Sainsbury's British Championships and World Championship Trials
This weekend saw WGEL athletes compete at Birmingham's Alexander Stadium in the Sainsbury's British Championships and Trials for the Beijing World Championships. European Champion Tiffany Porter led Woodford performances in taking the 100mH title, and there were silvers for Mark Dry in the hammer, Tiffany's sister Cindy Ofili also in the 100mH and a bronze for Shana Cox in the 400m. There were several other good performances from Woodford athletes in bright, but blustery and sometimes very wet conditions.
Tiffany Porter's win in the 100mH was her third consecutive British title. Her win was into a strong headwind, recording 12.83 secs (-1.5), to hold off her 20 year old sister Cindy Ofili who has recently also elected to compete for GB&NI and placed 2nd with 12.96 secs (-1.5). Tiffany recorded 12.96 secs (-2.6) in her heat and and Cindy 13.21 secs (-0.5), and both having the required qualifying times should be selected for Beijing.
Also running in the heats, and just missing out on a place in the final was Holly Pattie-Belleli, who recorded 14.02 secs (-0.5). Holly who has completed two years of her studies in the US at Missouri State University has made good progress in many events this season improving her 100mH best to 13.67 secs. Mark Dry who already has one of the two required qualifying marks to gain automatic selection for the World Championship placed 2nd in the hammer with 73.02m, with former UK Champion Andy Frost in 7th with a season's best of 67.00m. Shana Cox, who has been a little below her very best season, ran a strong race in the final of the 400m and placed 3rd with 52.64 secs after qualifying in 53.19 secs.
Sam Watts qualified for the 200m final after placing 2nd in his heat with 21.06 secs (+0.9), but did not start the final due a hamstring problem. Jordan Kirby-Polidore in his first competition of the season after injury, just missed out on the final after his 21.14 secs (-0.2), as did Omololu Abiodun with his best outdoor mark of the season of 21.24 secs (+0.4). Omololu also ran in the 100m heats where he recorded 10.80 secs (-0.4). Another to make a track final was Jon Cook who in a very tactical 1500m placed 8th with 3m53.25 secs after a 3m49.47 secs heat. HCA member Gemma Rous recorded a personal best in the 400mH of 58.79 secs, to qualify for the final where she placed a fine 4th with 59.17 secs. Gemma Weetman recorded 61.55 secs in her heat, and in the men's event Ewan Dyer recorded 52.95 secs in his heat.
In the men's shot, Woodford athletes just missed out on medals with Youcef Zatat 4th with 16.74m, ahead of Anthony Oshodi who placed 5th with 16.44m. The women's discus saw Hollie Redman 7th with 44.81m, and in the women's hammer, HCA member Myra Perkins was 7th with 56.90m ahead of Lucy Marshall who was 9th with 55.87m. Also in the field, in the women's triple jump, Zainab Cesay was 5th with 12.83m (+0.8), and in the pole vault, Katie James was 6th with 3.65m, but HCA member Caroline Adams no-heighted. In the men's event, HCA member Dan Gardner was 7th with 5.05m. In the men's 400m heats. Alex Bell recorded 49.03 secs, and in the 800m heats Nathan Wake recorded a season's best of 1m51.79 secs, Jordan Donnelly 1m51.83 secs, and Daniel Rowden 1m52.06 secs. In the women's event Megan Edwards was not far from her best with 2m06.18 secs.