Track & Field News
Woodford athletes have been in action in a number of meetings over the past week or so, from the Loughborough International last week to this weekend’s BMC Grand Prix. Others were in action overseas, and there were many good performances including notable personal bests for Youcef Zatat, Daniel Rowden and Canaan Solomon, and for Sam Watts and Cindi Ofili qualifying marks for the NCAA Finals in the US.
At Watford on Saturday evening, what is traditionally one of the biggest nights of middle distance running in the UK, the BMC Grand Prix took place, in rather chillier conditions than the athletes might have preferred. Nevertheless, in the “A” 800m, 18 year old, Daniel Rowden enjoyed a fine run to finish strongly in 2nd place in a new personal best of 1m48.13 secs, which erases Chris Reynolds’ 13 year Club U/20 record. Another junior and just 17 years old, Daniel’s training partner, Canaan Solomon won the “B” race and he too set a personal best of 1m48.89 secs. Daniel’s mark was a qualifying time for the World Junior Championships later this year, and he currently heads the UK U/20 rankings with Canaan who was just outside that qualifying mark (1m48.50 sec) is ranked 3rd in the UK.
Others racing at Watford included, Paul Scanlan who recorded 1m55.20 secs, Ed Shepherd another who recorded a personal best with 1m55.56 secs, over 1500m James Stockings with 3m54.46 secs, and over 5000m Tom Phillips 14m41.22 secs, and Bradley Wattleworth with 15m12.91 secs.
At the Newham Sprints meeting, HCA member Jermaine Hamilton recorded 11.13 secs (+0.5), Shayne Dewar 11.00 secs (+1.2), Justin Duru 11.29 secs (+0.6), and Elaine O’Neil 12.09 secs (+1.1). At the IAAF Challenge meeting in Dakar Mark Dry placed 5th in the hammer with 72.89m, whilst at the Lougborough Open, Daniel Gray raced under distance and recorded times of 11.21 sesc (+1.0) and 22.81 secs (+0.6) and Ben Kelk raced over 400m and recorded 52.84 secs. At an international meeting in Hengelo, Tosin Oke placed 2nd in the triple jump with a season’s best, but windy 16.87 m (+2.1), and Tiffany Porter was 7th in the 100m H with 14.23 secs (+0.4). In Namur, Belgium Jack Lochans recorded a season's best in the high jump of 2.03m, and also in Belgium at Ordegem, Jack Lawrie was 2nd over 400m H i 51.56 secs
In the US at the NCAA Eastern Finals in Jacksonville FL, Cindi Ofili won the 100mH with 12.86 secs (+1.9) and also recorded 11.48 secs (-0.8) in her 100m heat, whilst at the Western Division at Lawrence KA, Sam Watts was 3rd over 200m with 20.65 secs (+1.4), and Hollie Pattie-Belleli was 5th in the 100mH with 13.58 secs (+0.6).
The previous weekend at the Lougborough International, Woodford performances were led by a personal best from Youcef Zatat for 2nd in the shot with 18.01m, where Anthony Oshodi was 4th with 17.10m. Other good field performances included Mark Dry who won the hammer with 73.72m, Lucy Marshall who was 7th in the women’s event with 58.70m, Zainab Ceesay 7th in the triple jump with 12.51m (-0.5), and Thalosang Thsireletso 4th in the triple jump with 15.24m (-1.4). On the track and over 100m Eugene Ayanful recorded 10.68 secs (+0.3) and in the women’s event Sarah Busby recorded 12.02 secs (+0.6), and over 200m 24.79 secs w (+2.7). Over 400m Daniel Gray recorded 48.04 secs, and over 400mH Jack Lawrie 51.91 secs, and Ewan Dyer 52.66 secs. Canaan Solomon won his 800m race with 1m50.50 secs.