Weekend Track and Field action centred around the new England Closed Championships held at Gateshead Stadium on Saturday and Sunday. This new event on the calendar was of a very mixed standard, with a number of the UK's top athletes either on their way to Barcelona for the European Championships, or in Canada for the World Junior Championships. Whilst some events were strong, with many of the next best athletes on show, others were weaker, with much smaller fields than should be expected of a national championship. The journey to Gateshead, and the windy conditions that materialised as forecast no doubt put off some. However, Woodford athletes gave a strong showing, picking up two national titles, from Nick Leavey over 400m and Emeka Udechuku in the discus, and there was a Commonwealth Games qualifying mark for the second time in two weeks for Stephanie Aneto.
