Two Bedford & County members competed at the England U20 Decathlon Championships held at Bedford last weekend (28/29 May).
Returning from his medical studies in Canterbury and with limited training behind him, reigning English Schools Decathlon Champion Stephen Simmons performed remarkably well, finishing in 5thplace having set two personal best performances and being very close to his lifetime best in five of remaining eight events.
Starting with a PB of 11.35 seconds for the 100m, he followed up with 6.67m in the Long Jump, only a centimetre behind his best ever. He continued with another PB in the Shot (12.68m) and followed with a 1.77m in the High Jump, which was only 3 centimetres short of personal best. Recording 52.34 sec for 400m, only three tenths slower than his best ever, he ended the day well up on his previous best ever first day score. More was to come with a good hurdles of 14.67 sec and a discus throw of 43.10m each close to previous bests. Likewise Stephen’s Pole vault of 3.70M was just shy of his best ever 3.90m, whilst a javelin throw of 43.15m was just over a metre less than he had ever thrown before. However lack of training showed in the final event, the 1500m where he was only able to record 5 minutes 25 seconds. His final points total of 6542 points was only 168 points short of his 6710 club record.
Meanwhile, second claim member (1st claim club Dacorum) Ed Foy, was embarking on his first foray into Decathlon. Ed, an English Schools Octathlon bronze medallist in 2021 set five personal bests and was very close with three others in achieving a very respectable eighth place.
11.67 sec (pb) in the 100m set him on the road, followed by 5.80m in the long jump. Another pb flowed in the shot, whilst his 1.77m in the high jump was only a centimetre less than his pb achieved two weeks previously. He finished day one with a 400m time of 53.71 sec, six tenths slower than his previous pb. Ed opened the second day with a pb in the hurdles (15.57 sec) and followed with a discus throw of 36.75m, close to his best of 38.40m. An excellent pole vault of 3.40m was a 20cm improvement whilst a throw of 43.00m in the javelin was another solid performance and showed a new level of consistency. 4minutes 45 seconds for the 1500m was also a marginal improvement and demonstrated that there is much more to come from this event as there is from the whole decathlon. Ed’s total score of 6162 has set a marker for the rest of the season.
