BUCS success for WGEL students

The BUCS student championships over the long weekend in Manchester saw several medals from Woodford athletes and further promising signs for the (late-starting) national league campaign. Winners included Cameron Fillery (110m hurdles) and new member Danielle Broom (hammer).

With limited throwing space at Manchester long throws were straight finals and the WGEL focus on day one was the women’s discus, having three of the top 5 ranked athletes. New member Danielle Broom was the best performer. Throwing consistently with a tricky wind she led after the first round when others struggled and extended to 45.96 in round 2 which was enough for the bronze medal. Precious Hamilton lay second after round 1 but was unable to improve on her 41.86 and finished 7th, ahead of Emma Botham om 8th with 40.91. On the track most Woodford athletes advanced through their early rounds, with the exception of Tolani Alaba who just missed out with in the 100m with 11.23, before heavy rained ruled out several late events.

Sikiru Onigbanjo had an early start on Sunday after the Saturday evening wash-out, but qualified for the 100m final with a 10.78PB. The wind then picked up to 4.0 m/s as Sikiru finished 7th in 10.73. In the women’s 800m Louise Gilbert went out in the semi-final having run 2:12 in the heat, but HCA athlete Leah Keisler improved her PB to 2:09.81 to make the final. Danielle Broom was a late replacement for Loughborough in the hammer. This was her first competition of the year in her second event, in which she is a training partner of Lucy Marshall, but she took the lead with her first valid throw of 54.87 and this proved enough for gold. Simbiyat Sikiru took fourth place with 49.78. Decathlete Howard Bell threw a PB of 39.59 in the discus but went out in long jump qualifying with 6.44. Cameron Fillery had qualified comfortably fastest for the 110m hurdles on Sunday (13.78) but conditions were more challenging on Monday and he was put under pressure before coming through for gold in 14.05 (-1.2m/s). Despite the wind change HCA Jane Davidson improved on her 13.82 PB from the 100m hurdles heat on Sunday, with 13.78 in the semi-final and then 13.76 (-1.7) to take the silver medal. Fellow HCA Leah Keisler improved her pre-championship 800m best by more than 5 seconds, taking another 3s off her semi-final time for 5th in 2:06.78. Gwen Datey was very disappointed to miss out on the 200m final by 0.01, having finished 3rd into her semi in 25.03 (-2.2) after a comfortable 24.66 in Sunday’s heat. She bounced back to take gold with Loughborough’s 4x100m team, running down the other teams on the back straight to set up a big win in 45.83. Jess Gordon jumped 1.63 in the high jump final. Ellis Greatrex came through for bronze in a Loughborough clean sweep in the 400m (47.71), before leading out an expected dominant 4x400 performance of 3:10.43 in 48.1.