Mon 7 May 2012 Barry Scarth
The medals came on the fourth and last day of a four day Championship. The British Universities and Colleges Championships won the coveted right to be the test event of the London Olympics Stadium with all tickets selling out in minutes. The Championships opened on Friday evening and continued through the weekend into the May Day Bank Holiday.. We make Alan Kennedy (U of Ulster) to be the first North Down athlete to compete in the stadium when he went through with 14.26m in the mens triple jump on Friday evening. In the final on Saturday evening, Alan was 4th with 14.90m – he has jumped further but not as a North Down member apart from his indoor 14.98m at the Odyssey this year. His jump however improves his own North Down outdoor record. Another North Down record was broken on Saturday afternoon by Robin Brown (Cambridge U) in the 5000m semi finals. Robin ran 15:18.19 min, a pb and club record, four places overall off the final. Recent heavy rain resulted in the loss of the womens’ discus qualifying event which was due to be held in the warm-up arena so this became a straight final on Saturday evening in the main stadium. Another 4th place went to Kathy Hetherington (U of Ulster) with 36.77m, down on her throw in the Irish Unis which would have won a medal. The medals came at the end courtesy of Hannah Lewis (U of Bath). Hannah jumped 5.79m in the Sunday afternoon qualifyer to go into the long jump final on Monday in 3rd place. In the final, she took the silver medal with a jump of 5.87m. Another silver came at the end when the University of Bath was 2nd in the 4 x 100m relay.