Woodford Green AC with Essex Ladies had to settle for a runners-up spot in their Southern Athletics League match for combined teams.

Held at Ashton Playing Fields, Woodford’s collective men and women’s side faced off against Ipswich Harriers, Watford Harriers and West Norfolk.

Ipswich's steady accumulation of points across the track and field programme resulted in a winning margin of 15 points.

However, Woodford team manager Paul Manson was pleased with his side’s second place finish, which was down to high quality performance and team spirit.

In the women's section, Sarah Claxton's 13.83 in the 100m hurdles, Hannah Frankson's triple jump of 12.80m, and Hollie Redman's 40.75m in the discus were complemented by Kathrine Foy, Chloe Michaud and Maxine Davies collecting 13, ten and nine match points respectively in individual events.

They also made a contribution to the winning relay teams. In the women's 100m and 200m, Azaria Francis and Katie Skelding took first positions in the A and B strings respectively The highlight for Woodford in the men’s events was the display from under-17 athlete Joseph Dewar.

His long jump of 6.97 confirmed his position at the top of the national rankings for his age group.

The men's section also included some close in-house competition.

In the discus and shot putt, Devon Douglas and Chris Linque won maximum A and B string points for the Club while bettering the distances of all the other competitors.

Sylvester Juwe with 11.1 and Hasif Bedford (Under-20) with 11.4 were only separated by Tom Powell of Ipswich in the sprints.

The men's 3000m saw Bertie Powell (8.56.8) pull away from Jamie Nunnto claim second place behind Chris Rooke of Ipswich.

Tomaz Plibersek and Tom Beedell were also running stride for stride in the 3000m steeplechase before the latter was unintentionally hindered by a runner being lapped at the water jump barrier.

Plibersek went on to record a promising early season mark of 9.36.22, and Beedell secured thet op placing in the B string.

Dan Yaxley and Sam Benge (Under-20) made important contributions to the team score by running well in the 400m, 800m and the 4x400m relay.