Some fine performances by Matt Smith, in the South East Schools Combined events championships at Lee Valley, saw him gain a place in the National finals in September.
Competing in the Senior (U19) Decathlon Smith started well with a personal best of 11.9s in the 100 metres. He followed this with a useful 6.36m in the long jump and another PB in the shot putt with 10.78m before leaping 1.75m in the high jump. Smith completed the first day with 53.1s for the 400 metres to see him lying in third place overnight.
On the second day Smith started with a brisk 16.6s for the 110m hurdles, threw the discus 32.94m and soared to a Personal Best of 3.30min the pole vault which saw him move into second place, though well adrift of the leading athlete Dylan Carlson-Smith from Surrey.
A PB in the javelin of 42.71m and a final 1500m in 4:49.1s saw Smith close the lead by some two hundred points but he still had to settle for a fine second place with 5780 points to 6107.