Thaila-Jade Mason dominated the U17 Girls heptathlon at the Anglian Regional Schools Championships held at Chelmsford this weekend winning, by 679 points.

An 11.9 sec 80m hurdles (only 3/100ths short of her lifetime best) saw her off to a flying start, sharing the lead with Sophie Catchpole of Essex. She then seized an outright lead by clearing a new lifetime best of 1.66m in the high jump to go into a 200 point lead. She never looked back.  Thaila’s shot of 9.22m, was just 2cms shy of her personal best, whilst another PB of 25.8 sec. in the 200m saw her with a commanding overnight lead of 400 points.

Although disappointed with her long jump of 5.58m, it was nevertheless,  half a metre further than anyone else, extending her lead to 674 points. 25.66m in the javelin and 2 min 38.0 in the 800m (both close to her previous personal bests) saw Thaila accumulate a total of 4627 points – a lifetime personal best score by 124 points.

Thaila now qualifies for the English Schools National Heptathlon Finals to be held in Stoke in September.