Track & Field News

Woodford's athletes were in action both at home and overseas across the weekend. Highlights from abroad included Tiffany Porter's 3rd in the Doha Diamond League and a 200m PB for Sam Watts in the US. At home Mark Dry significantly improved his hammer best and Woodford Club record at Loughborough. There were other personal bests from Joseph Dewar, Youcef Zatat and Daniel Rowden, plus a Club U/20 Pole Vault record from Nikko Hunt.

On Friday evening in the opening IAAF Diamond League fixture of the season at Doha, European Champion Tiffany Porter placed 2rd over 100mH in a time of 12.65 secs (+0.9), just ahead of the athlete who pipped her for Commonwealth gold, Australia's Sally Pearson who placed 4th. Also in action at Doha was Commonwealth Games silver medalist Tosin Oke, who placed 6th in the triple jump with a leap of 16.83m (+1.2).

Jordan Donnelly, currently working in the US, raced at the New Balance Boston meeting on Friday evening, where he placed 3rd over 800m in a season's best of 1m51.75 secs. Sam Watts, studying in Texas at TCU, raced at the " Big 12" meeting at Ames, Iowa. On Saturday he marginally improved his 200m best as he placed 3rd in his heat with 20.68 secs (+0.6), but in the final he ended up being drawn in the inside lane where his 21.27 secs w (+4.7)was 5th.

Saturday evening saw the first of the BMC Grand Prix series at Manchester. U/20 Daniel Rowden improved his personal best as he won the "D" race with 1m52.01. Others in action at Sports City were Megan Edwards who was 8th in the "B" 800m with 2m13.56 secs, and Bradley Wattleworth, another U/20 who was 5th in his debut at the 3000m s/ch with 10mins 06.21secs.

Sunday saw the annual Loughborough International fixture, where Mark Dry (pictured left) led Woodford's performances. Competing for Loughborough University, Mark improved his hammer personal best by 2m as he won with 76.97m, a new Woodford Club record and a mark that qualifies for this year's Beijing World Championships and places him 5th on the UK all-time lists. In the women's hammer and representing British Universities, Lucy Marshall was only just shy of her recent PB as she placed 4th with 58.79m. Competing as a guest HCA member, Myra Perkins threw 59.15m. Also representing British Universities, Youcef Zatat marginally improved his shot PB with 17.15m for 4th and, competing as a guest, there was a season's best for Anthony Oshodi with 16.91m. Representing England in the women's Pole Vault, Katie James was 3rd with 3.75m, whilst in the men's event new member U/20 Nikko Hunt was close to his best ever with 4.70m, which is a new Woodford Club U/20 record, beating decathlete David Bigham's 4.60m set in 1990. Nikko is coached by Woodford's senior Pole Vault Club record holder (5.30m) Christian North. That PV competition was won by HCA member Dan Gardner who, representing Loughborough, cleared 5.15m. Also in action in the field was Zainab Ceesay, 2nd as a guest in the triple jump with 12.90m (+1.1), and in the men's long jump Ezekiel Ewulo, also a guest, jumped 7.51m (+1.3) for 4th. 

On the track, U/20 Joseph Dewar opened his season with a win in the men's 100m "A" race recording a personal best of 10.41 secs (+1.7), placing him 2nd on this year's U/20 rankings and a mark comfortably inside the European Junior Championships qualifying standard of 10.55 secs. A former bronze medalist in those Championships, Eugene Ayanful, won his guest race with a slightly windy 10.57 secs w (+2.4). In the match 200m and representing Briitish Universities, Omololu Abiodun was 6th over 200m with 21.41 secs (+1.9), and competing as a guest Tomaz Plibersek recorded 9m29.69 secs in the 3000m s/ch. Nathan Wake was 5th in the 800m guest race with 1m52.72 secs. In the 400mH HCA member Jack Lawrie, representing GB Juniors, was close to his best ever as he finished 5th with 52.39 secs. Jack also raced over the junior 110mH, where he improved his PB by 0.01 secs, placing 4th with 14.20 secs (+1.3). Other HCA members in action were Gemma Weetman, 4th in the guest 400mH with 61.97 secs, Jo Ryan, who recorded 58.25 secs over 400m, and Kashif Jones with 1.92m in the high jump.