Track & Field Round-Up
WGEL athletes were involved in several meetings over the last few days, and amongst many good performances there were international victories for Tiffany Porter and Daniel Rowden, and a number of season's and personal bests includiing from Dan Awde and Omololu Abiodun.
Tiffany Porter's victory came in the televised Anivesarey Games, held in Horse Guards Parade, where ahead of the Commonwealth Games she recorded 12.71 secs(+0.9) as she gained an important victory over Australia's Olympic Champion Sally Pearson who was 3rd in 12.79 secs. Having recently won the intermediate (U/17) English Schools Championships, Daniel Rowden represented England in the Schools International at Cardiff, winning again with 1m52.92 secs. Earlier in the week, Daniel had improved his speed, running a personal best over 400m at Watford in 50.11 secs. No doubt the recently improved weather in the UK made a welcome change for athletes, and several raced at the LEAP meeting at Loughborough on Saturday. Dan Awde raced over 400m, winning in 45.84 secs as he improved his personal best by 0.01 secs. Others at that meeting were Mike Baker who recorded 52.41 secs in the 400mH, Keishana LaRose with 55.27 secs in the women's 400m, Jason Greenidege with 11.58 secs (+1.4) over 100m and HCA member Dan Gardner with 4.91m in the Pole Vault. Omololu Abiodun who in the last BAL fixture improved his 200m pb to 21.20 secs, raced at Newham on Sunday, and in the second of his two 100m races recorded a personal best of 10.58 secs (+1.1). He also recorded 10.77 sesc (+1.0) and 21.94 secs (+1..2) over 200m. Keishana LaRose was also in action again and recorded 55.41 secs over 400m, whilst Justin Duru recorded a personal best in the 100m with 10.99 secs (+1.2) and also raced over 200m where he recorded 22.72 secs (-1.7).
At the Oxford BMC Meeting on Saturday, Jon Cook raced in the mile and placed 6th in the "A" race in 4m04.63 secs. In the "B" race, Ed Shepherd was 11th with 4m13.59 secs, and in the 800m "C" race Dan Gurton continued with his recent good form and clocked 1m52.66 secs for 3rd. A few days before at the Watford BMC meeting, Jon Cook raced over 800m and recorded a season's best of 1m49.57 secs for 7th in the "A" race. Also at Watford there were several personal bests; Ed Shepherd over 1500m with 3m51.02 secs,Paul Scanlan with 1m55.75 secs, Sam Benge 1m59.50 secs, U/11 Abie Wickende with 2m39.77 secs, and a season's best foir V45 Bernadine Pritchett. Jack Shury (U/17) wasn't far outside his best with 2m30.08 secs. Kyesha Robinson (U/15) also recorded a personal best, over 400m with a good 62,09 secs, and HCA member Jo Ryan recorded 58.22 secs. In the women's "A" BMC 800m, Megan Edwards was 6th with 2m07.80 secs.
AT Crystal palace on Sarurday, HCA member Alex Bell was close to his best ever as he won over 400m with 48.52 secs, and at Portsmouth represnting Essex in a Southern U/17 Inter-County fixture, Stephanie Howe won the hammer with 52.62m and Jodie Ratcliff recorded 2m22.5secs to place 5th
Birmingham hosted the UKA throws and jumpsfest meeting, and in the discus England's Commonwealth Games representative Tom Norman threw 50.56m for 3rd with Chris Linque throwing 47.75m. Also Glasgow bound, for Scotland, Mark Dry won the hammer with 70.78m, whilst in the long jump Ezekiel Ewulo was just behind his season's best of 7.42m with a leap of 7.40m (0.0), and in the women's event, Kitty Eleyae was 4th with 5.95m (+0.9)