David Ajayi clocked a personal best of 7.16 seconds in the latest sprint series meeting

Ajayi leads the way for Beagles as sprint series is a real success

Dave Evans Thursday, March 14, 2013
6:00 PM

David Ajayi proved to be the top Beagle as Newham & Essex held the latest of their 60m Open Sprint Series last Wednesday.

This was the third competition in the indoor series which has seen a high standard of competition.

Back in January Sean Safo-Antwi of Enfield & Haringey clocked a superb time of 6.61 which was the fastest time in the country this year, until Dwain Chambers and James Dasaolu eclipsed it recently.

This latest event didn’t quite reach those heady heights, but it proved to be a good day for 18-year-old Ajayi who clocked 7.26 seconds in a red-hot first round heat, before finishing third in the second seeded race with a personal best of 7.16.

The top-seeded race was won by Kyron Williams of Enfield & Haringey in 6.94, but there were plenty of other Beagles taking part on the day.

Among the third seeds under-17 Joshua Anderson stormed to victory in 7.23, with Sheldon McGowan third in 7.24 and Abass Hemoh, another under-17, clocking 7.37.

Ryan Makaku, Kamal Esty and Andrew Elie finished fourth, fifth and sixth respectively in the fourth-seeds race, while Raymond Dixson was fourth among the fifth seeds, clocking 7.62.

There was no stopping Newham’s under-17 runner Mustafa Khosal among the sixth seeds as he came home in 7.60 for victory, while Paul Collier was second in the seventh-seed race with Sweety Akindele the highest ranked Beagle woman with 7.84.

Paul Tohill won the eight-seed race in 7.87, with Finette Agyapong clocking 8.05 for seventh in the same race.

Dialan Onwu won the ninth-seed heat in 7.93 as an under-15, while in the same race, senior woman Esther Johnson was fourth and under-15 girl Zoe Thompson managed fifth.

Under-13 prospect Karl Johnson stormed to a personal best in heat 10 to win in 8.33, the same time as under-15 Moyin Oladapo in second.

Also in that race were Beverley Prince, who was fourth and Kelechi Ojiako in fifth.

Newham youngsters made up most of the last two heats with Rotimi Osunsami and Debo Adekoyejo third and fourth in heat 12, while in the final heat, Lola Olaofe was second in 8.95, with under-13 Kane Drysdale third and Kelly Montgomery fourth in 9.24 seconds.