Track & Field Round-Up

Woodford athletes have been involved in several meetings during the last week or so, including Diamond League meetings, the US NCAA Championships, and closer to home at this weekend's South of England Championships where there was an Area title for Tom Phillips (pictured below behind former GB hurdler Tony Jarrett) and medals for Youcef Zatat, Harry Clarke, and Alex Bell.

Woodford's European Champion Tiffany Porter was involved in three IAAF Diamond League events over the last week. At Birmingham, Tiffany placed 3rd over 100mH with 12.65 secs (+1.5); in Rome during the week she also placed 3rd with 12.69 secs (+1.0); and this weekend in New York she was 2nd with 12.81 secs (-1.7). Also in Diamond League action was Tosin Oke, who at Birmingham placed 3rd in the triple jump with 16.71m (+2.0), and in New York 4th with 16.47m (-0.6).

The South of England Championships took place at Lee Valley over the weekend, and Tom Phillips, who seems to be rounding into some decent form, took the 1500m title with a time of 3m54.78 secs. Medals were also won by Youcef Zatat (left, below) 2nd in the shot with 16.39m, Harry Clarke, 3rd in the hammer with 57.60m, and Alex Bell, also 3rd, over 400m with 48.91 secs, having recorded 48.65 secs, and 48.83 secs en route to the final. There were also medals for three HCA athletes, two over 400mH where Gemma Rous was 2nd with 60.10 secs after a 59.79 secs heat, and Gemma Weetman 3rd with 60.56 secs, and also in the high jump from Kashif Jones who was 3rd with 1.95m. Another HCA member, Jermaine Hamilton, was 5th over 100m with 10.84 secs (-1.1), into a stiff headwind having qualified with 10.89 secs (-2.9) and 10.83 secs (1.2). 

Over 800m, Paul Scanlan did well to qualify for the final where he was 7th with 1m55.7 secs, having recorded 1m57.59 secs in his heat and 1m54.48 secs in his semi. Over 5000m Darren Southcott placed 17th with 16m06.20 secs, whilst Angus Holford also made the 1500m final, finishing 12th with 4m11.19 secs, after a 4m04.74 secs clocking in his heat. In the U/20 1500m Bradley Wattleworth was 10th with 4m10.43 secs and in the women's race V45 Bernadine Pritchett was 8th with 4m59.98 secs. Further field action included the discus, where Chris Linque was 4th with 49.32m ahead of Devon Douglas with 46.73m, whilst in the women's event Hollie Redman was also 5th in a personal best of 46.32m, and in the Men's U/20 Mikael Khaliq was 5th with34.67m. In the men's shot Hugh Williams placed 7th with 12.24m. 

Back overseas, and in the US, Shana Cox was below par in an event at Montverde Florida where she was 5th in the 400m with 54.33 secs, but there was good news of Jordan Donnelly with a season's best over 800m of 1m50.39 secs at Concord MA. TCU student Sam Watts, having qualified for the NCAA Championships, placed 6th in the 200m semi-final where he recorded 20.74 secs (+1.7). In France Ezekiel Ewulo recorded 7.52 (+1.4) secs in the long jump, and in Germany at Regensberg Eugene Ayanful raced over 100m where he recorded 10.55 secs w (+2.3) and 10.53 secs (0.0). A little earlier Jon Cook (below, right) had raced in Belgium where at Namur over 800m he won with 1m52.66 secs, and at Ordengem he placed 5th over 1500m with 3m45.24 secs. At the Lee Valley sprints meeting Justin Duru recorded 11.01 secs (+1.7), and Sarah Busby 11.89 secs w (+2.7). Competing in Cardiff indoors in the Pole Vault this weekend there was a personal best and WGEL Cub U/20 record for Nikko Hunt who cleared 4.86m. In the women's event Katie James cleared 3.65m. 

At the BMC Gold Standard Meeting at Stretford during last week, James Stockings was in good form, placing 2nd and running close to his best ever with 3m53.72 secs.