Bedfordshire AAA 10k Championships, 8th July 2022

Bedford and County won the men's team race, and there were some excellent individual performances:

The World Masters Championships has been taking place in Tampere, Finland.  Congratulations to Jemma Eastwood, who won the W40 Pole Vault with a vault of 3.20 metres, and to Tenny James who finished fifth in the M60 100m Hurdles in 15.63 seconds, and then won a gold as part of the British M60 4 x 400m relay team who set a new national M60 record of 3:56.85.  Tenny also qualified for the semi-final of M60 200m (26.76 sec), finishing 6th (26.83sec), and he missed out on a final place in the M60 400m by 0.01sec.  Congratulations also to Alek Swiecicki  who won Team Gold in the M70 Cross County.  Pete Benedickter reached the final of the M50 400m hurdles, but sadly was injured and unable to finish in the final.

Dan Jarvis - 2nd in the A race - 14:12

Ed Blythman - 8th in the B race - 15:01 (PB)

In round 3 of the NAL at Stevenage on Saturday 3rd July Bedford and County finished 6th in the combined match.  We were 5th in the Men's match, and 6th in the Women's match.

Some notable Bedford performances included:

• Belinda Sergent won both the Women's Long jump (5.40) and the Triple Jump (11.51), with Eleanor Smart also performing strongly in both events (4.52 and 9.35).
• Gracie Wall won the Women's High Jump, equalling her PB of 1.75 metres.
• Dan Steel finished second in the men's Long Jump (6.38 metres)
• Jack Goodwin was third in the men's 1500m (3:57.86)
• Frankie Johnson was third in the men's Pole Vault (4.32 metres)

We have qualified for the NAL Championship Plate final at Bedford on Sunday 21st August.

For the full results, see https://data.opentrack.run/en-gb/x/2022/GBR/nal-champ-3b/event/ 

There were several medals and PBs at the Eastern Championships in Cambridge of 25th June.

Two Bedford and County juniors came home with gold medals from the Southern Championships in Chelmsford on 18th and 19th June.  Milly Dunger won the Under 17 3000m in a new PB of 10:05.56, Whilst Gracie Wall stepped up an age group to win the Under 20 High Jump with a jump of 1.70 metres.

Gracie has been working with coach Barry Johnson on her fitness, and set a new PB of 1.75 metres whilst winning the Bedfordshire Schools title earlier in the month.  Both Gracie and Milly are amongst the Bedford and County contingent who will be competing at the English Schools Championships in July.

There were lots of PBs at the British Milers Club Grand Prix in Watford on 11th June.

1500m

Sam Winters, 3:47.65 (PB), 1st place in the D race

Alfie Yablsey, 3:49.10 (PB), 2nd place in the F race

5000m

Jack Goodwin, 13:52.31, 7th place in the A race

Harry Brodie, 14:31.78 (PB), 18th in the B race

Sam Knee-Robinson, 14:44.77 (PB), 6th pace in the C race

Rebecca Murray, 16:17.02, 12th place in the A race

3000m Steeplechase

Dan Jarvis, 8:48.88, 1st place in the A race

Alex Alston, 9:04.52 (PB), 4th place in the A race

Congratulations to Jack and Alex who have been invited to compete in the British Championships in the 5000m and 3000m Steeplechase respectively.  Alex will be joined in the Steeplechase by Bedford and County's Senior Men's record holder, Dan Jarvis.

You should be able to watch the BMC highlights on the Vinco website.

There were some excellent performances at the BMC Grand Prix in Manchester on 28th May.

800m

Sam Winters, 1:51.50 (PB), 6th in BMC A race.

Lauren Nichols, 2:20.34, 9th in race 8.

5000m

Jack Goodwin, 13:51.66 (PB), 3rd in race A - congratulations to Jack, first time under 14 minutes and a big PB!

The club's senior teams were in National Athletics League action at Chelmsford on 7th May.  The women's and the men's teams both finished sixth out of eight teams, with the combined result being seventh.  Chelmsford made the most of home advantage to win the match.  Our home match at Bedford is on 4th June.