Bedfordshire and Luton Schools

Athletic Association

English Schools Athletics Championships

Alexander Stadium, Birmingham Friday/Saturday 13/14 July 2007

Golden Girls lead Beds and Luton to best performance for more than a decade

Golden girls Hannah Longworth and Lucy James led a very talented Bedfordshire and Luton Schools Athletics Team to their best performance for more than a decade with 14 athletes featuring in the top eight, six winning medals, two securing internationals and the team carrying home two age group trophies from Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium last weekend.

Fourteen year old Hannah from Harlington Upper School immediately stamped her class on the Junior Girls Long Jump with a huge personal best of 5.47 m in the first round. She followed up with three other jumps over 5.15 m and was never headed despite the efforts of twenty other girls in the final, winning by a margin of nine centimetres.

Fifteen year old Lucy James from Dame Alice looked good in both heat and semi-final of the Intermediate Girls 300m, but there were two others who posted faster times in both rounds, and both were heading Lucy as they entered the straight with 100 m to go. However it was here that Lucy’s priceless ability to maintain technique under sever pressure when fighting to win reaped its reward, as she first drew level, and then forged ahead to prevail by half a metre at the tape. Breasting the tape in 39.47 seconds, Lucy not only gained the gold, but with it selection for the Schools International Match in Newport this coming weekend.

Girls Captain, Natasha Peters (Sandy Upper School) and Ryan Parker (Samuel Whitbread) both used front running tactics to gain reward over 3000m in Senior Girls and Inter boys age groups. Natasha in her first ever English Schools threw down the gauntlet early, and despite the windy conditions dropped everyone Daniella Nimmock of Norfolk. Only at the death did Daniella prevail by a mere tenth of a second, leaving Natasha elated with her silver, but disappointed at what might have been gold. Ryan took over the lead with lead with two laps to go and quickly reduced the field to himself and Abdinuah Ahmed of South Yorkshire. Again it came down to a final straight duel, with Abdinuah outgunning Ryan by half a second. Ryan’s silver in a personal best of 8 minutes 38.49 sec. earned him a place in the international team alongside Lucy.

Junior Boy Simeon Bennett (Biddenham) also claimed a silver medal in the Triple Jump. He started modestly and had only 12.02 m to his name after four rounds, but in the fifth he pulled out all the stops and leapt to a huge personal best of 12.50 m to clinch second place in his first ever visit to an English Schools Championship.

Also in his first ever championship, Alex Holdsworth (Sharnbrook) put his name on the medal table despite wet slippery conditions in the Junior Boys Hammer. Having started with a no throw, he got himself into the top eight and on his final effort launched the 4 kg implement out to 47.75 m. to secure bronze.

High Jump duo, Scott Johnson (Hastingsbury) and Hannah Frith (John Bunyan) both gained fourth excellent fourth places, unluckily losing out on bronze medals on the countback rule which takes into account early failures. Scott jumped 1.96 m in very wet and unpleasant conditions in the Inter Boys on Friday whilst Hannah matched her personal best of 1.61 m on Saturday.

Deji Tobais (Rushmoor) ducked under 11 seconds in both his semi-final (10.95) and final (10.97) of the Inter Boys 100m where he finished fourth and claimed his third high placing in three consecutive championships.

Matt Devereaux vaulted valiantly in the worst of the weather on Friday on Friday afternnon when it was so difficult to maintain a grip on the wet pole that most of the field failed to clear the opening height. Consequently his 3.80m clearance in fifth place represented a great fighting performance.

Boys Captain Michael Puplampu (Sharnbrook) completed a good weekend for horizontal jumpers placing sixth in the Senior Boys Triple Jump with 13.71m.

Peter Devaney (Bedford School) fought his way through three rounds of the Junior Boys 800 m setting personal bests in every round to place seventh in the final in 2 min 4.66 sec, whilst in the Senior Girls Suzanna Wise (Harlington) and Aimee Richardson (Wootton) both claimed eighth place in Hammer and Long Jump respectively.

The very strong Intermediate Boys comfortably won the Slough Shield (for the eighth time!) in the Minor Counties Team Competition, whist the three junior girls (the two Hannahs and Emily Wallbank (Goldington Middle) accumulated enough points to share the Junior Girls trophy with Gloucestershire. The is first time Bedfordshire & Luton’s name has been on this particular trophy and completes the set, having won all the various age groups trophies including the aggregate in precious years. Indeed the county were only three point away from winning the aggregate trophy for the third time.

“This was a huge team performance” commented Team Manager Dennis Johnson. “Of the 24 athletes who competed fourteen made the top eight, nine set personal best performances, nine met the very high criteria for National Standards, six won medals, two got gold, two gained international selection (Intermediate Age group only), and we won two trophies and just missed out on the aggregate one. This is our best performance by far since our annus miraculous in 1993 when we won seven golds and brought home five out of a possible seven trophies. Already I am looking forward to next year in Gateshead.”