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.

Ben opened day 2 with a slightly disappointing 100m hurdles (15.55sec.), before sending the discus soaring out to another pb of 36.34m. Whilst he could only manage 1.37m in the high jump, he completed the competition with a strong run in the 1000m for his fourth pb of the weekend in a time of 3 m 9.77sec.

Ben secured the U15 gold medal (and 6th in the combined U15/16 competition )with an overall score of 4160 points - a huge improvement of 560 points on his personal best set in the same competition in 2025.

Ben’s next target is the English School’s Pentathlon Championships to be held in Bedford on 20th September.