Hercules Wimbledon Pentathlon Challenge, Wimbledon (Sat. 13th Apr.)
Miya Cook has the great ability to turn her hand to anything, writes Mick Bond, and at Wimbledon she showed her versatility once again at their open pentathlon event. Her score of 2126 points beat her best from last year by 200 points and included PBs in the 70m hurdles (12.65s), long jump (4.08m) and 800m (2:43.16s).
Cambridge Harriers Open Young Athlete Trials, Eltham (Sun. 14th Apr.)
Early stages of the 800m Heat 4
Our annual pre-season meeting had a great turn out with just short of 200 entries which, along with some nice weather, made for an excellent day’s athletics for our juniors, writes Mick Bond, with this meeting fulfilling three things for us; 1) A great place for our juniors to get an early season competition in and for some it will be their first outing in a club vest; 2) It helps team managers with current form to enable them to pick their best teams for the up and coming league fixtures and 3) It allows non- members (just over 50 on this occasion) to come along and have a go and get a feel for club life. As a measure of how the club has come on in the past few years, we used to get about 50 athletes signing up for this event and now its 200!
The meeting is also a measure of our organisational ability and it was great to see some new faces officiating and helping out on the admin side of things. Performance wise there are really too many to mention but a few of the highlights follow:
Under 20 Men: Dayne Douglas in his first outdoor competition for the club recorded 11.18s over 100 metres and Moses Odigbo jumped 12.03m in the triple jump.
Under 17 Men: Daniel Obike cleared 1.90m in the high jump with three good attempts at 1.92. Michael Bridge threw 40.69m (Discus) and 14.80m (Shot) both of which should place him in the UK top 10 this year even though at the bottom of the age group. Sam Scrase-Field recorded 1:59.46s in the 800m, his first time under two minutes. Elijah Olaleye - 14.02s in the sprint hurdles and 12.38m in his first ever triple jump. Jack Jones achieved 6.55m in the long jump and Immanuel Jegede 52.69s for 400m.
Daniel Obike
Under 15 Boys: In the 100m Jovani Lyndsey and Xavier Brathwaite ran 11.74s and 11.92s respectively.
Under 20 Women: Keziah Olaleye clocked 59.57s over 400 metres, her first time sub-60s.
Under 17 Women: Clio Parkes (12.47s/25.67s) and Danielle Agyemang-Tolbert (12.62s/26.62s) recorded double wins in their respective races over 100 and 200 metres. Lily Gayle (12.77s/11.97s) recorded wins in both the 100m and 80m hurdles.
Under 15 Girls: Nia Thomas also recorded double hurdle wins with 13.01s (100mH) and 12.32s (75mH)
Meredith Cummins ran a 2:33.08s 800m for a 9.5s PB.
Under 13 Girls: Charlotte Foster ran a 800m PB of 2:34.65s.
Nia Thomas - Danielle Agyemang-Tolbert
Sam Scrase-Field - Meredith Cummins
Be Fit Today TA Outdoor Series 1, Lee Valley (Sun. 14th Apr.)
Divine Akinlolu dipped under 11 seconds in the 100m with a time of 10.94s albeit with a following wind of 2.5m/s whilst Michael Somade Makinde ran a legal 11.27s.
Reading Half-Marathon (Sun. 14th Apr.)
Hayley Newman was the only club member at this event recording a time of 1:51:51.
Manchester Marathon (Sun. 14th Apr.)
Promoted as the flattest major marathon and the 4th largest in Europe. Michael Taylor (M45) crossed the line in 2:58:07, Steve Groom (M40) was next home in 2:58:34 and Alex Griffith-Crowe recorded 4:06:54.
128th Boston (US) Marathon (Mon. 15th Apr.)
The Boston Marathon is considered to be one of the more difficult marathon courses because of the Newton hills, which culminate in Heartbreak Hill near Boston College. While the three hills on Commonwealth Avenue are better known, a preceding hill on Washington Street , climbing from the Charles River crossing at 16 miles (26 km), is regarded by some, as the course's most difficult challenge.
James Pitts (M40) finished in 4319th with a time of 3:08:26.
Other News
Maria Macdonald notched up her 500th Bexley Parkrun on Saturday.