Other Track & Field News
Other Track and Field news over the last week has focused on the UKA Throws and Jumps Challenge at a Birmingham last weekend, mid-week sprinting at Lee Valley, and some fine middle distance running in the BMC meeting at Eltham where there was a personal best for young James Stockings and other fine performances led by Tara Bird who also raced in Belgium on Saturday night. There was also news of Tosin Oke from Friday evening's Diamond League in Stockholm.
Competing on Friday evening at the Stockholm Samsung Diamond League meetinng, Tosin Oke, who placed 7th in the recent Olympic Games triple jump, finished 5th with 16.76m (+0.5).
The Eltham BMC meeting was on Wednesday evening and featured the “Sydney Wooderson Challenge” for the men but saw times a little slower than might have been expected in the blustery conditions. Jon Cook placed 3rd in 1m50.8 secs, just ahead of junior Matt McLoughlin 4th in 1m51.0 secs, and Oli Heeks 8th with 1m53.1 secs. In the women’s equivalent Tara Bird placed 2nd in 2m02.9 secs, and then travelled to the Flanders Cup in Belgium on Saturday, hoping for a quick time. But in a close race she recorded almost exactly the same time, 2m02.88 secs for fifth, although first Briton, as Canadian Olympian Melissa Bishop won in 2m01.54 secs.
In other races at Eltham, there was a personal best for junior James Stockings as he won his “F” race with 1m56.8 secs, ahead of Dan Yaxley with 1m57.95 secs. In the “E” race Tim Prendergast was 6th with 1m57.21 secs. In the women’s “B” race Emily Moss was 5th with 2m15.89 secs.
At Birmingham last weekend, Stephanie Aneto was 4th in the triple jump with 12.57m (-0.5) and in the men’s event Prince Ezenwa was 7th with 14.67m (0.0). In the high jump Ayamba Akim cleared 1.67m for 3rd, and in the discus Chris Linque was 5th with 44.73m, and 2nd in the shot with 12.95m.
At Lee Valley, times were spoiled by too strong following winds, but there was a decent 100m from Dan Davis, 3rd with 10.67 secs w (+2.7), and 200m from Omololu Abiodun 3rd with 21.68 secs w (+3.6) and also young Hasif Bedford with 22.44 secs w (+2.1). Brandon Shibchum, an U/13, recorded two useful wins, in the 100m with 12.47 secs w (+4.0), and in the 200m with 26.03 secs w (+3.4). Also running were Keke St Hillaire in the 100m with 11..45 secs w (+4.5) and Alan James in the 200m with 25.53 secs w (+3.5).