Track and Field Round-Up
WGwEL athletes were in action, both in the UK and in Europe over the weekend. Sadly the windy, and sometimes wet weather held back performances for most, whether competing at home or abroad. The one group of athletes who seemed to enjoy the windy conditions however, were the discus throwers, and at the South of England Championships at Ashford,Kent there were personal bests in that event for both Tom Norman and Devon Douglas. In placing 2nd in the discus Tom Norman added over 2m to his personal best, consolidating his 5th placed ranking on the UK lists this season, and went tantalising close to 60m as he recorded 59.98m for his silver, and Devon recorded 53.05m to place 3rd and pick up bronze.
Chris Linque was 6th with 48.95m. Other senior Woodford performances at Ashford were led by gold medlas for Anthony Oshodi and Tracey Duncan. Oshodi, last seasons's leading junior in the shot, won his first senior title with a personal best of 15.56m, and Duncan won the women's 400mH with a season's best of 58.87 secs, a fine performance in the windy conditions. There was a silver medal for Ben Challanger in the high jump, eqaulling his season's best with 2.10m, and bronze medals for Peter Clarke in the hammer with 54.28m and Stuart Harvey in the javelin with 60.16m. Other field performances included Adrian Stamp, 5th LJ 6.63m w; Mitchell Jarvis 9th LJ 6.46m w (+3.10); James Wright 11th PV 4.20m and Chris Linque 4th SP 13.49m. In the women's field events, Kirsty McIntosh was 4th in the PV with 3.50m, Kim Murray 4th in the LJ with 5.78m (-0.9), Stephanie Aneto 5th TJ, 12.44m w (3.1); Hannah Frankson 10th TJ,11.70m (+1.6) and Hollie Redaman 4th DT 39.77. HCA member Moe Sasegbon won the HJ with 1.70m and another HCA member Louise Shortland was 2nd in the PV with 3.60m. In the U/20 field events, performances were led by Peter Kirabo who picked up silver in the TJ with 14.25m w (+4.9), others included Youcef Zatat 5th DT, 42.25m, Victoria Onyeka 6th in the women's event with 31.74m and Harry Clarke, 5th HT with 56.74m.
In the men's U/20 track events there were some first rate performances from Woodford athletes. In the sprints Jordan Kirby-Polidore narrowly missed out a a double, placing 2nd in the 100m in 11.02 secs (-2.5) and winning the 200m with 22.10 secs ( w - ?), with Omolulo Abiodun picking up bronze with 22.15 secs ( w -? ). Colin Wint also made that final, 8th in 23.22 secs ( w - ?). The 400m saw a Woodford 1 -2 as Paul Scanlan just prevailed over training partner Austin Joseph, 49.60 secs to 49.63 secs. Azaria Francis was the only other senior track medalist, 3rd over 100m with 12.51 secs (-3.5), having qualified with 12.45 secs (-3.2). Katie Skkelding made the 200m final, 6th in 25.85 secs (-1.5) having qualified in 25.54 secs (+0.1). In the men's 100m Jumior Ejehu made the semi final were he recorded 11.29 secs (-2.7) and in the heats, Monu Miah recorded 11.53 secs (-2.4) and Nnamdi Umeh 11.82 secs (-2.8). In the 3000m s/ch Angus Holford was 7th with 10m24.16 secs, and in the women's 3000m flat, Bernadine Pritchett was also 7th, with 10m 49.09 secs.
Meanwhile competing at an international meeting in Bilbao, Spain on Saturday evening, also in very windy conditions, Tara Bird placed 3rd over 800m in 2m05.56 secs, and Sam Watts was 4th over 200m with 21.27 sec s w (+5.2) - the wind reading being somewhat miss-leading as the cross winds were in the athletes faces around the bend. At the same meeting HCA member Simeon Williamson returned to action and placed 4th over 100m with 10.35 secs w (+3.2). Representing GB&NI in Stockholm at the European Team Championships, Andy Frost was one of several athletes in the hammer who struggled with the wet throwing circle, and ended up placing 11th with 61.53m - more than 11m down on his season's best.
At Cardiff in the Welsh Championships, Tom Phillips picked up a silver medal as he placed 2nd in 3m55.74 secs. During the week at the Watford Open and BMC meeting, there was a Woodford 1-2 in the "B" 1500m with Jon Cook recording 3m51.11 secs and Andy Mariani 3m52.90 secs, personal bests for both. In the women's 'A" race there was another personal best, for Emily Moss, who recorded 4m25.60 secs as she placed 6th. At the same meeting over 800m James Stockings recorded 2m01.14 secs, also a personal best, and Dan Yaxley 1m57.47 secs.