Jessica Ennis (City of Sheffield) started her outdoor season in style with a personal best javelin throw of 40.06 metres at the Festival of Athletics open meeting at Don Valley Stadium on Saturday.
In bitterly cold condition, hardly conducive to good performances in the explosive events, the Olympic heptathlon hopeful added two metres to her previous best in an event where her British rival Kelly Sotherton is particularly vulnerable.
Compet
itions at this stage of the season are little more than indicators of the effectiveness of winter training and Ennis, who is helped in the javelin by former World medallist Mick Hill, has come through with flying colours.
Her 40.6 effort came in the opening round and she had another throw, 39.54, better than her previous best and a third round effort of 37.85, just the sort of consistency she is looking for.
Steve Neill (Pudsey and Bramley) was a runaway winner of the Rothwell 10K yesterday. Neill already had a comfortable lead at the halfway mark reached in 15:25. Although he was slower in the tougher second half of the race, Neill went further away from the chasing group and finished over a minute clear of Bingley veteran John Convery in 31:39. With another Bingley runner third, they won the team race from Pudsey and Bramley.
The women's race was altogether a closer affair, with Ilkley's Sarah Jarvis pushing winner Melissa Neal (Peterborough) all the way and Bingley's Sue Becconsall finishing a close third.
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