There were some good performances at the Watford Open Meeting on 12th July.
Jack Goodwin set a new 1500m PB of 3:49.61 with a strong run the BMC A Race.
In the open meeting at Watford, Ben Alcock was not far off his PB in winning the 3000m with a time of 8:18.04.
Meanwhile, in Birmingham, Ed Blythman won the fastest open 1500m race of the evening in a new PB of 3:55.67.
Three members of Bedford and County competed at the British Championships in Manchester on Saturday.
Gracie Wall was 7th in the Women’s High Jump final with a third time clearance at 1.73m; Etienne Maughan placed 3rd in her heat of the 100m hurdles posting yet another club record of 13.78 seconds - her 5th of the season; whilst Ben Davies was 6th in his heat of the 1500m in a time of 3min. 49.81 having had to avoid a faller at the start of the last lap.
The English Schools Championships are currently in progress in Birmingham, and there have been some fantastic performances from Bedford and County athletes. Lyla Danobrega claimed the silver medal in the Intermediate Girls 1500m Steeplechase, running 5:06.16, and Etienne Maughan also claimed silver in the Senior Girls 100m Hurdles in 13.98. Both these times are new club records subject to ratification. Thalia-Jade Mason also won the silver medal in the Inter Girls Long Jump with a PB of 5.59 metres. Noah Campion finished fourth in the Senior Boys 3000m in 8:44.75. Full report to follow.
The British Milers Club Grand Prix at Watford on 1st July produced PBs for for Ben Davies over 800m (1:52.46), and Jack Goodwin over 3000m (8:00.43), and Sam Knee-Robinson also over 3000m (8:19.96).
There were some excellent performances at the Eastern Championships in Cambridge on 24th June, with wins for Aston Lockwood, Glen Kerr, Bryan Zapnahiah, and a win and a Championship Best Performance from Sadie Werrett. Well done to all those who took part.
The club finished fifth in the second SAL match of the season at Southend on 18th June, and are now fourteenth in Division 3 (North) after two matches. There were some good individual performances, including a 4:46.8 1500m win for Lyla Danobrega, and a 67.6 second 400m and 2:30.0 800m from Ellie Garraway - Ellie is now top of this year's UK W50 rankings for 800m and 4th for 400m. The complete results can be found on the Power of Ten website at https://www.thepowerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=533088&pagenum=1#100. Thanks to all those who made the trip to Southend to compete and / or volunteer.
Well done to Sam Winters who followed up a win in the NAL a couple of weeks ago with a 1:51.53 800m when finishing second in the 800m B race at the BMC meeting in Bracknell on 21st June. This is just a shade outside of Sam's PB of 1:51.50, and augurs well for the remainder of the track season.
Congratulations to Lyla Danobrega, who broke her own 1500m Steeplechase club record at the weekend. Running at the British Milers Club PB Classic at Oxford on 3rd June, Lyla won her race by over ten seconds in 5:11.06, which becomes the new club record for both the Senior Women's and Under 17 Women's categories. This moves Lyla up to fourth spot in the UK under 17 rankings.
Congratulations also to Raph Bouju. A fantastic run at the weekend at the FBK Games in Hengolo saw Raph reduce his 100m PB to a world-class 10.09 seconds whilst coming third behind Reece Prescod and Yohan Blake. This break's Raph's own 100m club record. Raph also broke Richard Ashby's club 200m record in May with a time of 2.65 seconds. Richard's old mark of 20.85 seconds had stood since 1985.
Good running at the the Challenger meeting in Belgium on Saturday 27th May with Raph Bouju claiming PBs over 100m and 200m. Raph's new 100m PB of 10.20 seconds currently ranks him sixth in Europe, whilst his 200m PB was a very speedy 20.65 seconds. Aston Lockwood clocked 22.57 seconds for 200m. At the same meeting, Jack Goodwin ran a fast 13:54.33 5000m. Meanwhile at the British Milers Club Grand Prix in Manchester, Tia Wilson claimed a 5000m PB of 16:30.22, finishing strongly to come second in her race, and Jamie Webster won the 800m G race in 1:53.88.
The first fixture of this year's Southern Athletics League took place at Braintree on 20th May. Overall, the club finished fifth, and the full results can be found at https://www.southernathletics.org.uk/assets/files/results/2023/23sal3N1Braintree.htm. Standout Bedford and County performances included:
There were some excellent performances at the Bedfordshire County Championships, which were held at Watford on 13th and 14th May. Well done to all of the Bedford and County winners, who are listed below, along with their level of performance from new tables produced by England Athletics:
