Athletes from Bedford and County AC made up for a late start to the season with some wonderful times over 800m in the London Inter-Club Challenge at Lee Valley athletics centre on Sunday 6th September. The standout performance of the day was from Under 17 Alex Alston, who chopped nearly three seconds off of his PB in finishing second in the C race in 1:57.19. Alex was on the money throughout the race, and had enough left to produce a fierce finishing kick that propelled him through the field in the last 100m to within a quarter of a second of the winner.
In the same race, Under 20 distance man, Harry Brodie, warmed up for a 3000m later in the week by clipping over three seconds off his PB with a 2:01.73 clocking. There were also PBs for Under 20 Ed Bythman, whose 2:00.60 took him extremely close to breaching the two minute barrier whilst finishing third in race 4, and for Under 17s Jack Hutchings (2:18.37), and Harry West (2:10.18).
In race 1, Under 20 Jamie Webster, ran a well-judged race. Realising that he wasn’t yet in shape to challenge his 2019 best of 1:53, he elected to stay a little off the pace during a very fast 52 second first lap, and finished in a creditable 1:58.53, having gone through the bell in 54 seconds. In race 2, Matt Bray looked to be approaching his best form. A strong second lap saw him move through the field to clock 1:55.67 for fourth place, which was the fastest time of the day from a Bedford and County athlete.
Elsewhere at the meeting, 2019 English Schools combined events champion, Stephen Simmons, was competing in his first race of the year. In the 110m Hurdles, the Under 20 athlete ran 15.12 into a headwind, which constituted a solid start to a delayed season.
Several of the Bedford and County athletes had also been in 1500m action at Harrow on 27th August. Ed Blythman won race 7 in a PB of 4:10.6, and Alex Alston won race 8 in 4:06.3, which was also a PB. In the same meeting, Craig Emmerson set a PB of 4:15.8 whilst coming third in race 7, and Harry Brodie set a PB of 4:09.5 whilst coming third in race 8. Alfie Yabsley also performed very well at the British Milers Club meeting at Nuneaton on 28th August, winning the 800m A race in 1:53.94.
