Reports

Bedford & County in a composite team with Biggleswade, Luton and Leighton Buzzard won the South Central 1 division of the YDL LAG on Saturday 20 July at Thames Valley.

After a tough battle with Hillingdon throughout the whole season (Bedford 31 points, Hillingdon 29 points) and a well fought battle in the final match which saw us beat Hillingdon by 38 points and secure promotion to Premier 2 in 2020.

There were many superb performances from all Bedford & County athletes throughout the league that helped the team to gain promotion.

A big well done to the athletes who worked extremely hard and to all the parents for transporting and officiating.

Eight of our athletes made the Bedfordshire and Luton team for the prestigious English Schools Athletics Championships at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium back in July. Well done to Jordan Ackuaka (Shot Put), Alex Alston (1500m Steeplechase), Joe Bennet (200m), Etienne Maughan (100m), Stephen Simmons (100m Hurdles), Gracie Wall (High Jump), Jamie Webster (800m) and Tia Wilson (3000m), who all won places on the team.

Everybody did outstandingly well to earn the chance to cross-swords with the best youngsters in the country, and the championships saw some wonderful achievements.

Congratulations to Tia Wilson and Alex Alston who have been selected to represent England AA a Youth International in Dublin on the 3rd August. Alex is competing in the 1500 steeplechase and Tia in the 3000 metres.

Raphael Bouju has been invited to attend the Dutch Senior 4x100m Relay practices on the 6th August and 10th September. Last weekend he was 6th in their Senior 100m Championships in a new PB of 10.58.

Bedford & County’s Men’s Track & Field team battled to a creditable sixth place finish in Saturday’s British Athletics League match in Yeovil.

Bedford travlled with a depleted team for the Division 3 fixture but despite the small numbers the squad stepped up and filled the events with most athletes competing in multiple events.

22/23 June 2019 - Chelmsford

Bedford & County athletes enjoyed great success at the Anglian Schools Combined Event Finals held in Chelmsford recently with three of them qualifying for the National Finals in September.

Southern Athletics League - Match 1 - Bedford, 13th April 2019

Frankie Johnson's jump of 5.15m was not just a club record and SAL League record but also the European u20 qualifying standard!

Photo courtesy of Brian Graves

Bedford & County’s Senior Men’s team were in action again on Saturday in the National 12 Stage Road Relay Championship, which is held at Sutton Park Birmingham. Entry to the race is by invitation only with all teams having to qualify from either the English Areas, or the Scottish or Welsh championships. Bedford went into the race with a slightly weaker team than their medal winning team from the South of England relay two weeks ago, but hopes were still high of a top 10 finish.

The 12 stage sees teams of 12 runners complete legs of 5.4 and 3.2 miles respectively and after just over four hours of racing Bedford had to settle for 11th place after showing at the front for over half the distance. The standard was particularly high this year with Bedford’s final finishing time of 4h 21m 37secs, for the 52 miles, usually good enough for a top 6 finish.

Several master athletes from the club competed in the World Indoor Masters Championship in Torun, Poland last week. 

• Jemma Eastwood - silver medal in the W40 PV 3.20
• Penny Butcher - W60 Pentathlon 11.61, 60 hurdles PB, 6.74 Shot, 1.27, High Jump. Injured DNF
• Pete Benidicter - M50 400 56.77 season’s best made the semifinals
• Tennyson James - M60 400 and 60H injured DNF 

Sunday 24 March 2019 - South of England 12 Stage relay, Milton Keynes 

Bedford & County’s Senior Men team emerged from Sunday’s South of England 12 Stage Road Relays as bronze medallists after a thrilling battle in Milton Keynes.

The 12 stage sees teams of 12 runners’ complete legs of 7.7k and 5.1k respectively and after four hours of racing Bedford took a well deserved third place behind winners Aldershot Farnham & District and runners up Highgate Harriers.

Such was the quality of the field the first four teams all dipped under the four hour mark for the first time on this course.

Bedford and County had lots of representatives in the races for Junior, Inter and Senior Boys and Girls. The best performance was from Tia Wilson with fifth in the senior girls.  There were top 50 performances for Noah Campion in the Junior Boys and Ed Blythman in the Senior Boys.

