Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire both staged their county championships recently, and Bedford and County athletes competed at both events. There was only a partial field programme at the Cambridgeshire championships due to lack of officials. Those field events not held on Saturday will be held at open meetings in June.
The youngest members of the junior section of the club took part in a very tough first YDL Match at Bedford on 8th May as part of Team Bedfordshire, a composite team with Biggleswade, Leighton Buzzard and Luton. We were up against some extraordinarily strong teams from Basildon, Brighton and Hove, Croydon, Herne Hill and Medway and Maidstone.
The first round of the Eastern Young Athletes League took place at Peterborough on Sunday 1st May. The youngest members of the club opened the track and field season with their first EYAL match at Peterborough on 1st May. For many of the athletes this was the first competition they had ever done. They all performed brilliantly. We came away with 83 PBs and 16 SBs.
Report by Tony Forrest:
Bedford & County’s Senior Men’s team were in action 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. The 12 stage Relay comprises alternate long and short legs of 5.4 and 3.2 miles respectively, starting with a long leg.
Leanne Buxton and Penny Butcher each brought home Pentathlon Gold Medals from the European Masters Indoor Championships held in Braga, Portugal on Sunday (27th February).
Howard Darbon writes:
Three of Bedford Wheelchair Racing athletes competing in the London Marathon mini marathon performed incredibly well. All were in the Under 17 race with Varun Bandi from Flitwick finishing a very credible third in the boys' race, repeating his third place of two years ago.
Congratulations to the men's masters team, who finished a close second in the Eastern Masters League Final that was held at Milton Keynes on Saturday 25th September.
| Position | Club | Points |
| 1 | Marshall Milton Keynes AC | 255 |
| 2 | Bedford & County AC | 247 |
| 3 | Thurrock Harriers | 231 |
Congratulations to Stephen Simmons, who won gold in the English Schools Decathlon Championships at Bedford on the weekend of 18th and 19th September. Stephen also broke the club's under 20 Decathlon record with a score of 6710 points.
The club’s young athletes travelled to Cambridge for the last EYAL match of the season on Sunday 12th September. In the sunshine they finished a brilliant 3rd (348 pts) behind Cambridge and Coleridge (373 pts) and winners Bedfordshire Lions (394).
Despite fielding a team weakened by injuries and the holiday season, there were some fine individual performances, and we finished second in the National Athletics League Match at Bedford on Saturday 28th August.
A group of the club's masters athletes made the trip to Derby for the British Masters Championships last weekend , 20th - 22nd August. Tenny James starred, winning gold in the M60 100m Hurdles, Silver in the M60 400 and Bronze in the M60 200.
The junior section of the club put in another great performance at the EYAL at Stevenage on Sunday coming away second to Bedfordshire Lions. Although missing several athletes due to holidays the youngsters managed to achieve 44 PBs, 6 SBs, 27 firsts, 22 seconds and 12 thirds. Performances of the day go to the U17 relay teams who posted 44.40 secs for the men and 50.73 secs for the women. The Under 17 women's team was Jess Frost, Gracie Wall, Ruby Green and Jasmine Wilkins, and the Under 17 men's team was Ben Agbenu. Daniel Harding Forbes, Ash’on Dacres and DJ Agbenu . This provisionally ranks the men 6th and the women 12th nationally.
