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England Champs success in Chelmsford

Woodford performances at the England senior open Championships in Chelmsford were highlighted by wins for Youcef Zatat, Yemi Mary John and Ellie McCartney, with a new club record for Youcef of 19.04 in the shot.

Tosin Oke was denied the win in the triple jump in the final round having led throughout. In a mostly windy competition he opened with 15.94 m and improved to 16.10 m (+2.9m/s) in the 3rd round. This was backed up by a wind legal 15.82 m in the 5th round, but the M40 former commonwealth champion was foiled by a very windy 16.50 m on the last jump of the current British champion. The wind was particularly challenging for the pole vaulters, but Ellie McCartney prevailed on countback thanks to a second time clearance at 4.12m.

Jack Lawrie was involved in a very tight 400m hurdles final, where the top 3 cleared the final hurdle together. He lost out on the gold medal on the dip, but his 50.04 secs silver medal winning performance improved his own Scottish and Club "domestic" record.

Jack Lawrie

At 400m new European U23 champion Yemi Mary John was a comfortable winner in 51.55 secs, while in the men’s event Jacob Campbell ran a PB of 47.40 to make the final and then improved further to 47.26 secs for 5th equal. One place better in the 110 hurdles was George Vaughan though, as in all short events, times were held back by the challenging winds. Louise Gilbert was 7th in the 1500m in 4:28.48.

Youcef Zatat was already safe for gold in the shot put, almost 2 metres clear of the field after 18.73 m in the second round, but his 5th round performance broke new ground as he has been threatening to do all season and after his 18.78 m PB in non-ideal conditions at the British championships. 19.04 m improved the club record set by Emeka Udechuku in 2006 and was the best at the England championships in its current format.

In the women’s discus Danielle Broom, 6th in 43.50, finished just ahead of Emma Botham (42.65). Lucy Marshall narrowly edged out Danielle in the hammer, 56.43 for 7th versus 56.05.

 

Others in action included Jasmine Mitchell who was close to her season's best with 62.88 secs in her 400mH heat and Mary Elcock who was 9th in the TJ.