Stratford AC trio shine for the Midlands

WHILE Stratford AC’s Andrew Pozzi was taking on and beating the world’s best at the World Indoor Championships, three of his Stratford team-mates were representing the Midlands in the National Indoor Inter-Area Masters competition at the Lee Valley Stadium.

Typically, it was Paula Williams who led the way, not letting the timing clash between her shot put event and her hurdles get in her way, taking only two throws to win the shot with a distance close to her personal best.

She then led from the start in the 60m hurdles for her age group, only to discover that the hurdles had been set up for a younger age group and the race needed to be re-run.

Again, she led from the start, winning in a new personal best time, boding well for her trip to Madrid later this month for the European Masters’ Indoor Championships.

This was followed by a second place in the triple jump before helping the Midlands team win the 4x200m relay.

For Phil Brennan, it was also good preparation for the trip to Madrid and he did not let the lack of winter speed training slow him down with second and third places in the M70 800m and 1500m metres respectively, both in times that put him in second place in the national rankings for his age group.

He then rounded off his busy day by helping the Midlands M70 relay team get second place in their 4x200 relay.

Their success was shared by Andy Reeves, who has recently joined Stratford from Rugby and Northampton AC.

A talented sprinter and jumper, he will prove a great asset for the club.

Having been working on changes to his run-up over the winter, Reeves was pleased to already match last season’s best of 1.65 metres in his first event of this season.

This was followed by a leap of 10.76m in the triple jump, again close to last season’s best, before running a leg of the 4x200m relay for the Midlands M35 team.