With good weather bringing record numbers of athletes from all over southern England and beyond, the large number of spectators were entertained to some exceptional performances at Colchester And Tendring Athletic club's 20th annual Open meeting.

The men's hammer throw is becoming something of a feature event at the Colchester and Tendring Open.

This year was no exception with Simon Bown, of Newham and Essex Beagles, smashing the meeting record by 3.5 metres as he hurled the hammer out to 65.59 metres.

The gusty wind and the heavy rain that it brought during the afternoon conspired to make life difficult for the track runners but it didn't stop Graham Hedman, of Woodford Green with Essex Ladies, shaving a tenth of a second off the 100 metres record as he crossed the line in 10.7 seconds.

Lara Tembey of the Orion club set a new record by more than a second in the under-13 girls' 800 metres with a time of 2.31.1.

But it was in the field events where most records tumbled. Michael Wheeler of Herne Hill Harriers edged past the under-13 boys' discus record with a best throw of 29.93 metres, while Leeana Davies of Harlow AC smashed the under-15 girls' discus record by over six metres with a magnificent throw of 24.99 metres.

Lewis Taylor, of Chelmsford AC, putt the shot to a new under-15 record distance of 14.24m, an improvement of two metres.

Sam Higgins of Colchester and Tendring AC improved the under-11 boys' cricket ball throw by four metres to record 47.8 metres.

In the junior men's pole vault, Liam Wright of West Suffolk AC added 1.5m to the record when he cleared 3.80m.

Event organiser Jamie Tanner said: "We exceeded our target for entries and attracted some top class athletes in the mile race and other events, all of which made for a great day of athletics."

Published Wednesday, September 1, 2004

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