Bedford & County were well represented across all age groups and events at the Eastern Counties Championships at Cambridge on 19^th July and came away with a large haul of medals.

At the English Schools Centenary Championships where the athletes paraded through a guard of honour of over one hundred former champions, Bedford & County athletes achieved four medals, claimed six top eight places and set nine lifetime bests.

The silver star was Mia Flynn, whilst Lois Fordham, Zaphaniah Bryan and Thaila-Jade Mason all won bronze medals.

There were some exceptional performances from Bedford & County athletes at the BMC Grand Prix yesterday, at a very hot and sunny Watford.

Congratulations to Sam Winters who set a new club record of 1:49.93 in the 800, finishing second in his race with a perfectly judged effort, after passing the bell in 54.2. This breaks his own club record, and takes the figures under the magic 1:50 barrier for the first time.

Elsewhere, Ed Blythman ran a pb in the 1500, with a very creditable 3:48.09, and there were seasons bests for Alfie Yabsley in the 800 (1:55.03), and for Sam Knee-Robinson (3:52.85) and Lauren Nichols (4:40.59) in the 1500.

Congratulations to Helen Buller who has set a new W45 3000m record of 11:22:7, a minute faster than the previous record that has stood for 25 years. 

Some of our Bedford & County athletes ran in the Newport Pagnell 5K today. 

Jamie Prior 4th 16:06

Mark Allen 16th 16:59

Oliver Coombes 19th 17:11

Thomas Harper 24th 17:18

Adam Harris 28th 17:26

Sean Crawley 52nd 18:10

Ellie Harper 62nd 18:39

Simon Harper 74th 19:18

Rosie Cusack 133rd 21:48

Eliza Gibbs 175th 23:25

Well done to everyone that ran.

Bedfordshire Team Captains: Lyla Danobrega and Zaphaniah Bryan

JG 300m         Sophia Wing

JG PV             Lois Fordham

JG Javelin       Emily Elphick

JG Ham.          Mia Flynn

Three Bedford & County athletes competed at the Regional Schools Combined Championships in exhausting conditions of extreme heat last weekend.

Now competing for Buckinghamshire Schools, Thaila-Jade Mason scored a decisive win by nearly 400 points in the Senior Girls Heptathlon at Abingdon .Her standout event was the 200m where she ran 25.2 seconds aided by a wind of 4.6mps, although to be fair the wind was in her face around the bend. She set a person best of 8.04m with the 4Kg shot whilst her overall total of 4434 points was also a personal best as it was her first U20 Heptathlon with a 4 kg shot and 600gm Javelin.

Meanwhile Lois Fordham and Emily Elphick were competing for Bedfordshire in the Junior Girls Pentathlon at the East Anglian Regional Finals at Corby.

Lois in only her third pentathlon finished a very creditable 10^th with a score of 2142points- a massive increase on her previous best of 1875 points, having improved  her hurdles by a second to 13.6 sec, her long jump to 4.50m and equaled her best of 1.40m in the high jump. Emily finished in an equally creditable 12^th  place in her first ever pentathlon scoring a promising 2069 points. She equaled her best of 13.5 sec in the hurdles and set a lifetime best of 1.46m in the high jump.

Congratulations to Ellie who was 3rd female finisher at the RunThrough 5k in Battersea Park on Wednesday 25th June in a time of 19:15.

On Friday 27th June a few of our Bedford & County runners ran in the Colworth 5 mile trail which is part of the Colworth Marathon Challenge weekend. 

Our youngest athletes travelled to Stevenage on the 15^th June for our 3^rd EYAL match.  We scored 650 points – the most we have scored since before COVID!  We came away with 65 PBs (boys 33, girls 32) and 8 SBs (boys 2, girls 6). We are now 10^th in the league after 3 matches with a home match to come.  Being in 10^th means we currently qualify for the Plate Final on 07^th September.

Bedford & County won the fastest mixed team at the Greensand Ridge Relay yesterday and came third overall in the handicap race.

Team of Ewan Wilson, Natasha Peters-Cooper, Alice Lambert, Andy Blair, Henry Taylor and Helen Buller in a time of 3:58:47 over 34 miles of trail running from Leighton Buzzard to Northill.

Well done to everyone that ran.