Harvard Hughes sisters shine in United States

It was a much quieter week for Havering AC after the adventures of recent weeks, with the main individual action being Stateside.

It proved a good weekend for the club's US-based athletes as they produced a club record and two podium places in their respective local championships.

Mayi Hughes improved her club triple jump record by five centimetres with a leap of 12.57 metres. That placed her fifth for Harvard University in the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships at the Cornell track at Ithaca, NY.

In the same championship, sibling Zoë, in her final year at Harvard, completed her first pentathlon after an injury-hit two years.

She finished in the silver medal position with 3,933 points after clocking 8.70 seconds for 60m hurdles, long jumping 5.84m, a shot put of 12.81m, a high jump of 1.58m and 800m of 2.26.98.

The third club athlete in the US was Lydia Hallam whose personal best of 4.49.59 in the mile for New Mexico University won her bronze in the Mountain West Championships in Albuquerque.

Hallam also acted as pacemaker in the 3,000m.

Three club athletes competed in the high profile Vitality Big Half in London, with Rob Trevor's 82,27 a career-best.

Robyn Matson's 91.21 on her birthday was her best for a couple of years, while Clare Davies was close to her best with 98.05.

And five senior men were at the Essex 20, with Gavin Watts (2:01.30) first home in 36th, ahead of Barry Smith (2:08.26), John Whitehead (2:08.27), Steve Walker (2:18.26) and Darren Priestley (2:24.48).

Club athletes compete in the red vests of Essex this weekend at the Inter-Counties Championships at Loughborough.