News

The last two weekends in September traditionally end the Track and Field season with Regional and National Combined Events Championships.
The 16th / 17th September was the English Schools Combined Events Championships at Bedford. Bobby Pitman and Jamie Timms had qualified for the final when they, along with two other Hertfordshire athletes won the Inter Boy’s team competition at the regional finals in June. One of the team had to withdraw due to injury, but the remaining three started Saturday with high hopes. A successful mornings LJ and DT saw the team in third and Bobby in second. The team held onto third place after the afternoon’s two events JT and 400m where Jamie ran a PB and Bobby a SB in the 400m. None of the thirty-two athletes involved enjoyed the JT as a gusty cross wind meant distances were well down on what was expected and there were a number of ‘wide’ throws. Bobby still in second to the eventually winner.
Day two started with the hurdles where Jamie dipped below 15 seconds for the first time in an Octathlon and Bobby was just over the 15 second barrier. Bobby at this point slipped to third. The HJ isn’t a favourite event for either athlete and although Bobby jumped a 4 cm PB he slipped to 5th and the team to fourth by the end of the morning. The afternoon saw a 1m PB for Bobby in the SP throwing over 11m for the first time to maintain 5th place. The Octathlon ended with the 1500m which was a favourite event for Adam (Hertfordshire’s third team member) and where Jamie knocked 15 seconds off his PB running 4mins40. Bobby’s 5.14 saw him slip to sixth place, his highest finish at a National Combined Events Championship, record a 500 PB points score and go to ninth on the National Rankings. The Hertfordshire team finished 4th.
A dull, windy 24th September saw 10 of the Clubs young athletes take part in the Eastern and Hertfordshire Pentathlon Championships in Peterborough. A great performance in his first Pentathlon, saw U15 Tom Pymar win both the Eastern and Hertfordshire titles scoring 2,424 points and record PBs in 4 out of the 5 events. U17 Jamie Timms scored 2,578 points also winning the Eastern and Hertfordshire titles. U17 Fran Hart came 2nd in Hertfordshire competition with 2039 points. The Clubs U15 girls had a clean sweep in the Hertfordshire competition with Edythe Oughton 1st 2082 points, Emily Rapley 2nd 1877 points and Abigail Tonge 3rd 1787 points. U13 Hazel Spitzer came 3rd in the East Region Championships and 1st in Hertfordshire with Suzy Tonge 3rd in Hertfordshire competition. Also competing were U17 Edward Turner and U15 Eleanor Roberts. Full results and photos can be found in the website.