Athletics round-up

ST ALBANS student Rachel Felton continued her return to form on Saturday with an outstanding victory in the 800m at the British league match in Solihull.

Having been sidelined by injury since May, the former St Albans Girls School pupil has gradually been returning to full fitness and this win, in a time of 2:11:00, shows that she is finally refinding her form of last year.

The Chiswell Green athlete, who represents Shaftesbury Harriers AC, also took part in the 3,000m B race where she finished a highly respectable second in 10:28.

At the same meeting, Ellie Spain, the top ranked junior pole vaulter in the country, took on and beat the seniors with a vault of 3.90m.

Ellie,17, has already achieved the World Junior Championship standard of 3.90m this year, and is heading for the junior AAAs championships in Bedford at the end of the month hoping to get a place in the first two, so that she can take her place on the plane to Chile and compete against the world's best juniors.

Almost inevitably, Stephen Murphy has continued his improvement by recording a time of 5:50.4 in the 2,000m steeplechase at the BMC meeting at Watford's Woodside stadium, the second fastest by any under-21 athlete in Britain this year.

Stephen, whose feats are incredible considering he is still only 17, is also bound for Bedford's junior AAAs where he will be taking part in his first 3,000m steeplechase.

His coach, George Harrison, said: 'For Stephen to qualify for the World Juniors in Chile, he has to finish in the top two in Bedford but more importantly has to achieve the standard of 8:50.

'Britain doesn't have many senior athletes running that sort of time at the moment so that shows what kind of a challenge he faces. It is a very, very tall order.'

The strength of the sport in St Albans was further demonstrated by some outstanding performances by the Godfrey Davis Club as they came second in the Eastern Young Athletes League match at Westminster Lodge on Sunday.

The result ensures their promotion to Division One next season, and they will also now qualify to take part in the end of season trophy match for the top eight clubs taking place in Watford in September.

Especially notable performances in the girls' section came from Yasmin Patterson who won the Under 13 B long jump and the 200m, Hollie Lundgren in the U15 shot and javelin, Gaby Suter who threw 6.69m to win the U17 shot, and Kate Wheeler who pulled off a remarkable U17 double of discus and B 200m.

Wins for the boys were harder to come by, but exceptional performances from Robert Welling in the U13 high jump and John Turner in 400m and discus contributed valuable points to the team whilst both Ben Bryant (U15) and Nick Malham (U17) performed an exhausting trio of events.

St Albans athlete Nicola Dudman got some exciting news on Monday when she was told that she had been selected as part of England's 74-strong team going to the Commonwealth Youth Games in Edinburgh.

The Games are the first of their kind, having been organised to provide experience of multi-sport major events for stars of the future.

Many of the medallists in Edinburgh are expected to win a place in the England team for the senior Commonwealth Games in Manchester in two years time. The team is funded by the senior Commonwealth Games council for England and Sport England.