COMPETING at the English Schools Championships in Birmingham, Woodford Green AC's Sam Watts demonstrated the form that saw him selected as part of the Great Britain 4x100m relay squad for the World Junior Championships in Canada later this month.

Watts won the senior boys' 200m, setting a significant new personal best of 21.10 secs.

Anthony Oshodi, the national U20 shot put champion, was given the honour of carrying the Essex flag in his final English Schools performance. His victory in the shot, with a distance of 16.79m, came as he added a fifth English Schools gold medal to his collection.

Alex Cornwell tried valiantly to defend his senior boys' 1500m title that he won last year in Sheffield, but could not quite pull it off, instead having to settle for a fine silver in a time of 3m55.94 secs.

Also winning a silver medal, in the senior girls' long jump, was Kitty Eleyae with a leap of 5.55m.

Woodford men’s B team were in Southern Men’s League action at Ilford, placing fourth in a very close contest.

With the team suffering towards the bottom of the First Division of the SML, a stronger performance in this penultimate fixture of the season was imperative in the fight to stay up.

Despite numerous winners, and many other fine performances, missing competitors in just a couple of events made the difference between finishing fourth and a comfortable victory.

Saturday evening saw the latest BMC Grand Prix held at Solihull, where Tara Bird, gradually improving her form as she gets back into racing following several months of missed training due to injury, recorded a season’s best over 800m of 2m 04.92 secs.

At the Welsh U20 Championships in Carmarthen, Ben Phillips picked up a bronze medal, missing silver by just 0.01 secs as he placed third over the 400m hurdles with a personal best of 56.64 secs.

Meanwhile, Graham Hedman (4x400m), Elaine O'Neil (4x100m) and Joice Maduaka (4x100m) have been selected for the European Championships in Barcelona, while Junior Ejehu (4x100m) and Sam Watts (4x100m) are both selected for the World Junior Championships in Moncton, Canada.