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.