Middlesex Track & Fields Champs (May 2019)
Lee Valley - 11/12 May 2019
It was the sprints again, that kept the standard of competition at a good county level Roy Stratton, a Senior Official with Middlesex for the last 46 years remarked
“The trouble these days is that coaches and club managers don’t encourage their athletes to compete in County Championships”
However, the first track event, the 400 hurdles, where quite often, only one person turns up to run but, this year, four did on the day and, a good battle ensued with George Vaughan, coached by Mike McFarlane and Vaughan’s Father, ran close to his best with a 53.69, in preparation for the Loughborough international.
Keano-Elliott-Paris-Samuel celebrated his birthday (20) on that first day at Lee Valley with personal bests of 10.63/21.48 100/200. The latter was with a legal + 1.5.w. Often the 100m sprinters had the advantage of a good wind. Tariq Wild ran to a U17, CBP of 10.75 and Michael Shonibare ran a 10.84 winning the U20 100m.
Louis Menzies-Walker, running from lane 4, won the U20 400 in 50.4, improving radically on his 52.49 indoors and 54.55 outdoors.
Mohamed Hashi, who won a tactical 1500, had, previously in the day won the 5000 by over a minute. Hashi ran 14:48 in a BMC race at Milton Keynes.
Igan Gai-Shohet had three over 7 metre long jumps disallowed but, came away with a senior win with 6’41.
Sean Oceng Engena had a good sequence of high jumps attempts to win. 1.60; 1.65; 1.70 and finally 1.75.
Stefano Zannaro brought his 3000m walk PB of 18:41 down to 15:51.22 at Lee Valley which was a big improvement for the 46 year old.
Regarding the women’s events, Cadelle Agyei-kyem brought the CPB for 300 down to 39.99.
Akasha Ellis, known more as a thrower has beome a handy sprinter, winning the senior 100 in 11.96, in a race that saw the first 4 under 12.2.
Lia Stephenson (23), who was second in the BUCS triple jump with 13’03 and will be competing in the European clubs competition. She got some good early practise in with a long jump of 5’60 but had three no-jumps over 6 metres. Her coach John Herbert knows she is likely to improve a lot as the season progresses. A new name making inroads is Maria Alaphilippe who won the U17 long jump with 5’72 with a legal +1.5 wind.