Peter Moreno and Katie Garland contested the National Combined Events at Bedford and both came away with glorious silver medals. In the Decathlon Moreno who had led the competition for much of the two days set a personal best of 6920 points. Sadly his lead was overhauled in the final event, the 1500m and he lost the title by just 12 points to Jack Andrews (Sale). Moreno’s score was just two points short of the County record. His marks were as follows: 11.08 – 6.77 – 11.53 – 2.00 – 49.15 – 14.66 – 28.46 – 4.60 – 44.22 – 5:17.55.
Meanwhile in the U20 Heptathlon Katie Garland recorded a massive personal best of 4,739 points to take silver, just 29 points behind the winner Emma Canning (Whitemoss). Taking a break – if a heptathlon can be called a break – from her ‘A’ Level studies, the Loughborugh University bound athlete sparkled, whilst setting many personal bests en route to her medal – (100m hurdles 14.97s., High Jump 1.64m., Shot 9.22m., 200m 25.96s., Long jump 5.56m., Javelin 27.22m., 800m 2:30.34s). This score takes Katie to 5th on the All Time Sussex list.
Later in the week Amber Anning (Junior Girl) set a Championship Best Performance at the Sussex Schools’ Combined Events, breaking the aforementioned Miss Garland’s four-year-old record with a score of 2946 points. Anning dominated winning four out of five of the events outright and gaining a national standard with a 12.4 Hurdles, 5.09 Long Jump, 1.51 High Jump, 9.22 Shot Put and 2.35 800m.
Matt Smith’s victory was never in question in the Inter Boys event, which included Javelin rather than shot. He won all five events and just missed out on the long standing CBP. Smith’s final score of 2814 included an English Schools Standard of 6.52 in the Long Jump, alongside his 15.7 hurdles, 1.74 High Jump, 37.56m Javelin and 2.14 800m.
Brothers Joshua and Adam Firsht (Junior Boy and Year 7 respectively) were competing in the event for the first time. Joshua a talented 800m and 300m runner showed his versatility with a 5m plus Long Jump, 13.7 hurdles and nippy 2.07 800m to take the bronze medal. Adam came one place higher in the Year 7 competition running a competitive 2.25 to win the final event the 800m and complete a great day for the Firsht household.