Stephanie is star of the show for Woodford green

Woodford Green Athletics Club with Essex Ladies, with support from Ilford Athletics Club, contested the second Youth Development League match at Ashton Playing Fields on Saturday.

It was a closely fought event with the home club finally coming third with 505 points behind Havering Mayesbrook (517) and Bedford (513) out of the eight competing teams.

Star of the home team was Stephanie Howe, who won the girls’ under-15 hammer with a huge 58.83 metres and also came third in the shot with 7.69m.

Stephanie is coached by her father Chris Howe, who was a member of the club’s British League team for many years.

There were wins for Aaron Toppin in the boys’ under-15 100m with 11.9 seconds and Pearce Christie in the boys’ under-15 200m in 24.4.

Aaron also won the B 200m.

In the boys’ under-15 age group there were further wins for Canaan Soloman with two minutes 5.2 seconds in the 800m, Shane Dewar with 1.65m in the high jump and Dominic Langley with 1.50m in the B high jump.

In the boys’ under-13 age group there were first places for Rayne Allen in both the 100m in 13.8 and the 200m in 28.3.

Rayne also took third place in the shot with 5.63m.

In the class for girls’ uinder-15, Naomi Browne won the high jump with 1.53m and also won the B 100m with a time of 13.1.

The B 200m was won by Karina Hope-Bruce in 28.1.

There were sterling performances in the 800m with Rosie Poole being narrowly beaten into second place in the A race in two minutes 28.9 seconds, while Isabella Hoy won the B race in 2.31.4.

In the 1,500m there was a good third place for Jodie Ratcliffe in 5.07.2.

Phobe Fuhr won the pole vault with 2.00m while Katie Petyt came second in the long jump with 4.68m.

The girls’ under-13s collected a clutch of points with Molly Gardner winning the high jump with 1.25m, the shot with 7.05m and gaining second place in the 150m with 21.2.

Kyesha Robinson came second in the 1,200m in 4.10.2 and Megan Caswell took fourth place in the 800m with 2.46.6.

Finally, there was a great win for Brandon Shibchurn, Shane Dewar, Pearce Christie and Aaron Toppin in the 4x400m sprint relay in 47.4.

The final score moved the Woodford Green up to fourth place on the Southern-North table.