Reports

Bedford and County’s youngsters enjoyed a fantastic weekend at the England Athletics U17 / U15 Championships at Bedford on 31st August and 1st September.

Leading the way was Stephen Simmons, who not only won Silver in the Under 17 Men’s !00m Hurdles, but who also smashed the club’s U17 record into the bargain. Stephen was victorious in his heat with a PB of 13.22 seconds, and then stormed to second place in a high-quality final, slicing almost a further third of a second off his best with 12.93 seconds.

On Sunday 18th August BACAC’s U15 Girls and U17 Women 4 x 100m relay squads travelled up to Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium to take part in the Club Connect Relays at the Diamond League. This was a great opportunity for the eight girls and their families as the teams are invited on their Power of 10 rankings. Our U15 team consisted of Etienne, Kaylen, Gracie and Ruby with the U17s made up of Tia, Serena, Leah and Zari. After taking part in the relays the girls had the opportunity to watch the last Diamond League to be held at the Alexander Stadium before it’s major redevelopment.

18 Aug 19 - Will Mackay won the Kimbolton Half marathon in 1hr 09mins 21sec. Former pupil at Kimbolton and St. Neots Riverside Runner broke the course record by over a minute. 

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.