Stephen Simmons in Removes and Reni Omotomilola in the Upper Sixth, excelled at the English Schools Combined Event Championships, held at a cold and windy Boston (Lincolnshire) on the weekend of 16th and 17th September.   

Stephen opened in the five event Junior Boys Pentathlon with his best ever run in the 80m hurdles, stopping the clock at 11.10 seconds and placing him 2nd on the UK rankings. He followed with a below par 10.48 metres in the shot putt to leave him lying in 4th place. He maintained that position with a very good long jump of 6.11 metres but dropped to 5th place, despite an excellent high jump personal best of 1.62 metres. Only 10 points behind 4th place with just the 800m to go, Stephen ran a quick 2m 18.09, knocking nine seconds off his personal best for this event. However, he was unable to overhaul 4th place and finished a frustrating margin of just 16 points behind his rival. His overall score of 2890 points was a huge improvement of 338 points on his previous best total and placed him 5th in the UK U15 Boys Pentathlon rankings. Stephen was named as first reserve for the England Schools Team for the Home Countries Pentathlon International to be held in Glasgow in November.

Meanwhile, Reni was busy smashing his personal bests in the 10 event Senior Boys Decathlon. His first came in the opening event where he ran the 100m in 11.19 seconds, a best of over three tenths of a second. His long jump of 6.39 metres was only two centimetres behind his lifetime best whilst he equalled his best ever high jump at 1.86 metres. He then followed this by knocking one and a half seconds off his 400m best with 52.93 seconds. With shot putt his only disappointment at 10.92 metres, he ended day one in 5th place with 3397 points.

In terms of personal bests, day two was even better, setting big personal bests in all five events: 15.13 seconds in the 110m hurdles; 26.99 metres in the discus; 3.30 metres in the pole vault; 34.74 metres in the javelin and five minutes 03.66 seconds in the 1500 metres. With some of his rivals much stronger in the last four events, he inevitably lost ground to them but still finished in 7th place with an outstanding points tally of 5969 points, an improvement of 639 points on his previous best score.

Well done boys.

 

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