English Schools Combined Events National Final
Bedford International Stadium
Saturday 19th & Sunday 20th September 2015
Kingston upon Hull’s Venus Morgan was the Humberside Schools team’s leading female performer when the English Schools Athletics Association staged their National Combined Events Championships at an unseasonably warm Bedford International Stadium. With virtually all of England’s top young combined events athletes present the championships produced their usual high standard of competition, with the girls in particular no doubt inspired by the performances of Jessica Ennis-Hill and Katarina Johnson-Thompson on the world stage over the last few months.
14 year old Venus, a pupil at Cottingham High School contested the junior girl’s pentathlon, although her participation was in doubt until the last moment due to a chest infection. Despite this the reigning county school’s champion began her campaign with an outstanding run in her favourite event the 75m hurdles clocking a personal best of 11.55 seconds. With points being awarded on the basis of an athlete’s performance in each event this also gave Venus her highest individual score of the day, bringing her 728 points. The shot also saw Venus close to her best with 9.19m (477 points) followed by a high jump of 1.54m (666 points) only 3 cm short of her best. Another personal best of 5.03m followed in the long jump, collecting 567 points to maintain a position in the top 10 which she had held throughout the day. The final event of the day, the 800m, brought a typical battling performance from Venus to clock 2:37.57 sec (601 points), enough to top the 3,000 point barrier for the first time, ending up in 9th place with 3,039 points.
This was the last competition of what has been a busy but highly successful season for Venus, and also her final pentathlon. Moving into the under 17 age group she now looks forward to the challenge of the heptathlon spread over 2 days of competition, with the 200m and javelin being the new disciplines to work on prior to her debut at the 7 event competition next summer.
Also in competition at the championships was 16 year old Nathan Hood, who is Kingston’s leading male multi-eventer. He was in action in the 2 day Octathlon event, in the under 17 men’s age group. He was taking on the finest youth athletes in England, and he was looking to give his best efforts and hopefully set himself some new personal best performances.
Saturday’s timetable saw him in action in the 400 metres race, and the long jump, discus and javelin events.
The 400 metres saw Nathan run a new personal best time of 60.21s. His best effort in the long jump saw him register a distance of 5.19m, whilst his best throw in the discus circle was one measuring 21.02m. He launched the javelin out to a distance of 29.49m.
Sunday’s competition saw Nathan on the track for the 100 metres hurdles race, and the 1500 metres middle distance race. His field events were the high jump and the shot putt.
The track events saw him produce two further personal best performances. He ran the 100 metres hurdles in a new PB of 17.66s, and in the 1500 metres, which is not one of Nathan’s favourite events he ran a new PB of 5:12.66s.
Out on the field, his best clearance in the high jump was a height of 1.55m, whilst in the shot circle his best throw of the day was one of 8.10m.
His final points total for the competition was 3131, whist this was not enough to get him near the medal contenders it was another good learning experience to carry forward with him.
A winter of strength and conditioning now await him, in preparation firstly for the new indoor season during the winter, and the 2106 track & field season in the spring.
2016 will see Nathan move up into the under 20 age group, which also means a move up to the decathlon event.
