ATHLETICS: Dingley and Maczugowski open their hurdles seasons at Loughborough, while Walker impresses at Fast Friday 10k

CITY of Plymouth’s Adam Dingley and Nicolas Maczugowski opened their hurdles season at the Loughborough Outdoor Open on Saturday.

The highly-rated pair had enjoyed low-key flat run outs in Devon, but they finally got their specialist events underway at the Leicestershire meeting, that also included the BUCS 10,000m championships.

Dingley was only denied a new legal PB and a UK-leading 110m hurdles time by a strong wind.

He clocked 14.27 seconds to win the under-20 race, but the wind was over the legal limit of +2.0.

However, he will have taken great confidence from his opening hurdles display, which saw him win by nearly 0.4 of a second from Peterborough’s Jack Wheatley.

English Schools’ medallist Maczugowski ended up running in a joint senior men’s, under-23 and under-20 400m hurdles race.

He clocked an encouraging early season time of 54.78 seconds, which ranks him second in the early UK under-20 rankings and eighth in the senior chart.

The meeting also saw Henry Curtis, better known as a sprint hurdler, try his hand at the 400m hurdles, where he clocked 58.00 seconds to win his heat.

Another City of Plymouth athlete, Hanna Ulvede also opened her hurdles season at the Yeovil Spring Open.

She won the senior women’s 400m hurdles in a time of 64.67 seconds.

At the same meeting, Tavistock’s under-17 athlete Caleb Gifford-Groves continued his good early season form by winning the 800m in a time of 1:58.57.

Erme Valley Harriers’ Isabella Trowell is also impressing at under-17 level this season. She set two new PBs at Yeovil. She clocked 13.55 seconds for the 100m and 48.98 seconds for the 300m hurdles, which were both new best times, while she also came third in the 80m hurdles in 13.40 seconds.

Away from the track, Tavistock’s Charlotte Walker was among the prize winners at the Fast Friday 10k at Exeter.

Walker finished as third woman overall and first under-20 at the Good Friday event in a time of 37.27 minutes.

Storm Plymouth’s Lauren Knox was fifth woman in 39.20, while Hannah Walker was second under-20 in 43.42 minutes.

Erme Valley Harriers’ masters women impressed at the race. Helen Chapell was first F55 and she was followed home by Lynne Whitfield and Andrea Mitchell, who took second and third, while Alison Engledew was first F65. Tavistock’s Hannah Worth was first F40.

Fast Friday 10k results can be found HERE.