WOODFORD GREEN with Essex Ladies had plenty to shout about at the South of England Championships, held at Lee Valley.

Omar Mansour and Katherine Foy both scooped gold in their 800m races, while Paul Scanlan was narrowly edged into second place after a personal best run in the 400m.

Mansour ran a sensible race to retain his U20 title, waiting until the bell to make his move through the field before powering home in the final 200m to clock a time of 1 min 55.72 secs.

Meanwhile, in her first year as a senior Foy breezed home in a time of 2:14.98, comfortably seeing off the challenge from her rivals. Diana Kennedy picked up the bronze medal after a fine run.

Over 400m, 16-year-old Scanlan, competing in the U20 category for the first time this year, cruised through the rounds and saved his finest performance for the final.

He thought he had taken the gold, but a photo finish saw him edged out by 1/100th of a second.

In the women’s senior event, Tara Bird won a silver medal, while there were also medals for Hannah and Hollie Pattie-Belilli, competing in the women’s age group indoor pentathlon championships.

In the U15 event, Hannah finished third with a points total of 2360, while Hollie’s total of 2780 was good enough for silver in the U17 event.

Elsewhere, club member Alasdair Strange set a new Scottish indoor record for the pole vault during a competition in Loughborough, beating his lifetime best by 2cm as he cleared 5.15m.

In Cardiff, at the UWIC Pole Vault championships, Woodford Green with Essex Ladies’ athlete Christian North triumphed with a clearance of 5.05m.