by Ken Bray

THERE were over 30 medals for Woodford Green A.C. with Essex Ladies athletes at the Essex Track and Field Championships.

The three days of competition, Bank Holiday Monday and last weekend, saw some fine performances from Woodford athletes.

Amongst the highlights was a senior shot and discus double from Devon Douglas in his first year in the age group, and fine pb's by under 20 throwers Anthony Oshodi and Peter Clarke.

There were also some great middle distance performances led by Jessica and Ronnie Sparke, and some good sprinting.

Anthony Oshodi, in his first year as an under 20, improved his recent personal best in the shot by over a metre to take the title in a new CBP of 17.60m and move to second on this year's UK rankings.

Anthony picked up two further medals as he placed 3rd in both hammer and discus with 44.60m and 46.88m.

Another to move to second on this year's U/20 UK rankings was Peter Clarke as he won the hammer with a personal best of 61.73m, following younger brother Harry who had taken the U/17 title with a pb of 47.56.

It was pleasing to see Lee Mathurin back in action with a pb of 48.57m. Sam Turner took the U/20 javelin title with 51.13, whilst Tom Richards took bronze in the U/17 event with 47.89m, and young James Bangart took the U/15 title with 35.07m.

In the U/17 discus there was silver for Youcef Zatat with 40.07m.

Of the senior throwers, Devon Douglas took both shot and discus titles, with new pb marks of 14.88m and 43.03m. Behind Devon in the discus Chris Linque picked up silver with 42.19m, having earlier placed 4th in the shot with 12.08m.

Other men's field action was led by a gold for U/17 triple jumper David Crisp with 13.54 m, and gold also in the U/17 high jump for Billy Falconer and there was silver in the senior men's long jump for Nick Dowsett with 6.42m.

Women's field performances were led by another shot title for Britain's number one, Jo Duncan, with 14.88m. U/20 Sam Moodie also picked up gold with 1.60m high jump, and U/17 Rachel Dean took the triple jump with 10.88m and bronze in the long jump with 4.79m. In the U/20 hammer, Sam Smith took the gold medal and Hollie Redman placed 2nd. in the senior event.

Middle distance track performances were led by Jessica and Ronnie Sparke. Jessica enjoyed a comfortable win over 1500m to take the senior title in 4m27.32 secs whilst younger brother Ronnie led a host of fine Woodford peformances in the U/20 1500m; Ronnie ran out winner with a fine 3m54.32 secs, ahead of Omar Mansour on 3m 56.16secs.

The previous day Omar had displaced Ronnie as Woodford's fastest U/20 over 800m this season by just 0.01 secs as he recorded 1m53.77 for silver. In the senior men's 800m there was bronze for Ashley Mildenhall with 1m54.06 secs.

In the senior 1500m Andrew Mariani picked up bronze with 3m58.46 secs. In the U/17 men's 800m there was a fine pb for Ben Phillips, placing second with 2m01.15 secs.

Other women's middle distance efforts were led by Georgie-Lou Seles who took the U/20 1500m title with 4m37.8 secs, and picked up silver in the 800m with 2m16.08 secs.

Another picking up two medals was U/20 Kathrine Foy, who competed in the senior 800m and 400m, placing third in each with times of 2m15.89 secs and 49.65 secs, after a 59.22 secs pb in her heat. That senior 400m final saw Katie Skelding pick up silver with a time of 56.49 secs, and later place 5th over 200m with 25.00 secs .

Decathlete James Wright, now considering a serious move to 400mH, ran out winner in 56.08 secs, although struggling with his stride pattern over the last three barriers.

The U/20 200m final saw three Woodford athletes compete; Eugene Ayanful was best placed with 22.02 secs for third. Paul Scanlan ran out a fine winner in the U/20 400m. with 49.3 secs, while Tom picked up bronze with 51.8 secs. In the U/15 Boys sprints there were two medals for Keira-Lamar McCook - 3rd over 200m with25.12 secs, and second over 100m.

Of the U/15 girls there was a bronze over 300m for Georgina Ferarri.