Southern success completes set for Serena Vincent… City stars impress indoors

It’s the latest in her glittering array of successes.

The 17-year-old started her indoor competition life as an under-20 with a win in the shot with a distance of 14.36m.

She now has taken the southern (SEAA) title at under-15, under-17 and now under-20.

Significantly, though, the weight of the shot thrown by Serena is now the same as senior women.

Her distance at this event placed her sixth in the UK senior women’s rankings.

She now moves on to some national competitions where she will try to add the national under-20 title to those she holds at under-15 and under-17.

And she will hopefully also test herself against the senior women in their championships.

The southern under-20 championships produced some other really strong City performances.

In the 60m three athletes competed for the first time over this distance and indoors, senior man Gavin Bodrell clocked a time of 7.26sec and Josh Haine produced an indoor time of 7.86.

Perhaps the best track performance came from Jacob Nelson who as an under-17 competed in the higher age group and clocked 7.22 for 60m. This placed him in the top 25 athletes for this age group nationally.

The ever-reliable Harry Pocock competed in the senior 400m where he made it through to the semi-final, clocking a best time of 51.11.

In the female race Ami Carr, relatively new to this level of competition, came in with a time of 64.16 which augers well for the outdoor season to come. 

Also the open London games took place at the Lee Valley facility.

Bodrell improved his 60m time to 7.2 winning his event, Kyle Catmull clocked 7.69 and Haine returned a personal best in the event with a 60m time of 7.73.

In the 400m City had two under-20 women’s representatives.

Christine Roberts ran 65.9sec and Carr recorded another solid time (65.15) after the southerns.

Matthew Galbraith achieved a triple jump mark of 12.06m.

One of the most heartening performances came from George Rosam in the long jump.

This was the first time he had ventured onto a track to jump since his very serious knee ligament injuries sustained in an outdoor event last August.

He managed to jump a solid 6.21m but more important than that the confidence was back ready for the British Athletic League in the summer where the City of Portsmouth men’s team have been promoted to national division three.