Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire's junior boys upstaged their illustrious rivals to strike gold in the English Schools' Sainsbury's Combined Events Championships at Birmingham's Alexander Stadium.

The trio of Ed O'Hara (Larkmead School, Abingdon), Peter Barnshaw (Abingdon School) and Marcus Woodington (Wheatley Park School) grabbed the glory in the pentathlon.

They rattled up a personal best score for Oxfordshire of 7,894 points to finish ahead of Kent on 7,795 and Essex on 7,354.

O'Hara finished fourth in the individual competition with 2,753 points, which included personal bests of 1.69m in the high jump and 2mins 14.56secs in the 800m.

Barnshaw was a place back in fifth with 2,742 points after recording personal bests of 9.37m in the shot, 5.52m in the long jump and 2.10.40 in the 800m.

Picture the scene: it's March 2010, the final race in the Oxford Mail cross-country league is done, and tired athletes are draped around the area, waiting for the prize-giving that will surely acknowledge their efforts through the season. But wait! What's this? No results? Who's the champion? Did so-and-so finally beat so-and-so(2) after years of trying? Nobody knows and there's no way of knowing. Mystery surrounds the season…..

Oxfordshire's Under 13 boys finished sixth out of 14 counties in the Inter Counties meeting at Kingston-upon- Thames.

Although the team could produce no event winners, they did record three second places as they amassed 313 points.

The winners were Essex with 385 points The girls faced a tough competition and finished 13th with 264 points.

OXON A STRING EVENT DETAILS Boys - 100m: 9 L Grieveson 13.99. 200m: 7 M Gain 27.2. 800m: 13 C Hewitt 2.35.5. 1500m: 9 J Tack 4.56.84. 75mH: 10 G Axon 14.0. High jump: 4 G Axon 1.45. Long jump: 8 G Axon 4.32. Shot: 8 T Bosher 7.44. Discus: 3 D Kam 23.74. Javelin: 2 R Curtis 34.71.

Please find attached Oxon AA news June 2008.
Mike Shipway
Oxon AA
Press & Publicity Officer

Please find latest Oxfordshire Track & Field rankings as at June 2008 attached.

Radley speedster Ben Owen grabbed a senior men's sprint double at a hot and humid Horspath Road.

With weather conditions a far cry from a year ago, when several events had to be abandoned due to torrential rain and high winds, Owen continued his excellent start to the season with notable victories in both the 100 and 200m.

He clocked 11 seconds dead to win the 100m, before following up with a time of 22.0 in the 200m.

Elsewhere in the senior men's competition, Tom Penfold, running for Birchfield Harriers, easily won the 1500m, leading from start to finish to record a championship record of 3mins 53secs.

And he wrapped up a middle-distance double with victory in the 800m, although he was chased to the line in an exciting finish by Oxford University's Richard Hildick-Smith.

Tara Kafke (Radley) blitzed her way to a championship record as she was crowned county champion in the under 20 women's 100m.

Kafke clocked 12.1 secs to take the gold medal, before adding 400m gold in a time of 58.8.

Witney's Claire Butler won the 200m in 25.8.

Elsewhere, there was a double win for another Radley's Sophie Tyers, who took the 800 and 1500m.

Oxford City's Emma Sutton set a championship record as she won the hammer with a throw of 40.62m, while other double wins came from City's Hayley Luke (100m hurdles and high jump) and Banbury's Hannah Bryan (shot and javelin).

The senior women's competition was dominated by Oxford University.
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There were four non-University wins, with Rebecca Bolton (Oxford City) landing the 800m title.

County Championships timetable attached

As you may be aware the Squad Day planned for Sunday 6th April was cancelled due to the snow. The Squad Day has now been rescheduled for Sunday 27th April and will take place at Tilsley Park Athletics Track and follow the format that was originally planned. The morning session from 9.30am - 1pm will focus on U/13 and U/15 athletes and the afternoon session 12.15pm - 3.30pm will focus on U/17 and U/20's.