SoE Indoor Champsionships, Day One & other indoor news

The first day of the South of England Indoor Championships took place at Lee Valley, on Sunday. It was pleasing to see Robert Wolski back in decent high jump form as he took that title, with Omar Mansour taking the 800m title.

Robert Wolski won the high jump with a second attempt clearance at 2.15m which was clear enough to suggest that he might have made 2.20m, but having won the competition Robert judiciously retired from it, to protect the injuries that have troubled him for the past two years. Over 800m Omar Mansour was in decent form and won that final in a time of 1m55.55 secs. In the heat of the 800m, Paul Scanlan, now combining that event together with his more usual 400m speciality, just missed out on a place in the final by 0.05 secs, as he clocked 1m59.16 secs for 2nd in his heat. In the women's 800m, a straight final, V45 Bernadine Pritchett was also in good form, and she recorded 2m23.40 secs for 6th in that race; her quickest time over that distance since 2008. In the men's 400m, Eugene Ayanful, more normally a 100m specialist, showed that his winter training is going well as he made the final where he finished 6th with 50.73 secs, but in qualifying from his semi-final where he placed 2nd he was close to his best ever with 50.30 secs. These Championships continue on both days next weekend at Lee Valley.

Competing at Birmingham, Jordan Kirby-Polidore recorded a useful 60m time as he clocked 6.85 secs.

There was further encouraging high jumping news from Glasgow, where the previous weekend in the Scottish Indoor League, new member Jack Lochans, a first year senior, recorded a personal best of 2.03m