THE race was on for prized places at the Barcelona European Championships and runners from Woodford were in the running.

Qualification for the event took place at the Aviva UK Championships, in Birmingham, last weekend.

Highlights for Woodford Green Athletics Club included a silver medal over 100m for Joice Maduaka, a bronze in the same race for Elaine O'Neil who also gained 200m silver.

Also Zainab Ceesay won a triple jump bronze, and Ezekiel Ewolu recorded a personal and club best in the long jump.

Joice Maduaka's silver medal in the 100m on Saturday, when she just lost out on another national title by only 0.01s, with her time of 11.42s.

Meanwhile, in the women's triple jump Zainab Ceesay placed won bronze with 12.74m.

Elsewhere in the men's long jump Ezekiel Ewolu broke a 29 year-old club record.

He added 13cm to his personal best as he recorded a distance of 7.70m to finish fifth.

Graham Hedman, a silver medallist in the 4x400m at the last European Championships, finished sixth in the 400m final. He placed sixth in 46.28s.

In the 400m heats, Nick Leavey clocked an outdoor personal best of 46.60s. In the same event, Vincent Ogedengbe recorded a season's best of 47.48s.

In the field, Carl Fletcher was fourth in the shot-put with 16.77m, as was Emeka Udechuku with 57.05m in the discus.

Meanwhile, youngsters were in the action in the Southern Premier national junior league.

Among a good all-round team performance, there were personal bests for 400m hurdlers John Pride and Ben Phillips, and in the high jump too, for Sam Moodie.

Last year's world youth 200m finalist, Sam Watts, continued his fine sprinting, as he won over 100m and 200m.

He recorded 10.84s in the 100m event, and 21.60 s in the 200m.

There was also a fine 800m victory for Omar Mansour with 1m 54.77s.

Austin Joseph was third in the 400m with 49.72s.

The men's 4x100m team of David Olupitan, Omololu Abidoden, Austin Joseph and Hasif Bedford were third with their time of 44.19s.