T&F Round-up
WGwEL athletes were in action over the weekend at Bedford, representing their universities at the BUCS meeting, and at Eton in the first National Junior League fixture of the season, where the team placed a solid 5th, just one point behind 4th. Whilst the extremely windy weekend weather affected performances at both venues, at Bedford individual results were led by championship victories for Kim Murray, Stephanie Gaynor and Oli Heeks, whilst at Eton Woodford's men sprinters, led by Sam Watts and Jordan Kirby-Polidore stood out in a fine team performance.
In the British Universities Championships at Bedford, Kim Murray gained victory with her best ever long jump of 6.21m (w ?). Oli Heeks' 800m came after a slow first lap of around 59 secs, and he just won on the line in 1m53.28 secs. In earlier rounds of the 800m Omar Mansour was eliminated at the semi-final stage in 1m 57.49 secs, having recorded 1m55.8 secs in his heat. New member Stephanie Gaynor's victory came in the 100mH with a mark of 14.16 secs (?). A silver medal went to Azaria Francis in the women's 100m, where she was 2nd with 12.51 secs (-1.5).
In other finals, Junior Ejehu placed 4th over 200m with 21.96 secs (w?), in the 3000m s/ch there was an encouraging run from Angus Holford who placed 11th with a personal best of 9m56.52 secs. Another to show encouraging form to make the final was Dan Bray who recorded 53.66 secs in his semi-final over 400mH but did not contest the final. In the women's 800m final, Emily Moss was 8th with 2m16.91 secs, after qualifying with 2m13.66 secs. Andrew Mariani was close to making the 1500m final after clocking 3m57.75 secs in his semi-final, and Adrian Stamp reached 6.55m in the long jump qualifying.
Full BUCS results here
Oli Heeks 800m here
In the NJL at Eton the combined WGwEL men's and women's teams placed 5th on 373 points, one point behind Enfield on 374 as Blackheath and Bromley won on 561 points. This was a fine all round team effort, and despite some noticeable gaps in a few events many athletes competed in more than one event, picking up valuable team points in the process. From a Woodford perspective, the highest standard performances came in the men's sprints where, in extremely windy conditions, Sam Watts won the "A" 200m 22.17 secs ( -4.5), as Jordan Kirby-Polidore won the "B" in 22.16 secs (-3.4). Jordan had earlier placed 3rd in the 100m with11.12 secs (-5.5), and Omolou Abiodun placed 2nd in the “B" with 11.61 secs ( w?). Later Jordan, Sam, and Omolulu combined with 400m specialist Paul Scanlan, to win the 4x100 in a fast 42.08 secs., but the 4x400m squad of Scanlan, Ben Phillips, Austin Joseph and Abiodun, just lost out as they placed 2nd in 3m21.47 secs. Phillips also gained valuable points in the 400mH where he was 3rd with 57.62 secs and in the 110mH where he was 5th with 18.23 secs, and Joseph was 3rd in the 400m with 49 98 secs, with Colin Wint 3rd in the “B” with 52.80 secs.
In the middle distances there were good points over 800m with Dan Yaxley 4th in the “A” in a good 2m00.25 secs, with Liam Blaikie 5th in the “B” with 2m 03.09 secs. In the throws, Harry Clarke was 3rd in his speciality, the hammer, with 53.29m and also picked up useful DT, SP and JT points. Youcef Zatat was also 3rd in his specialist event the DT with 43.03m and also gained further valuable points in the SP and JT. James Smith was 2nd in the “B” HT with 42,57m. In the jumps there were noticeable personal bests for Peter Kirabo in the TJ with 14.12m (+1.8) and in the long jump for Joseph Dewar with 6.65m ( w?)
The women often competed in more than one event. Holly Pattie Belleli gained points in the 200m, a good 3rd in the 400mH ( 67.30 secs), and 5th in the LJ with 5.04m (w?). Rachel Dean was 2nd over 400mH with 69.18 secs and also 6th in the SP (8.25m) and 1st in her speciality the TJ with 10.90m (w?). Ronan McKenzie won the “B” TJ with 10.41m (w/), 3rd in the “B” LJ with 4.59m (w?) and 7th in the “B” 100m with 13.87 secs (w?). Pamela Milla was 7th in the “A” with 13.78 secs (w?) and completed an unusual double with 7th in the hammer with 19.09m. Georgina Ferrari gained useful points over both 200m and 400m, and in the middle distances Lauren Macgregor was 2nd over 1500m with 4m57.56 secs and 7th over 800m with 2m32.44 secs, whilst Lauren Freeman was 7th over 800m and 4th in the “B” 1500m s/ch, where Kate Stockings was 5th in the “A” with 5m51.96 secs.
Many other athletes contributed to the team performances and all results are available here