British Championships and Olympic Trials

At this weekend's British Championships and Rio Olympic trials at Birmingham several Woodford athletes were in action with performances led by a win for Tiffany Porter, and second places for her sister Cindy Ofili, Mark Dry and Anthony Oshodi.

In the women's 100mH sisters Tiffany Porter and Cindy Ofili booked their places on the GB & NI team for the Rio Olympics as they finished 1st and 2nd with times of 12.91 secs (+2.0) and 12.93 secs (+2.0). In the same event Hollie Pattie-Belleli just missed out on a place in the final as she placed 3rd in her heat with 13.61 secs (+1.6). In the men's hammer Mark Dry placed 2nd with 74.92m. Although a qualifying distance for the European Championships, Mark's season's best of 76.26m is still shy of the Rio qualifying mark of 77.00m. In the women's hammer there was a good performance from Lucy Marshall who recorded a season's best of 60.10m to place 5th, ahead of HCA member Myra Perkins who was 6th with 58.10m. Woodford's other 2nd place came from Anthony Oshodi who had a fine competition in the shot to place 2nd in a season's best of 17.43m. Youcef Zatat placed 4th with 17.02m. Also doing well in the field was Zainab Ceesay who placed 5th in the triple jump with 12.87m (+1.1). In the discus, there was also a season's best for Chris Linque who finished 9th with 50.77m, ahead of Devon Douglas who was 12th with 48.79m, whilst in the women's event Hollie Redman was 12th with 39.40m. 

Back on the track there was a good 6th in the 1500m final for Jon Cook in a tactical race with 3m45.97 secs, having qualified from his heat with 3m44.48 secs. In the heats of the 400mH, Jack Lawrie was close to a place in the final but finished 3rd with 51.69 secs, whilst Ewan Dyer was 4th in his heat with 52.44 secs. In the flat 400m Vincent Oges reached the semi-final where he placed 7th with 49.47 secs after qualifying with 48.17 secs. In the heats of the 400m, Alex Bell recorded 49.31 secs, and Daniel Gray 50.16 secs. In the 200m both Sam Watts and Jordan Kirby-Polidore placed 4th in their heats, with Sam recording 21.15 secs (+1.1) and Jordan 21.18 secs (-1.8), and in the women's event, HCA member Jo Ryan was 5th in her heat with 25.08 secs (+0.3), and in the 100m heats, another HCA member Jermaine Hamilton recorded 10.98 secs (+0.5). In the 800m heats Jordan Donnelly placed 4th in his with 1m52.57 secs, and Canaan Solomon was 7th in his with 1m52.17 secs, whilst in the women's event HCA member Chloe Bradley recorded a personal best of 2m09.02 secs in her heat.