A STRONG display of running put Woodford Green with Essex Ladies within grasp of the Metropolitan League title last weekend.

At Alexandra Palace, the returning Dave Wardle was first home for the club in a fine seventh place out of the 345 runners.

Dan Agustus was close behind in 11th. Hywel Care was disappointed with 17th, but he still scored highly.

Mr Reliable, Bertie Powell, showed his usual gritty determination to come home in 19th, one place ahead of Ben Hope in 20th.

David Hawellek finished well in 22nd position, followed closely by Tom Phillips in 30th.

Meanwhile, Angus Holford was beaten into 47th, Jim Roche came 49th, Tomaz Plibersek finished in 53rd and Matt Malloy recorded a 62nd place finish.

A stalwart of Woodford, Kevin Murphy, suffered cramp during the race but he struggled to the finish in 67th.

The results garnered a second-place finish behind Serpentine Runners, with a healthy 119-point lead in the table.

Elsewhere, Beijing Olympics 100m finalist and Woodford runner Jeanette Kwakye featured at the South of England Indoor Championships, held at Lee Valley.

Competing over three rounds, Jeanette won the final in 7.28sec, the fastest time by a British athlete this season and a qualifying mark for the European Indoor Championships.

Nick Leavey and Paul Scanlan added further titles over 200m at the event.

Nick took the senior victory with a time of 21.67s. Paul won the junior title in 22.13s.

Also at Lee Valley, Ezekiel Ewulo gained a silver in the long jump with 7.19m.

Sarah Claxton, who raced for Great Britain in the 100m hurdles final at the Games in 2008, opted out of the 60m final after she had qualified for it.

She won her heat in 7.72s, then qualified for the final by coming second in her semi-final with 7.68s.

Back at Ally Pally, Jessica Sparke returned to action with a 12th-place finish in a tough race with Becky Penty of Highgate.

Bernie Pritchett and Diana Kennedy were separated by just two seconds, in 29th and 31st place respectively.

Meanwhile, in the junior shot event, Youcef Zatat picked up a bronze medal with her throw of 12.44m.

In the women’s triple jump, Hannah Frankson won silver with 12.57m as she completed her return to competition after she missing the 2010 season.