Sprinter Marvin Popoola and high jumper Tayo Andrews were the latest to show that it is not only our youngsters and veterans who win area titles for HHH. Marvin claimed his first senior gold medal at the age of 19 in winning the 60m gold at the South of England Indoor Champs at the Lee Valley Athletics Centre last weekend. Marvin emphatically won both his heat and semi final, the latter in a PB time of 6.78 and followed that up win a 0.04 seconds margin of victory in the final in clocking 6.81. Happy that his work was done for the weekend, Marvin elected to pass up on the opportunity to contest the 200m the following day.
Tayo doesn’t turn 19 until March 2015 so is still in the under 20 men’s age group and his fine clearance of 2m in the high jump was good enough to claim gold in that category, with the same height cleared as the runner up in a narrow contest won on countback. Byron Robinson did run both senior men’s sprint events and picked up a bronnze medal in the 200m, clocking 22.46 in a final in which two third placed athletes were deemed inseparable. More bronze was brought home by Rushane Thomas, who ran a very good PB of 8.15 for third in the senior men’s 60m hurdles final just a few days before his 20th birthday and by Michella Obijiaku whose shot put PB of 12.12m was good for a podium place in the U20 women’s event. These excellent performances by our HHH medallists and our other track and field athletes who took part at these championships bodes well for the outdoor season to come this summer.
Marvin Popoola won the senior men’s 60m gold medal
Byron Robinson won the senior men’s 200m bronze medal