Track & Field Round-Up August 30th
WGwEL athletes were in action over the weekend at the McCain UK Challenge Final at Cardiff on Saturday, which saw titles for hurdlers Dan Davis and Tracey Duncan, at the Southern U/20 and U/15 Inter Counties at Copthall; at Antwerp where Jeanette Kwakye was back in action, and at Grangemouth where Andy Frost showed improved hammer form and Francis Smith produced a season’s best over 110mH.
The McCain UK Challenge was again held at Cardiff for the 2nd year, and the perhaps predictable extremely windy conditions usually associated with this venue hampered performances across the board, and may have also contributed to the reduced number of entries. One seemingly unfazed by the conditions was Tracey Duncan, who finished strongly over 400mH to win in a hand timed 58.6 secs. Dan Davis also hurdled well and took the 1110mH hurdles title with a personal best of 14.04 secs (-0.8). Others to finish in the top three, were Carl Fletcher, a very close 2nd in the shot with 17.36m, and Jo Duncan, 3rd in the women’s shot with 14.78m. In the hammer, Mark Dry selected for Scotland’s team for the Commonwealth Games was 4th with 67.57m; in the women’s long jump Kim Murray was also 4th with 6.00m w (+3.0); in the women’s high jump Ayamba Akim was 5th with 1.66m; also 5th, over 200 was Tim Abeyie, with a hand timed 21.9 secs, without a wind reading, but run into a strong headwind; Devon Douglas was 6th in the discus with his one valid effort of 44.41m; Simon Bennett, nursing a sore shoulder from the previous week’s BAL was 7th with 57.65m, and Sarah Smith was 8th in the hammer with 48.22m. Diana Kennedy finished 5th in the 3000m steeplechase, lowering her PB by 11 seconds to 11m 10.18 in the process. Sadly, Tara Bird’s injury problems returned as she twisted an ankle in warm up for the 800m and wasn’t able to start.At Barnet’s Copthall Stadium, and representing Essex in the Southern U/20 Inter-Counties, Sam Watts placed 2nd over 100m in 10.91 secs (w ?), having won his heat in 10.76 secs w (+2.8). Also 2nd were Sam Moodie in the high jump with 1.65m and Rachel Dean in the triple jump with 11.12m (+1.2). Peter Kirabo was 4th in the men’s triple jump with 13.82m (+1.8). In the U/15 competition, Tobi Akiwamiu was 8th in the 200m with 27.61 (+0.8) secs after a 27.29 secs w (+2.8) ht; Joseph Dewar was 4th in the boys long jump with 5.60m (+1.4) and in the discus Joe Lascaris was 2nd with 42.31m.
At an international meeting in Antwerp, Olympic finalist Jeanette Kwakye continued her return to action from injury and placed 4th over 100m with 11.58 secs (+1.0). At the same meeting, Jason Greenidge was 2nd in the “B” 100m race with 10.98 secs w (+2.5). Competing at Grangemouth on Sunday, Francis Smith recorded a season’s best over 110mH winning with 14.54 secs (+2.0), and was also 2nd in the “B” 100m with 11.13 secs w (+4.2), whilst Andy Frost, also selected for Scotland’s Commonwealth Games team, confirmed a pleasing improvement in hammer form, winning with 68.06 three days after winning a competition in East Kilbride with 68.18m.