WOODFORD Green duo Nick Leavey and Emeka Udechuku were crowned national champions in their respective events at the weekend’s England Closed Championships in Gate-shead.

Leavey took the 400m title in a personal best time of 46.52secs, while Udechuku won the latest of his national winners’ medals in the discus with a throw of 57.56m.

There was more good news for the local club as Stephanie Aneto achieved a Commonwealth Games qualifying mark for the second time in two weeks.

She achieved the distance as she finished second in the women’s triple jump with a leap of 13.64m, a personal best.

Tracey Duncan picked up an excellent silver medal in the 400m hurdles, while Kim Murray took bronze in the long jump.

Nineteen-year-old athlete Vincent Ogendengbe impressed in the same race as Leavey, finishing fourth in the final after achieving a personal best time in qualifying.

In the shot putt, Carl Fletcher was fourth, as was Lucy Marshall in the hammer, Diana Kennedy in the 3000m steeplechase and Ayamba Akim in the high jump.

In the Scottish Championships at Dunfermline there was a Woodford one-two in the hammer.

That was achieved by Mark Dry and Andy Frost, both of whom had shown fine early season form when they each recorded Commonwealth Games qualifying marks, but have recently been troubled by illness and injury.

Dry won with 66.95m from Frost with 65.62m, and they will now be looking to recapture their best form as the season progresses towards the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October.

In the 400m hurdles Francis Smith was second in a very close race, recording 53.63 secs.

The LICC meeting took place at Lee Valley on Saturday and there was news of a personal best performance over 800m for Omar Mansour, who recorded 1m 53.25 secs.

In the same race Gavin Lewis recorded a time of 1m 54.75 secs and clubmate Alex Cornwell clocked 1m 57.79 secs.