Eastern Indoor T&F Champs, Lee Valley

400m 4 53.33 Pablo Machuca, 5 60.07 Peter Benedickter V45, 1500m 4 4:37.08 Richard Laursen U20, 60mH 3 8.43 Stephen Simmons U17, H 8.77, High Jump 2 1.55 Gracie Wall U15,

Pole Vault 2 3.20 Jemma Eastwood V35

Vault London, Carlshalton

Frankie Johnson U20 4.82, Javier Ferreer Ferrando 3.82

BUCS Championships, Exeter

Men A Race 104 35:50 Stephen Headley, 124 36:35 Alfred Yabsley Men B Race 118 29:20 Tom Powell

Women 155 25:24 Lauren Nichols, 172 25:40 Diana Chalmers, 173 25:41 Courtney Hunter

Senior Men: A one two for Ben Alcock and Josh Lunn.1 Ben Alcock 27:01, 2 Josh Lunn 27:52, 8 Andrew Headley 28:50, 12 Andrew Inskip 29:05, 16 William Mullins U20 29:25, 18 Craig Emmerson 29:35, 55 Joe Strange 31:30, 63 Charlie Palmer 31:48, 90 Ewan Wilson M40 32:43, 120 Peter Deardon M50 33:39, 135 Andy Blair M50 34:04, 182 Jim Black M40 35:32

Senior Women: 3 Alice Burgin 20:48, 14 Sue Bosher F35 22:33, 52 Maisie Relton 25:20, 103 Claire Perusko F45 27:19, 109 Carla Whitmore 27:42, 150 Ruth Kerr F45 29:10, 151 Emma Coombes F35 29:10, 152 Madeline Brodie F45 29:10, 160 Hayley Vinnicombe F45 29:41

U20/U17 Women Another clear win for Tia Wilson1 Tia Wilson F17 15:47, 4 Lucy-Mae Shepherd F17 17:13, 6 Josie Smith F20 17:39, 12 Rose Abbott F17 18:00, 24 Niamh Huxford F17 19:00, 27 Holly Hodgskinson F17 19:15, 32 Emma Smith F17 19:42, 36 Milly Daniels F17 19:59 50 Aoife Gray F17 23:19

U17 Men: 6 Harry Brodie 19:17, 32 Nathan Hyde 23:54

U15 Boys: 5 Alex Alston 15:15, 8 Tristan Cook 15:23, 10 James Vinnicombe 15:34, 25 Tom Deardon 16:10,  32 Ayman Siad 16:27, 39 Samuel Dawes 17:16

U15 Girls: 8 Sofia Perusko 17:17, 11 Natalie Simmons 17:28, 24 Alicia Athersmith 18:52, 28 Amelia Baker 19:03,  36 Josie Nicholls 19:37, 39 Grace Flemons 19:45, 50 Emma Abbey 20:31

U13 Boys: 36 Euan Supple 10:59, 38 Austin Cole 11:13, 43 Samuel Hudson 11:22, 66 Daniel Smith 12:10 78 Hari Mistry 12:48, 79 Efraim Gray 12:53, 80 Oliver Yates 12:56

U13 Girls: 2 Rosie Foster 10:15, 12 Katie Olive 11:04, 14 Lyla Danobrega 11:15, 28 Gabriella Woodroffe-Gomez 11:58, 38 Keira Fisher 12:23, 43 Daisy Flemons 12:28

U11 Boys: 17 Oliver Wilson 6:06, 22 Sam Deardon 6:15, 58 Jack Hale 7:04, 66 Rocco Jennings 7:14

U11 Girls: 11 Lily Hodgskinson 6:19. 63 Sarah Woodward 7:38, 78 Zoe Nuttall 8:25, 86 Ellie Harper 8:46

Team Results  photos by Barry Cornelius

Overall second on day and over 5 fixtures,

Overall Male second and second, Overall Female third and sixth,

Seniors third and second, Juniors second and third.  Senior Men second overall and on day, U20 Men first and third, Masters eleventh and eighth.

Senior Women tenth overall sixth on day, U17/U20 women first and first

U17 Men fourth and seventh, U15 Boys second and third, U15 girls third and third, U13 Boys eleventh and fifth,

U13 Girls second and second, U11 Boys fourth and seventh, U11 girls sixth and tenth.

Individuals:

Senior Men fourth Andrew Headley, tenth Craig Emmerson, Senior Women second Alice Burgin O50 Men sixth Andy Blair, seventh Pete Deardon

U20 Men First Will Mullins, U15 Boys first Alex Alston, eighth  Jamie Vinnacombe,

U20 Women first Josie Smith, U17 Women first Tia Wilson, sixth Lucy Mae Shepherd, U15 Girls sixth Sofia Perusko, ninth Natalie Simmons,

U13 Girls fourth Rosie Foster, eighth Katie Olive.

Taking both divisions and all competitors into account Andrew Headley was fifth and Will Mullins tenth.  Alice Burgin was second.