Visitors from Malta, Norway and the Czech Republic, in London for the Hercules Wimbledon meeting the following day, added an international flavour to the second spring warm up at wet & blustery Mayesbrook Park on Saturday. The throwing events produced a senior double for Mel Harrison who returned to her best to win the shot  and discus. There was a senior javelin victory for Emma Christmas, and in the men’s javelin Bonne Buwembo opened his season with one of his longest ever throws for victory. There were hammer wins for Daniel Gamester in the senior and Bradley Reece who added two metres to his PB to win the U20 event.  Andrew Kerr smashed his PB in the U15 boys hammer competition and Laurence Goodacre was a good winner of the U17 shot.  Bethan Siddons took the ladies high jump. Claire Brennan won the ladies 100m hurdles and Jack Edgar-Hill’s winning 100m hurdles debut took him into the club all time top 10. Another newcomer Andrew Lewis was a worthy winner of the U17 400m, with more to come. added 06/04/08 

Faye Fullerton achieved the greatest result in her athletics career when she won gold in the World University Cross Country Championships held in Mauquenchy, near Rouen in northern France. Her win also led the British team to a comfortable gold ahead of Australia and Ireland. Faye was in contention throughout with Irish pre-race favourite Fionnuala Britton, who last week had finished nine places above Faye in the World Cross Country Championships.  But this time the Irish runner had no answer as Faye went past her in the final 100m to claim gold by three seconds, with bronze going to Morocco's Ikram Zoulali, who last week was over half a minute and 16 places ahead of Faye in the World Champs.  added 06/04/08    

The track and field season got under way with the club’s Spring Open at Hornchurch on Sunday. New signing Adam McCarthy showed promise when he broke the club best for the U17 Men’s 300m hurdles with 43.4s, with Jack Edgar-Hill also inside the old mark. Edgar-Hill also took the U17M 150m honours. Nicola Hill opened her account with a win in the U20/senior women’s 300m hurdles and Laura Bealey won the senior 600m. Newcomer Nicholas Duffey was a good winner of the U13 boys’ 600m and Rebecca O'Neill improved her PB to win the U15 300m. On the field Joe Ramie notched up good long & triple jump marks in the U20M section and Zoë Young took the senior long jump, exceeding the 5m barrier. Sacha Martin won the u13 high jump and was the fastest U13 80m runner. George Bean added over three metres to his U17 best when he launched the javelin 59.39m at Lee Valley on Sunday. Sophie Baggs was runner up in the U15 discus with 25.31m at the Ilford Throws open.  added 31/03/08    

Faye Fullerton's gave a good account for herself for Great Britain in the World Cross Country Championships at Edinburgh finishing in a respectable 45^th position. For over half of the 8km race Faye was third placed Briton, behind Liz and Hayley Yelling, and ahead of trials winner Laura Kenny.  Faye was placed 35^th at the end of the first two (of four) laps, slipping back to 44^th on the third lap and losing one more place on the fourth and final lap. It was Faye’s fifth performance in the World Champs, having competed three times in the U20 event, and once in the senior short case race in 2004. The GB team were out of the medals in sixth as Liz Yelling (14^th), Hayley Yelling (20^th) , Laura Kenney (38^th) and Rachel Townend (42^nd) comprised the scoring four, as Faye beat trials runner-up Jo Wilkinson (53^rd) for the first time this winter.  added 31/03/08    

Sara Luck smashed her career 800m best when placing fourth in the British Universities Indoor Championships at Sheffield today. London University medical student Sara's 2m11.40s clocking was just a stride short of a medal in close run race where 0.7secs covered the first four. It improved on her five-year old PB set in the 2003 English Schools Championships as an U17 and takes her into the club all-time top 20 times.  Sheffield University student Laura Bealey was close to her 400m best with 62.50s for second in her heat but it was not fast enough to progress.   added 16/03/08    

Faye Fullerton's fabulous fourth place in Saturday's Inter Counties Cross Country Championships has earned her a GB call up for the World Cross Country Champs. Alexa Joel (14th) and Lauren  Deadman (43rd) helped Essex to team silver. Ellie Bounds was 23rd (15:48) in the U15 girls race with Sidnie Sales 88th (16:42). Grant Twist placed 33rd in the U17 men's event but Georgie Sales failed to finish in the girls' equivalent. Ross Clarke was a respectable 71st (40:27) and second Essex scorer in his first senior Championships, while in the U13 Girls Becky Stanley (14:46) and Amanda Blaxland (15:26) were 113th and 196th respectively.  added 15/3/08 & updated 16/03/08  Link to full results      

The club's leading marathon men took a big step towards the London marathon as they struck team gold in last Sunday's Brentwood Half-Marathon. Ian Anthony lead the squad home in a PB of 1:16.18 for 15th, as the remaining three scorers packed well. Graham Pritchard clocked 1:17.15 for 18th, two places ahead of Steve Rand's 1:17.47 PB with Martin Chester completing the scoring quartet in another PB of 1:18.24 for 22nd. Graham Hogan's 53rd place in 1:22.23 secured victory as the team contest required five to run and four to score. There were good results for club athletes in the 5km Fun Run with Toby Jarvis winning in 16:54 and Thomas Davis sixth in 17:36. Zoey Liittlechild took the female honours with 18:22 for 13th overall.   added 13/3/08

Top 25 finishes for Grant Twist, Ellie Bounds and Georgie-Lou Sales were the pick of the bunch of club members' performances at last weekend's English Schools Cross Country Championship at at Sefton Park Liverpool. Grant was 21st in the Senior Boys' event in 22:17 while Georgie placed 23rd in the senior girls' equivalent with 16:18. Ellie placed a good 21st in the junior girls event with 13:46 as the Essex girls' team (pictured) finished second.  Rachel Sadler was 290th in the same age group (15:35). In the Intermediate age groups the club interest was represented by Sidnie Sales, who finished 86th (15:14) and Daniel Shanney (190th - 22:23).      added 10/3/08

 

Photo: David Bounds

The senior men were again so near and yet so far at the county road relays, as another county championship brought another fourth place. Although missing many of their top athletes the squad still managed to field four full teams. The A team started well with Peter Coates bringing the team home in 8^th place (19:53) handing over to Rob Warner who took the team up to 6^th with his 20:01 leg. Grant Twist in his senior debut then took up the challenge and in a superb run doing the fastest Havering Mayesbrook leg of the day of 19:32 brought the team up to 5^th. Matt Bland running the final leg fought hard to make up the gap on the Chelmsford runner in third place but just failed and brought the team home in 4^th place with 20:12. The B and C teams were so evenly matched that it wasn’t until the final quarter of a mile that the B team of Paul Berrett (21:06), Rob Dickenson (20:50), Trevor Keys (20:20) and Jason Lendon (20:06) overhauled the C team of Chris Coates (20:14), Martin Chester (21:6), Ian Anthony (20:24) and Rob Jones (20:54) to finish 9th and 10th. The D team of Neill (21:21) and Tony Collins (21:27), Russ Middleton (22:26) and Ian Rutter (25:16) all acquitted themselves admirably in a strong windy day that made the going tough.  added 2/3/08