English Schools Combined Events Championships

Woodford had two athletes representing Essex who had gained selection earlier this year by winning the Essex Schools titles at Brentwood in May.

The conditions at Bedford were reasonable - overcast but with light winds. 

Intermediate Girls 

This was classified as a heptathlon, over two days with seven events in total. 

Rebecca Wright started day one with the 80 metres hurdles which unfortunately did not go to plan as she ran 12.32 secs, putting her 13th overall. Her next event, the high jump, is her weakest discipline but she still managed 1.44m, being shunted back to 23rd. The next event, the shot put, is one of Rebecca’s best events and this proved to be the case with 12.65m which took her back to 11th. She concluded day one with a fine 200 metres in 26.24 to finish day one in 14th place.

Day two started with a bang: a personal best in the long jump with 5.23m, which took her back up to 8th spot. The next event, the javelin, is another good event for Rebecca as she threw 34.79 metres which took her up to 6th. The final event is always the endurance run - in this case the 800 metres. She used tips she had received from her coach for this discipline to good effect as she ran a fine outdoor PB of 2 mins 34 secs to hold on to 6th place.

This was a fine achievement for Rebecca who was the 1st lower year to finish with a new PB score of 4616 points, an improvement of 300 points. She is reserve for the home countries international later this year.

Junior Girls

This event had five disciplines all held in the same day classified as a pentathlon 

Over the last couple of months Natasha Wynn had been focussing her efforts on the 800 metres, her favoured event and at which she won three titles and a championship best performance to boot at the recent South Of England Inter Counties.

The first event was the 75 metre hurdles and, as was the case of Rebecca, this failed to go to plan as she ran 12.86 secs, leaving her 24th. Although she lost six places in the shot put she threw a PB of 7.45m. She rallied well in the high jump and, after nearly failing at 1.26m, she showed resilience to equal her best of 1.47 m. This improved her postition back up to 26th overall. The penultimate event, the long jump, saw her jump 4.57m which left her in 28th spot with her best event, the 800 metres still to come.

The Championship Best Performance for this discipline was 2 mins 14.7 secs, set some years ago, and Natasha had her eye on getting that. She set out strongly and reached the bell in a staggering 59 seconds. She then knew a sub 75 seconds last lap would break the record as she held on brilliantly to record 2 mins 11.7 secs, a CBP by three full seconds. One wonders what she would have achieved without those other events in her legs.

This performance saw Natasha rocket from 28th to a magnificent 7th spot.

Both girls were part of winning Essex teams and were a great credit to both their county and WGEL.