Super Cally is on right track

Apr 29 2008 By Leon Hickman

ALEXANDER Stadium's first track meeting of the season heralded the discovery of potentially an exceptional 800m runner in Cally Read, of Cannock & Stafford.

The tall, dark-haired 16-year-old from Cardinal Griffin School, Cannock, won her race in the Midland Premier Junior League in 2:11.6, an improvement of about two seconds on her previous best, set two years ago.

She ran alone from 100m and looks very capable of making the 2:09 time she has targeted before running in the English Schools championships.

She said: "I was doing 2.15-16 last season but I think maybe I ran a bit too often.

Originally I was a 1500m runner but I prefer the 800 because I like to kick when the adrenalin flows."

Among several high-class performances, Meghan Beesley's 49.11 secs in the 400m hurdles was, as a league record, the best on paper but Luke Lennon-Ford's improvement to 48.61 in the 400m was the more striking.

Beesley, senior and junior national indoor 400m champion, hopes to run a fast time at the Loughborough International next month, using Sunday's race as a hurdles loosener.

For Birchfield, who won the competition from Mansfield and C&S, Onajite Okoro took the high jump on countback from Jordan Roach on 1.90m and Ryan Farrington secured a sprint double in 11.01/22.23.