ESAA Nationals 2007
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2007 National Pentathlon, Decathlon and Heptathlon Report - Pete Clarke

In the English Schools’ Athletics Sainsbury’s 20th Combined Events Championships on 15/16 Sept Dorset came away from Exeter Arena with its best ever placings. The second edition of the competition in 1989 had seen the Junior Girls take the National trophy at Birmingham, and last year the Senior Boys had reached the podium with 3rd place , but 2007 really was exceptional. To start with , the qualification for the National meeting requires counties to win their Regional match in late June, and both the Senior Boys and Senior Girls had done this against the other 6 counties in the South West. The 6 Regional Champions then meet in September to battle for the top honours in the 6 age groups.

Top individuals also get through, which meant Alex Lee of Poole Grammar was one of the 42 competitors in the Junior Boys Pentathlon. He started with a time of 11.9 in the 80m hurdles , his specialist event, only 0.1 sec down on the leader. Five events in a day needs a lot of fitness and concentration and Alex was delighted with his final position of 16th with 2505 points, and only 80 points away from the top 10.

The Senior Boys tackled the Decathlon over two days. None of them expected to get near Dean Macey’s record of 7134 set in 1995, but they did have the incentive to match, or even better, the 2006 Dorset position. James Ozanne of St. Edwards, Poole, had worked hard to get a team together and his invitation to Abu Abioye of Poole Grammar was an inspired choice. Together with Ed Moyse , also of Poole Grammar and an Intermediate competitor last year, they had finished ahead of Somerset in June, and had done some hard training throughout the summer.

James turned in personal best performances in the 6k Shot with 8.62, and an amazing 1.74 in the High Jump, which was well over his own height. Considering that he started the season on 1.50m his delight at clearing PBs of 1.68 and 1.71 before just clipping 1.77 was well deserved. At the end of day one, Ed , a 400m specialist, clocked a PB of 51.6, just half a second behind the winner, and followed that next morning by opening with a PB of 17.2 in the 110m Hurdles. Abu, a specialist 1.85 high jumper, claimed the most impressive set of results amongst the 250 athletes at Exeter. Although he cleared ‘only’1.83 for 3rd place in that event he notched up PBs in the other nine , including a 41 sec improvement in the 1500m at 6 o’clock on the second day ! With the strongest athletes tending to come from individual counties, the three members of each area team found themselves of necessity some way down the field. Solid performances, especially in their weaker events, clinched the runners-up spot behind Hampshire, with Ed 15th, Abu 21st and James 23rd. They collected their certificates two and a half hours after they had seen the Dorset girls in the same place on the podium.

Serita Shone and Ellie Burn, both of Thomas Hardye, Dorchester, had been doing Combined Events for years, and had been lucky enough to persuade Maria Seager of Poole College, an English Schools Pole Vault finalist, to join them at the Regional Championships . The three of them had beaten a very strong Somerset team in June, also at Exeter Arena, to find themselves ranked second in the country behind Essex, with Lancs, Herts, and Sussex close behind. Their list of previous winners in the programme included Kelly Sotherton of Hampshire with 4823 points. Although that figure had not been bettered since the year 2000 it was still 500 points short of Yinka Idowu’s 5319 record set in 1989.

Both Ellie and Maria knew that Serita , although only 3rd in the S.W. Champs, had a good chance on paper of making the top 6 in the National event, and that they could grab a team place on the podium if they stayed focused and made the most of their strengths. Although nervous about the first event of 100m Hurdles they both got positions in the mid-twenties, and maintained that standard throughout the two days. With the final event of 800m to come, Dorset were in 3rd, just a handful of points behind Sussex , and then finished 400 points to the good with some storming runs, Maria in 21st overall with 3514 points and Ellie in 23rd with 3447.

The team celebrations may have been impressive, but the individual one was awesome. Serita was determined. She had trained since finishing her A-levels the day before the Area meeting and knew she was fitter, stronger, and meaner than last year at Derby. Her sponsorship by Weymouth Tandoori had been gratefully used to help with kit and travelling to training sessions with Regional coaches, supplementing the excellent local work that had been done with her over the years. There were some good girls around, including the winners from the South West, Sophie Skinner of Devon, the North East, Amy Hill of Yorkshire, and the North West, Eleanor Markendale of Lancashire.

Serita knew that her best chance of shaking up the field was to attack from the word ‘go’ , and she blasted through the 100m Hurdles to win in a PB 14.92. She held on to top spot with 1.60 and 3rd in the High Jump, and then found her 2nd position in the Shot left her 38 points behind Amy . The two of them had done battle before when Serita had been leading two years ago at the Indoor Pentathlon, only to be beaten in the 800 metres. This time she knew she was better prepared if it came to the crunch of the last event, but she was hoping to sew things up well before then. But Amy now saw her chance The Dorset girl was drawn in the outside lane for the final event of day 1, the 200m., and had to go off faster than she might have liked as she had no idea where the others were. As they came off the bend she just glimpsed them behind, but then had to hang on down the straight. Amy closed on the line and so started next morning in front, by a mere 6 points. Sophie had by now tweaked a calf muscle, and Eleanor had to miss the last four events. The rest had been blown away by the titanic battle going on at the top.

Serita’s specialist event was the Long Jump, and a massive opener on day 2 would settle matters as it was Amy’s weakest of the seven. Our captain climbed out to 5.48 and Amy responded with a second place of 5.15. Not so weak after all ! That gave Serita a 5 metre cushion going into the penultimate discipline of the Javelin. Now the tables were turned as this was her weakest event, but she was throwing first. A mighty effort from her of nearly 30 metres was called a foul when she touched the arc line, but the realisation of what she might do in the second and third rounds seemed to make Amy tighten up, and the Yorkshire girl could only produce 29 metres to Serita’s second round throw of 26. And so it did come down to the 800, and Amy had been training as well. They both had times of 2.39 from the regional championships, but Serita had a precious 18 points ,or one and a half seconds, or 8 metres advantage. If she sat behind Amy , but not too far behind, she would win overall.

In lane 5 this time, to Amy’s lane 8, Serita could see how to judge the first bend, and tucked in 5 metres away to go through the first lap in 71 sec, with the Surrey and Hampshire girls out in front, new territory for all of them. And the Weymouth girl hung on, Amy trying to kick with 200 to go but with lactic acid now filling her muscles, whilst Serita edged closer and then celebrated a PB of 5 seconds by sprinting for the line , finishing 3rd in 2.25 to Amy’s 4th in 2.27. Then the medals were worn and the celebrations started. The final scores were 4827 to 4784 with the rest trailing 300 points behind. Look out Kelly Sotherton ?

The help received by the athletes from coaches throughout the county was tremendous, and my thanks must go to Emma James as girls’ team manager and to colleagues who gave so generously of their time and experience. Parents, as always, were most supportive, and at the weekend helped to provide a good atmosphere for the teams’ competitions. Leaving Poole at 6 a.m each morning needed a high level of commitment, and a tough two days against the best in the country turned out to be very rewarding .

The 2008 Regional Champs are likely to be at Yeovil on 28/29 June, followed by the National meeting on 20/21 September at Birmingham Alexander. With 4 of our 6 podium successes still being at school next summer it is hoped that we can at least maintain this year’s standard, with competition for places expected to be high. With the minimum of three athletes per age group in 2007 rather than the permitted four, we were very fortunate to avoid injury as everyone gave 100%. The season could start in late April with the annual match against Somerset. If you would like to join us, as Maria and Abu did so successfully this time, then get that winter training done and ask for some help with your weaker events.