Ben Philips finished a very creditable 11th at the English Schools’ Pentathlon Championships held in Bedford last weekend. With the pentathlon lacking some of Ben’s strongest events, the javelin, discus and pole vault – the latter of which he is currently English Schools champion, he was always going to find it harder than he did in winning the England U15 Octathlon in August.

Nevertheless, Ben set personal lifetime bests in hurdles (14.97s) shot (12.65m) and 800m (2m 21.06) with his 5.40m long jump only a couple of centimetres short of his PB. His total score of 2676 points surpassed his previous Pentathlon best by over 600 points.

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.

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.

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).

Congratulations to Olive Pyecroft who has broken the U13 Girls discus club record with a throw of 26.99m at the recent Biggleswade Summer Throws Fest.

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 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.