Bedford and County AC

Young Throwers Excel at the End of the Season

There have been some outstanding results from our junior throwers as the 2026 season draws to a close.

Representing Bedfordshire at the Southern Inter-Counties Match, Holder Botha produced two excellent personal bests. He improved his discus PB by a huge three metres, recording a very impressive 41.52m. At the same meeting, he extended his shot put best to 11.82m.

At the annual Ron Bowden Memorial Hammer Competition at Woodford Green, Mia Flynn and Bismarck Botha claimed victory in their respective age groups.

U16 & U18 Southern Intercounties

On Sunday 13th September 15 of the Club’s U16 & U18 athletes made the journey to Chelmsford again to represent Bedfordshire in the Southern Intercounties, coming away with 7 top 3 finishes and 6 PBs.

EYAL Top Six Final - Junior Team Battle Right To The End!

Our Junior athletes made the long journey to Chelmsford to take part in the EYAL Top Six Final. We finished a very commendable 5th overall, 13 points behind 4th and 35 behind 3rd. The other 5 teams we were up against were also in the Finals last year. The athletes produced an amazing 44 PBs (16 for the girls and 28 for the boys).

Adam completes seventh star marathon at Sydney

Bedford & County's Adam Harris completed the TCS Sydney marathon, adding to his numerous sub-3-hour finishes and a Seven-Star award for the World Abbot Major marathon series on the 30th August 2026.

He has already achieved the prestigious marathon majors Six-Star award, by running the London, Boston, Berlin, Chicago, New York City marathons and the Tokyo marathon with the club Vice president Paula unwittingly finishing close by who also has a 6 Star. Adam met up with Paula at the Sydney marathon where she was commentating to sign his vest.

Club record for Oriana at the World Masters Athletics Championships

Oriana Johnson competed in the W65 Women’s Hammer Throw at the World Masters Athletics Championships in Daegu, South Korea.

Oriana produced an excellent performance to finish 19th overall, exceeding her pre-competition ranking in a very strong international field that saw seven athletes throw beyond 30 metres.

Her best throw of 19.78m was the third-longest competition throw of her career and, even more impressively, set a new W65 club record.

Oriana added more than 2.5 metres to the previous record, set by Dorothy Fraser in 2004, bringing a 22-year-old club record to an end.

A superb achievement on the world stage and a performance Oriana can be extremely proud of.

Ben takes gold at the England Octathlon

Ben Phillips added a fourth gold to his tally of 2026 National medals at the England Octathlon Championships at Bedford last weekend.

Personal Bests in his first two events (100m – 12.76sec and Long Jump – 5.42m) set him well on his way. He followed up with a near pb of 43.19m in the javelin before his strongest event – the Pole Vault. Ben’s clearance at 3.95m was the highest of the day but was disappointed not to clear a new personal best of 4.05m, ending the day with a clear lead in the U15 competition and 6th in the combined U15/16 event.

Eastern Young Athletes League – Match 4 16th August at Bedford

A slightly depleted team of the club’s junior athletes turned out for our 4th and final league match of the EYAL on our home track. In warm conditions they produced 53 PBs (22 for the girls and 31 for the boys). We needed to finish second to Havering and hope the results at Shaftesbury and Norwich went our way to maintain our 4th place league position and advance to the Top Six Cup Final. Throughout the day the lead kept swapping between us and Havering. We eventually triumphed and beat Havering by 61 points. With Shaftesbury and Norwich both finishing second in their matches we held on to our 4th place. This is the highest we have finished since 2019.

The Don Turner U14 Southern Inter-County Competition – Sunday 2nd August

A large contingent of the club’s U14 athletes travelled to Walton-On-Thames on Sunday to represent Bedfordshire. For many of these young athletes it was the first time they had worn county colours. Only 3 of the team were not Bedford & County athletes. The boys team finished 10th with 185 points and the girls were 11th with 207 points.