Thaila-Jade Mason excelled at the Eastern Region Schools Heptathlon held at a a hot and humid Boston last weekend, finishing 4th in a good class field. An excellent score of 4,305 points, which included 4 personal bests, qualified her for the English Schools Combined Events Finals to be held at Bedford on the third weekend of September.
The club finished fifth in the second SAL match of the season at Southend on 18th June, and are now fourteenth in Division 3 (North) after two matches. There were some good individual performances, including a 4:46.8 1500m win for Lyla Danobrega, and a 67.6 second 400m and 2:30.0 800m from Ellie Garraway - Ellie is now top of this year's UK W50 rankings for 800m and 4th for 400m. The complete results can be found on the Power of Ten website at https://www.thepowerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=533088&pagenum=1#100. Thanks to all those who made the trip to Southend to compete and / or volunteer.
Congratulations to Bob Kingman and to Lois Fordham who have both broken club records recently. At the recent NAL match, Bob Kingman improved his own Pole Vault record to 3.80m; whilst Lois Fordham set new figures for the U13 Pole Vault by clearing 2.12m at the Biggleswade Jumps Fest on 21st June. The previous holder was Gracie Wall who did 2.01m in 2018.
Well done to Sam Winters who followed up a win in the NAL a couple of weeks ago with a 1:51.53 800m when finishing second in the 800m B race at the BMC meeting in Bracknell on 21st June. This is just a shade outside of Sam's PB of 1:51.50, and augurs well for the remainder of the track season.
Jenny O’Shea, who has passed away after a long illness, will have been known by many members of Bedford and County AC. She was an outstanding sprints coach, a regular timekeeper at many of our meetings and was for many years Championships Secretary and organiser of the Bedfordshire AAA Championships. Those wishing to attend her funeral should contact Dennis Johnson (
Congratulations to Gracie Wall, who won the Women's Under 20 High Jump gold medal at the England Athletics Championships in Chelmsford on Sunday. Gracie's winning jump of 1.78 metres is a personal best, and puts her into third place in this year's UK Under 20 rankings. As a result Gracie has achieved the qualification standard for the British Championships and will receive an automatic invite to compete on the 9th July in Manchester.
A team of 6 athletes from the Masters Endurance Group represented Bedford & County at the 2023 Greensand Ridge Relay on Saturday. In hot and humid conditions, the team raced across 35 miles of trails, in 6 legs of varying lengths, from Leighton Buzzard to Northill village. Run in a handicap format, the club set off in 32nd place, well over an hour after the first team to start. Each team member (Ewan Wilson, Andy Blair, Tom Hayman, Charlie Palmer, Jim Black and Anna Folland) beat their handicap, overhauling slower runners in front of them to ultimately finish in 6th place overall, 2nd in the open category. The total time of 4hrs 04mins 24secs was the fourth fastest on the day.
Our fellow athlete Graham Ayre has recently passed away. His funeral is at Bedford Crematorium on Friday 23rd June at 12.15.
He is remembered by Howard Darbon.
Congratulations to Etienne Maughan who broke the club's Under 20 Women's 100m Hurdles record in the NAL match at the weekend. Etienne's new record is 14.25 seconds. Congratulations also to Glen Kerr, who broke his own M45 Hammer club record with a throw of 52.22 metres at the SEAA Championships on 4th June.
