James Alaka continued his bright start to the Summer season in the United States as he set a new best for the 400 metres. The Blackheath & Bromley athlete came second in his race at the Oregon Relays in Eugene in 48.06 to put him on top of the Club rankings even though his main events are the 100 and 200. It is surely only a matter of time before he runs under 48 seconds.

More good news from America came at the Triton Invitational meeting in San Diego where Jermaine Olasan won his long jump competition with a leap of 7.38, the second furthest outdoors by a Briton so far this year.

Emily Martin also posted a good long jump performance. Competing in the Tommie “Tiny” Lister Classic meeting in Los Angeles, the second claimer leapt 5.50 in her first outdoor competition for three years.

The Club were unable to retain the their track team winners title at the annual Sward & Kinnaird Trophy Meeting at Kingston largely because they were short of sprint hurdlers and steeplechasers. In the field events, with many athletes unavailable, there was no prospect of being competitive in the team contest.

The bright side was the number of encouraging early season individual performances. Leading the way was new member Adam Gemili who is a first year under 20. Adam plays football for Dagenham & Redbridge and has only dabbled in Athletics in the past but here he dominated the sprints. He was the only athlete to run under 11 seconds in the 100 metres and his time of 10.73 in winning the A string race against experienced sprinters was even more impressive as it was run into a -1.9 metre per second headwind.

Similarly in the 200 metres he was the only athlete to run under 22 seconds winning one of the non scoring races in 21.65 into a -1.1 m/s wind.

From almost nowhere, he now finds himself within range of the qualification times of 10.60 and 21.25 for the European Junior Championships which take place in Estonia towards the end of July.

Although Adam was not in a scoring 200, the Club still achieved maximum points in the A and B strings with Femi Owolade and new second claimer Oweka Wanogho running times 22.09 and 22.03. Oweka had earlier placed second in the 100 metres. The duo then teamed up with Bomene Barikor and Ainsley Campbell to win the 4x100 metres in 43.24.

Another youngster with the European Junior Championships in his sights is Ben Hopkins. He opened his season by finishing second in the 400 hurdles in 54.8, the quickest by a British under 20 athlete this year.

The European qualifying standard is 53.40 and given that his 54.8 is two and a half seconds quicker than his first race last year, he would appear to have a good chance of achieving his target.

Former 400 hurdler Steve Timmins is making a return to the Sport but in the throwing events where he started his career in the Club’s young athletes team. Although at the age of 35 he is classed as a veteran athlete he set a new personal best of 48.35 in the hammer and then followed this with another new best in the shot with a distance of 12.77. Another veteran Mike Van Den Dobbelsteen won the javelin with a throw of 51.18 a distance which is only just outside his personal best.

Ever dependable Lewis Ely made the long journey down from Kings Lynn to compete and was rewarded with a win in the high jump with a clearance of 1.90.

Back on the track Alex Gibbins, Jamie Darling and Jack Swallow doubled up in the middle distance events and produced some solid times while another veteran, Richard Holt, continued reconstructing his running technique as he timed 56.39 for 400 metres.

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