WGEL Athletes Shine in Essex T&F Championships
Over 80 WGEL athletes (U13-Seniors) competed in fine sunny conditions at the annual Essex County Track and field Championshipsin Chelmsford (May 14th-15th).
Woodford’s athletes were in sparkling form despite being early in the season, winning 16 gold medals and with a further 26 athletes placing second or third across all events and age groups.
Full results: https://www.thepowerof10.info/results
Field Results
WGEL athletes won 8 gold medals in the field. A further 10 athletes finished in second or third in events from long jump to hammer and set high standards along the way with 11 athletes achieving AAA Grade 4 or better performances.
WGEL Senior Athletes
There was gold in the shot for WGEL senior athlete Youcef Zatat who threw 17.72m taking a resounding victory ahead of Kevin Wilson (Chelmsford) who threw 14.34m. In the discus Hugh Williams took silver with a throw of 34.37m. Stephanie Howe threw a season best 46.96m in the hammer to take silver behind Katie Head (NEB) who threw 67.59m for gold.
WGEL U20s
WGEL athlete Noah Wooding threw a personal best of 29.52m in the discus for gold. It was a good weekend for Noah who was also first in the hammer with a throw of 44.22m(a personal best) and completed a hat-trick in the shot with a throw of 10.36m.
WGEL U17s
There was gold in TJ for Kharina Partridge who hopped, skipped and jumped 10.96m for a personal best. Alex Hancock continued progress in the Javelin, finishing third in a good competition with a throw of 38.68m. Matthew Page (Havering) took gold throwing 48.34m.
WGEL U15s
WGEL multi event athlete Rebecca Wright had an excellent Championship. In the Field, Rebecca won gold in the Javelin with a throw of 32.11m and doubled up with gold in the shot with a throw of 11.56m. Thomas Niewczasinski-Kirkland also had an excellent champs. In the long jump, Thomas executed a superb final jump of 5.55m to take gold and record a personal best ahead of Daniel Headley (Basildon) who jumped 5.39m in second.
Jumps medals for WGEL athletes were not finished there with Caitlin Hancock taking silver with a great leap of 4.85m in the long jump. There was also an excellent performance from Grace Olusegun who cleared 1.45m in the high jump to take silver.
WGEL U13s
Callum Clydesdale excelled in his first County Championship. Callum took silver in high jump clearing 1.35m, just behind Ethan Williams (Essex Schools) who jumped 1.40m for gold.
Team mate Jasmine Hall leapt to bronze in the high jump, clearing 1.25m. In the same competition gold medalist Emily Bailey (Basildon) jumped a very impressive 1.58m.
WGEL’s Azzurra Cioni also had a good championship taking bronze in the long jump with 4.17m. Azzurra has been struggling with a niggle, but should be proud of her performance given she was just 7cm behind gold medalist Annabella Drake (Havering).
Junior thrower Kian Traynor also excelled in his first county champs throwing 13.32m in the Javelin for third place. He will go on from here as he learns his craft! Alongside Kian, young athlete Daniel Arnold hung up his track spikes to take bronze in the discus throwing 12.02m. This was his first ever throws competition. He is taking on more multi events as part of his training.
Track Results
WGEL athletes won 8 gold medals on the track with a further 16 athletes finishing in the top three. They also set high standards with 13 AAA Grade 1 performances from these athletes.
WGEL Senior Athletes
In the Men’s 100m final WGEL’s Uche Egbon(11.42s) finished 4th with team mate Ayooluwa Osundun (12.43s) in 6th position. In the women’s 100m final Lakhesia Adams Poku (13.12) took silver ahead of team mate Eloise Lewis (13.3s) who took bronze as an U23 athlete.These two were behind WGEL second claim athlete Joanne Ryan (Loughton) who won gold in 12.78s.
Lakhesia (26.55) went on to run a personal best in the Women’s 200m final taking bronze with second claim athlete Joanne Ryan (26.13) just ahead again taking gold in the V35 category.
WGEL U20s
In the 200m final Gwendoline Datey (24.51) continued her great form with a gold medal performance. Shona Vincent (24.92) took silver, with less than a second separating the two team-mates. Levania Ugonna-Mba (27.13) finished 6th with a seasons best.
In the U20M 200m final Nabil Tezkratt (21.82) took silver, just 2 tenths of a second behind gold medalist Michael Onilogbo (NEB) in a high quality final. In the U20 100m final WGEL athlete Ben Corbett (12.30s) finished in 6th position.
In middle distance events, Joel Doye ran well in his U20M 1500m final taking silver in a personal best time of 4mins 13s. Jess Adams, returning from injury, also ran well in the 3000m. Jess ran 11mins 38s to finish second behind Sophie Magson (Orion) who took gold in 10mins 33s.
WGEL U17s
Marcel Winter (11.45s) qualified for the Men’s 100m final. Marcel was 4th running a personal best to finish just one tenth of a second behind the bronze medal athlete. Ashleigh Simmonds (12.72) qualified for the Women’s 100m final and finished just outside the medals in 4th place.
In middle distance, WGEL’s Abigail Reid ran with confidence to win gold in the Women’s 800m final. Abigail ran 2mins 16s. Team mate Emily Caton, made a welcome return from injury to take bronze in the same final running 2mins 25s. Reuben Fabien qualified for the Men’s 800m final. Reuben (2mins 03s) finished in 5th place in a personal best time, just 2 seconds outside bronze.
