), and in the triple jump, Stephanie Aneto was 2nd with 13.17m (+0.4) with Zainab Ceesay 6th in 12.51m (+0.7).
The National Junior League team travelled to Norwich for the final fixture of the season with a much depleted team, finishing 7th on the day, and slipping from 5th to 6th in the overall standings, but nevertheless remained safe in the top flight for next season. As usual many athletes took on several events as points were hard fought for. In the sprints, David Olupitan won the "B" 200m with a personal best of 22.7 secs, having earlier placed 4th in the 100m with 11.3 secs. Savion Williams was 6th in the "B" with 11.5 secs, and Omololu Abioden was 3rd in the "A" 200m with 22.8 secs. In the 400m, Austin Joseph was 4th with 51.7 secs, and Tyler Brown won the "B" with a personal best of 52.4 secs. Over 800m, Dan Yaxley went under 2 minutes for the first time as he placed 4th in 1m59.7 secs, and later also placing 4th in the 2km s/ch with 6m45.7 secs. In the "B" 800m , Sam Benge was 7th with 2m07.8 secs, and later 3rd in the "B" 2km s/ch with 6m 59.4 secs. The 1500m saw jumper, Peter Kirabo, filling in for useful points, placing 8th with 4m48.2 secs, having earlier placed 7th in the long jump with 5.88m, 5th in the triple jump with 13.52m and 4th in the high jump with 1.70m. Simeon Stuart was 6th in the "B" long jump with 5.67mThe "B" 1500m saw another filling in for points, Ben Phillips placing 6th in 4m51.0 secs, having earlier won the "B" 400m H in 58.0 secs, and placed 5th in the "B" 110mH with 19.1 secs. John Pride was 3rd in the "A" 400mH with 17.3 secs, and 5th in the "A" 110mH with a personal best of 17.3 secs. In the field, Anthony Oshodi was restricted by injury to standing throws but nevertheless was 2nd in the shot with 14.08m, and 3rd in the discus with 40.58m. Peter Clarke found 58.51 m in the hammer only good enough for 4th in a high standard competition, before picking up useful "B" string points in the discus with 23.25m, javelin with 23.17m and shot with 9.82m. Carl Rendora gained useful "B string hammer points in 7th. In the Javelin, Tom Richards, marginally improved his personal best, placing 2nd with 51.48m. The 4x100m relay team ( Carl Rendora, Savion Williams, Omololu Abioden and David Olupitan) placed 4th in 44.1 secs, and the 4x400m team ( Carl Rendora, Tyler Brown, Austin Joseph and John Pride were 5th in 3m34.0 secs.
The women's team was even more severely depleted, but those that took part, did so admirably. In the 100m, Kitty Eleyae was 7th in 12.8 secs, and 8th over 200m in 28.6 secs suffering from an injury niggle, but having earlier placed 2nd in the long jump with 5.31m, and picked up valuable shot points, 8th with 7.84m. Ronan McKenzie was 7th in the "B" 100m in 13.7 secs and also 3rd in the long jump with 4.76m, and 4th in the triple jump with 10.35m. In the 400m, Sophie Fuhr was 6th with 62.7 secs and Georgina Ferrari 5th in the "B" with 62.8 secs. Sophie earlier had placed 5th over 400mH with 73.7 secs, and gained valuable points in the discus, as did Georgina in the "B" javelin. Over 800m, Lauren Freeman was 7th with 2m 47.7 secs, and also 7th in the 1500m s/ch with 6m22,7 secs, and also gained useful field event points. In the 1500m, Holly Bedeau was 7th with 5m27.3 secs, whilst Jess Docking was 7th in the 3km with 13m14.3 secs, and 6th in the 1500m s/ch with 6m58.8 secs. Amy Larkin was 7th in the hammer with 23.38m. The 4x100m team ( Ronan McKemzie, Kitty Eleyae, Holly Bedeau and Lauren Freeman were 7th in 56.1 secs, and the 4x400m team ( Georgina Ferrari, Kitty Eleyae, Holly Bedeau and Sophie Fuhr) were also 7th with 4m25.5 secs.
At the World Junior Championships in Moncton, Canada, Sam Watts and Junior Ejehu were both members of the GB&NI 4x100m relay team that qualified for Saturday's final. Sadly in the final, the squad which saw Sam and Junior replaced with athletes that were rested in the heats failed to get the baton around.