South Of England Senior & U/20 Indoor Championships

Last weekend saw the South of England Indoor Championships at Lee Valley where performances were led by U/20 sprinters Shona Vincent and Gewn Datey, both winning medals and recording personal bests. There were also personal bests for Medwin Odamtten, Olumide Issac and George Vaughan.

Shona Vincent and Gwen both competed in the women’s U/20 60m on Saturday. Shona drew the eventual winner in each of her heat and semi, placing 2nd in each with 7.62 secs and 7.59 secs before picking up silver in the final with 7.60 secs, all three times were better than her prior best of 7.67 secs. Gwen won each of her heat and semi also with personal bests of 7.70 secs and then 7.69 secs before then picking up bronze in the final just behind Shona with another personal best of 7.63 secs. Like Shona each of Gwen’s runs were faster than her prior best (7.74 secs). Medwin Odamtten in the U/20 men’s equivalent was another to improve on his best ever. In his heat he placed 2nd to qualify for the semi with 6.91 secs before then improving to 6.80 secs to make the final improving his prior personal best of 6.87 secs. Medwin like at least 15 others competing on the day was disqualified from the final for a false start that was not visible to the naked eye. Controversary sadly dogged the 60m events throughout the day with athletes continuously d’qd for false starts many of which were not obvious, despite reading as such on the officials’ equipment, which led many experienced observers to suggest the equipment possibly might have been faulty or incorrectly calibrated.

Also on the Saturday, George Vaughan now a 400mH specialist, competed over 60mH, twice beating his prior best of 8.25 secs, with 8.22 secs to place 2nd in his heat and then again 8.22 secs to place 5th in the final. In the men’s senior 60m, Olumide Isaac was another to record personal bests as he won his heat with 6.78 secs a then placed 3rd in his semi with 6.79 secs to make the final. Olumide’s prior best was 6.81 secs but he did not start the final. In the women’s 60m heats Eloise Lewis recorded 8.19 secs whilst HCA athlete Jo Ryan recorded 8.07 secs. It was pleasing to see another HCA athlete back in action as Dan Gardner placed 2nd in the Pole Vault with 4.80m a little below his recent form in Manchester where he cleared 4.96m. On the Sunday it was also pleasing to see Ellis Greatrex back in action over 400m for his first competition for two years. Ellis won his heat comfortably with 49.15 secs, but in the semi was badly baulked and only qualified for the final as a fastest loser with 49.61 secs leaving him an inside lane draw for the final, where despite finishing strongly was unable to get up beyond finishing fourth, but nevertheless improving to 48.97 secs. In the women’s 400m which did not include semis, Jasmine Mitchell just missed out on a place in the final after placing 2nd in her heat with a season’s best of 58.11 secs. Over 800m M40, Andy Brown surprised himself to make the final over 800m with a 2nd place in his heat of 1m57.94 secs and then placed 5th in the final with 1m58.13 secs. In the U/20 women's 800m HCA and second claim athlete Jess Norkett recorded an absolute p.b. of 2m12.70 secs to make the final and then improved again to 2m12.68 secs to place 2nd in the final. Omololu Abiodun competing at a graded eeting in Sheffield where he recorded 50.22 secs over 400m.

Next weekend will see several of Woodford’s athletes in action at Sheffield for the England Age Group Championships