Abigail doubled up in the 1500m and put in another dominant performance taking gold in 4mins 52s ahead of second placed Isabelle Carlin (Southend) who ran 5mins 01. In the Men’s 1500m it was a welcome return to racing for WGEL athlete Jimmy Geller. Jimmy ran hard from the off and ran a solo 4mins 07s to take gold. Nate Harding was 7th running 4mins 27s.
WGEL U15s
In the Men’s 100m final WGEL’s Alex Foster (11.71s) took silver in another epic battle with fellow athlete Nathan Graham (NEB) who ran 11.58s to win gold. These two battled it out again in the Men’s 200m final. Alex (23.4s) showed greater strength over the longer distance to win gold beating Graham into second place on this occasion.
WGEL sprint medals kept coming. In the Women’s 100m final Caitlin Hancock (13.10s) ran a personal best to take silver. In the 200m final Isabelle Kyson (26.43s) also ran a personal best to finish in the silver medal position with Caitlin Hancock (26.8s) just behind in a personal best to take bronze. It had been a good champs for Caitlin and Isabelle was not finished yet either!
In the Women’s 300m final Isabelle Kyson stepped up again to take a silver medal (awaiting official time) with team mate Daisy Anderson enjoying her first county final and finishing in 5th place. It was great to see Isabelle back from injury and enjoying her athletics with team mates.
In the Men’s 300m WGEL athletes won gold and silver. Thomas Niewczasinski-Kirkland (38.04) followed his long jump gold with gold in the 300m final finishing ahead of team mate Lucas Emeagi (38.43). This was a great performance from the two young athletes who are still finding their feet over this distance and will get even better!
In the sprint hurdles WGEL’s Rebecca Wright (11.65) continued her fine form winning gold in the 75mH with team mate Isabelle Kyson (12.22) also completing a great weekend of competition taking bronze in a final dominated by these two fine WGEL athletes!
In the middle distance competitions, Natasha Wynn (02mins 15s) ran a personal best and looked superb taking gold in the Women’s 800m final. It was a very accomplished victory in a strong field. WGEL’s Eliza Bridges was cruelly denied a place in the final due to an administrative error by the organisers after qualifying in a time of 2mins 34s. Molly Sherrin (5mins 01s) ran a brave race in Women’s 1500m final, finishing 5th and was one tenth of a second from going sub 5min!
In the Men’s 1500m final WGEL’s Luca Norden finished 4th in 4mins 44s and set a new personal best. Luca was closely followed by team mate Gregor Samson who finished 7th in 4mins 51s.
WGEL U13s
WGEL athlete Lawrence Foster (the younger brother of Alex Foster) took to his first county championships with aplomb. In the Boys 100m final, Lawrence secured a bronze medal finishing a whisker behind the silver medal position. In the Girls 100m final WGEL athlete Evanna Eze (13.3s) took gold with an outstanding run, beating the highly rated Lilly Hartman (Basildon) into second. WGEL athletes Remi Salako (13.99s) and Azzurra Cioni (14.28s) were 4th and 5th in the final. Remi set a new personal best and these three girls are flying!
Evanna Ezeand Lawrence Foster doubled up in the 200m. Both made the final. In the Girl’s 200m final Lilly Hartman (Basildon) won gold in 26.48s with WGEL’s Evanna (27.06) taking silver in a reversal of their 100m final result. Lawrence also qualified for the Boys 200m final with team mate Callum Clydesdale (26.03) who won gold on this occasion with a fantastic run. Lawrence (26.94) ran brilliantly behind him to take silver. Together these young athletes were a dominant force for WGEL over this distance!
In the 75mH sprint hurdles, young Daniel Niewczasinski-Kirkland(13.88) took bronze. This was a great result and a brilliant step forward for Daniel who has been training regularly with WGEL coach Genis Chan at Ashton on a Thursday as part of the newly formed hurdles squad.
In the boys 800m final WGEL’s Daniel Arnold (2mins 29s) ran a personal best but just missed out on a bronze medal. In the Girls 800m final Jasmine Hall won bronze in 2mins 26s, running a personal best. Team mate Faye Owers also qualified for the final and ran 2mins 40s for 9th place.
Jasmine Hall went on to produce a stunning run in the girls 1500m final. In a highly competitive race, Jasmine took another bronze medal running a terrific 4mins 59s. Jasmine tracked the leaders step for step. Amelie Shipton (Chelmsford) won the race in an excellent 4mins 56s.
In the Boys 1500m final WGEL’s Sebastien Reid (5mins 7s) also ran a personal best but was edged out of the medals in a race dominated by George Watkins (Harlow) who won gold in a staggering time of 4mins 39s.
That concluded a fantastic weekend of competition for WGEL athletes. However, the event itself was slightly overshadowed by a failure of the scoring system (Opentrack) and a very confusing situation around the awarding of medals. Unfortunately, not all athletes finishing in silver or bronze medal positions were awarded medals. Essex insisted on having a minimum number of competitors in each event before awarding medals. This took the shine off a number of podium celebrations which were empty apart from the “winner” and disappointed a lot of athletes, particularly those competing in “less popular” events. Hopefully, the situation will be reviewed in time for 2023 because without participation the sport cannot start to bring standards up.