Jo Willoughby’s long jump performance in the Inter Area Masters indoors match at the Lea Valley complex in north London has set her up nicely for next week’s European Masters Indoors Championships in Braga, Portugal.

Representing the Midlands team, the Gloucester Athletic Club member is timing her preparations to perfection as she set a new British record in the W50 long jump with a leap of 4.82 metres, nine centimetres further than the previous mark.

She followed up that performance with a win in the triple jump with a best mark of 10.16 metres.

Also competing for the successful Midlands team was Tina Wickens who, in her first representative match, won both the W50 400m and 800m races in new personal best times of 65.06 and 2:30.63.

At the final fixture of the Gloucestershire Cross-Country League for the 2019/20 season held at the Old Down Country Park, James Denne placed third in the senior men’s race to lead the club’s men to a fifth place finish.

Owen Parry placed 14th, Eugenio Diz 20th, Sebastian Clarke 29th, Dave Gresswell 63rd and Lloyd Andrews 65th.

The under-17 men’s race saw Matthew Ward place 7th. In the under-15 boys’ race, Ben Darlow placed 15th and Ethan Hood 19th, while in the under-13 boys’ race there was a 7th place finish for Oliver Mitchell.

Millie Porter led the City’s ladies home, placing 19th overall in a mixed age group category race. Gemma Collier placed 21st, Charlotte McGlone 25th, Kim Millward 29th, Anna Midgley 34th, Lucy Jeffery 47th, Nicola Waters 79th, M65 Rowland Clegg 80th, Emma Jeffery 96th and M70 Dave Spackman 102nd.

Jessica Hill placed 2nd in the under-15 girls’ race with team-mate Amelia Newell 6th.

In the under-13 girls’ race, Ruth Brook placed 10th, Gabrielle Griffiths 14th and Aliya Hankins 24th while the under-11 girls’ race saw Olivia Postgate place 24th, Adelina Ducker 27th, Matilda Farmer 36th and Bailey Ward 39th.

All three Gloucester AC competitors won their age groups in the February Pomphrey 5K road race in Bristol. First home was Jeremy Mower taking 4th place in 17:44. Mower had been hoping that the two runners who finished in 5th and 6th places would have led him to a faster time but they slowed over the last 1k causing Mower to have to lead the trio home.

Second Gloucester runner home was under-17 Matt Ward who ran a well-paced race to equal his personal best set in November. Ward clocked 18:23 for 11th place, ahead of his coach, Arthur Daley, who took the M70 in 21:24, beating his old club best set last November by two seconds.

Gloucester club finishers at last week’s English National Cross-Country Championships at Wollaton Pak, Nottingham were:

Senior women: 198th, Bethan Moor; 307th Gemma Collier; Trudy Wells 676th.
U17 women: 71st Millie Porter.
Senior men: 177th James Denne; 515th Owen Parry; 866th Steve Haines; 1,246th Dave Gresswell; 1,713th Chris O’Carroll.
Junior (U20) men: 65th Harry Wells.
U17 men: 90th Toby Scott.