Track & Field Round-Up
Woodford athletes were in action in the UK and Overseas over the weekend. There were several good performances at Bedford in the England U/20 and U/23 Championships with medals for Katie James, Jack Lochans, Omololu Abiodun and Youcef Zatat. Dan Awde and Shana Cox were representing GB&NI in the European Team Championships, and there was news of a fine triple jump win for reigning Commonwealth Games Champion Tosin Oke in winning the Nigerian Championships. Others were in action closer to home in the Southern League at Lee Valley.
Conditions at Bedford were a little less windy than usual for that venue for the U/20 and U/23 Championships. In the women's U/23 Pole Vault, there was a silver medal for Katie James with a height of 3.65m, and another silver for Jack Lochans in the U/23 HJ with 2.02m. Omololu Abiodun and Youcef Zatat both picked up bronze medals Omololu in the U/23 200m with 21.48 secs (-1.1), and Youcef in the U/23 shot with 15.81m. Peter Karibo placed 7th in the U/23 TJ with 14.81m (+1.65) and also 7th in teh U/23 hammer was Harry Clarke with 56.71m. Another to make an U/23 final was Ewan Dyer in the 400mH where he placed 8th with 52.98 secs, having heavily clattered the first hurdle. The U/23 1500m was run as a straight final and Ed Shepherd was 13th with 3m57.14 secs.. In heats, Paul Scanlan ran 50.31 secs over 400m, and Dan Gurton 1m55.37 secs over 800m. There was a win for HCA member Dan Gardner in the U/23 Pole Vault with 5.00m and another HCA meber Jack Lawrie was 3rd in the U/20 400mH with 53.08 secs.
In the U/20 age group Joseph Dewar, again struggled with his run-up in the long jump where his 6.91m (+0.3) was 6th, but he went one better in the 100m where his 10.70 secs w (+2.9) was 5th having recorded 10.63 secs (+1.1) in his semi and 10.61 secs (w?) in his heat. In the field, Hugh Williams placed 8th in the shot with 13.45m, but James Bongart was unfortunately injured and failed to record a valid mark in the javelin. In the women's 3000m Jessica Burgess paced 10th with 10m14.35 secs.
Competing for GB&NI in Germany at the European Team Championships, Dan Awde raced over 400m and placed 3rd with a time of 46.10 secs, with Shana 7th in the women's race with 52.98 secs. Competing in Calaber in the Nigerian Championships Commonwealth Games Champion Tosin Oke, went to 7th place on this year's world rankings with a winning leap of 17.21m (+0.6). Also winning in Calaber over 400mH was Cristian Morton.
Competing during the week at the BMC event at Watford, Gavin Lewis recorded 3m56.98 secs over 1500m and HCA Member Gemma Coe a personal best of 4m26.88 secs.
An update on the SAL will be added later