Track & Field Round-Up

This weekend saw several athletes in action at the South of England Championships at Watford, where titles were won by Anthony Oshodi, Stephanie Aneto, Kitty Eleyae and Hollie Redman. Amongst many other good performances there were also medals for Tara Bird, James Stockings, Ayamba Akim, Stephanie Gaynor, Tom Norman ,Harry Clarke,and Peter Kirabo. There was also news from the Northern of England Championships, from Bilbao were Matt McLaughlin was in action, from the European Team Championships in Gateshead where Tiffany Porter, Mark Dry and Shana Cox were in action for GB&NI, and from Nigeria where Tosin Oke retained his national title.

South of England titles were all achieved in the field,. In the men's shot it was pleasing to see Anthony Oshodi back in action having been out for a long while with an injury and winning the shot title in his first competition back with 15.26m. Stephanie Aneto, won the triple jump with 12.11m (w?) Kitty Eleyae won the long jump with 5.84m (w?), and Hollie Redman took the discus title with a new personal best of 45.15m. There were silver medals over 1500m for Tara Bird and James Stockings. In what is a rarely run event for her, Tara finished second in the senior women's race, which speeded up after a slow opening 800m of 2m29secs, with a personal best of 4m28.63 secs. James was 2nd in a tactical U/20 men's final, as with a strong finish he just failed to close in on the leader clocking 4m01.28 secs for his silver. The other track medal fell to Stephanie Gaynor who was second in the 100mH in13.86 secs (+1.6). In the field, there were silver medals for Ayamba Akim in the high jump with 1.70m, the same height as the winner, HCA member Mo Sasegbon. and Tom Norman in the discus with 53.59m, as Chris Linque was 4th with 48.79m. Peter Kirabo picked up bronze in the triple jump with 14.72m (w?) as Adrian Stamp placed 4th in the long jump with 6.60m (-0.1). In the women's 100m, Elaine O'Neil was 4th with 12.01 secs (+0.1), having recorded 11.99 secs (+1.2) in he heat. Although failing to finish his semi-final with a calf cramp, there was a breakthrough over 200m for Omolulu Abiodun who recorded a personal best of 21.48 secs (+1.0) in his heat. In the men's hammer, there was a season's best for Peter Clarke as he finished 5th with 55.77m, with younger brother Harry Clarke going even better in the U/20 event to collect a silver medal with a personal best 62.64m for second. Katie Skelding was 4th in the 200m with 25.32 secs (+1.3). Others in action included Bertie Powell, 20th in the 5000m with 15m 53.83 secs, Paul Scanlan who progressed to the 400m s/f where he recorded 50.25 secs after a 50.3 secs heat, and in the 100m qualifying rounds Justin Duru who recorded 11.05 w secs (+2.1), and Jason Greenidge 11.16 w secs(+2.1), in their heats and 11.17 secs (+0.5) and 11.45 secs (+0.5) in their semis. HCA member Jo Ryan recorded 58.94 secs in her 400m heat, and another HCA member, Louise Shortland was 5th in the pole vault with 3.30m.

Competing in Manchester at the North of England Championships there were medals for HCA members Paul Allsop and Scot Lincoln. Paul was 3rd in the javelin with 63.29m as was Scott in the shot with 15.40m.

Competing for GB & NI at Gateshead in the European Team Championship, Tiffany Porter produced her fastest 100mH of the season, albeit windy as she won with 12.62 secs w (+2.6). Tiffany also ran the first leg on the GB x100m team which placed 5th with 43.52 secs. Also in relay action was Shana Cox who ran teh 2nd leg on the winning GB & NI 4x400m sqaud. Mark Dry competed in the hammer where he placed 11th with 68.30m. U/20 Matt McLaughlin raced over 1500m in Bilbao, Spain and found himself In an overcrowded field where Matt fell at the start but he managed to recover somewhat to finish 11th in 3m45.85 secs. Competing in teh Nigerian championships in Calabar, London 2012 7th placer, Tosin Oke won his 5th consecutive national title since swtitching from GB &NI to Nigeria. His winnining leap was 16.64m (+0.2).