Indoor News

In early season indoor competition at Lee Valley there were three silver medals for Woodford athletes at the first day of the South of England Championships. Two were in desperately close finishes over 800m from Matt McLaughlin and Tara Bird, and the third was over 400m from Paul Scanlan.

Senior Mens 800m Final Video, courtesy of athleticos

Following his good performance over 1500m at Sheffield the prior week, junior Matt MacLaughlin raced in the senior 800m at Lee Valley. In a slow tactical race, and despite covering the final 200m quicker than the winner and last year's leading junior Charlie Grice, Matt just ran out of track in the short indoor home straight as he failed to close down Grice by just .02 secs, placing 2nd in 1m56.55 secs. The same fate befell Tara Bird in the women's 800m as she too placed 2nd, also running out of track as she rapidly closed down training partner Dawn Hunt off the final bend; Tara lost out by just 0.03 secs as she clocked 2m07.23 secs. Paul Scanlan's silver medal came in the senior men's 400m where he recorded 49.70 secs.