s=10TWO Woodford Green AC with Essex Ladies athletes collected awards from the Mayor of Redbridge in the Sportsmen of the Year competition last week.o

s=9Andrae Davis won the junior athlete of the year while, despite still being a junior himself, James Wright picked up the Senior Athlete of the Year award. The pair recieved the trophies for their efforts in the year 2000 at a ceremony at Redbridge town hall last Thursday.o

Andrae, who specialises in the shot put, often competes in the Pentathlon and he took gold in the Essex Schools, the Essex clubs, the English Schools and the Southern Counties under-15 championships.

His excellent form has seen him named alongside another one of Woodford's brilliant young multi-eventers, Chris Aude, for the England Schools' team for the international multi-event competition to be held at Kelvin Hall, Glasgow on December 8.

James Wright is another multi-eventer, who last year won the AAA junior decathlon and was also selected to represent England in a home international in which he took the gold medal.

James has also won the Essex junior decathlon and the Southern Counties indoor junior decathlon, as well as earning a silver medal in the Essex junior pole vault and long jump, and a bronze in the 110m hurdles.

And his growing talent has already seen him represent the Woodford senior team at pole vault, helping them maintain their first division status.

Woodford Green spokesman Ken Bray said: "Everyone at the club was extremely pleased for the boys.

"Both of them just continue to get better and better as they climb the athletics ladder and with talent like this coming through the ranks we have great hope for the future of the club."

f=Zapf Dingbats lo Woodford's Bill Wooton has also continued the success story with a recent victory for the English veterans cross country team in Stirling, Scotland.

Bill, who runs 60 miles a week in training, had to drop out of the event last year but he made no mistake this time coming home some 40 seconds in front.