Season's best for Yemi Mary and Club records at London Diamond League
Woodford’s young athletes had the opportunity to compete next to Olympic stars at the London Diamond League event in the Olympic Stadium on Saturday. The meeting included 4x100m relay events for some of the fastest Club teams in the country. Also notably, Yemi Mary John recorded a season’s best before heading to Paris.
Yemi Mary John raced over 400m in the “domestic” race running strongly to win in a season’s best of 51.18 secs ahead of other members of the GB 4x400m relay squad for Paris. Eugene Amo-Dadzie also impressed in the "domestic" 100m as he won in a marginally windy 10.12 secs w (+2.1) and impressed on the last leg of the 4x100m as the GB "B" team beat the "A" team who messed up the last changeover, underlining the controversial non-selection of Eugene for the Paris 4x100m squad. Also in action in Diamond League events was Will Grimsey, who was close to his season’s best of 2.23m in the high jump as he cleared 2.22m to place 3rd in a relatively low-key event by DL standards. Another relatively low-key field event, the women’s long jump, saw Woodford’s Hong Kong international Tiffany Yue place 8th with 6.24m.
The meeting had opened with the Club Connect relays and Woodford fielded teams in each of the U/15 and U/17 Boys and Girls races. The fact that the Club were invited to take part is great recognition of the successful season this age group of Young Athletes have enjoyed.
The U/15 teams enjoyed great results, the Girls team of Evanna Eze, Habiba Tijani, Joy Larinde and Shalom Prince finished a fine 2nd recording a time of 48.22 secs, which significantly improved the Club record of 49.10 secs which had stood since 1993. The U/15 Boys also broke the Club record but one that had only stood since 2018.Tyler Reynolds, Sammy Giest, Alex Osagie and Callum Clydesdale combined to place 4th in a close race with a fine 44.80 secs.
Sadly both the U/17 Girls (Caitlin Hancock, Amira Andeshoka, Zoe Hedges and Naveah Johnson) and the U/17 Boys (Chiril Mardari, Kofi Odell Amoateng , Jaheim Roman and Joseph Arnold) were disqualified but nevertheless hopefully enjoyed their experience in the 2012 Olympic Stadium