ENGLISH SCHOOLS TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS

11TH / 12TH JULY 2008

The pinnacle of the school sports year is the All England Schools Track and
Field Championships, which took place last weekend at the Gatehead
International Stadium. Around 1500 of the nations most talented youngsters
contest the event that prides itself as being the largest athletics event
organised on a voluntary basis anywhere in the world. The various counties
are divided into three categories, depending on the size of their school
population with Somerset, amongst the smallest "C" category, being allowed
only 25 athletes across six age-groups and almost 100 individual events.

Mendip AC had four competitors at Gateshead, though only two had made the
Somerset team - Nathan Young of Whitstone School and Dominic Henry of Wells
Blue School - with two others, Aoife Thorogood and Matthew Norton, competing
for Avon. The only other local athlete to make the championships was Wells City
Harrier, Alex Wiltshire, of Millfield School.

As it turned out, the cool blustery wind blew no good for the local
contingent, with Aoife bowing out of the junior girls 1500m heats with a
disappointing run in 9th place in 4:56.57. Matt struggled to match his
recent personal bests with his 44.09m being insufficient to qualify him for
the last three throws of the hammer competition. With Matt being a first
year inter, things look more promising for a repeat performance at next
years event.

Gateshead represented both Dominic's first and last English Schools event,
as he moves up to university next year. With the first two and two fastest
losers to qualify from the three heats for the final of the senior boys 800m
a slow first race looked helpful, though a much faster second race left
Dominic needing a top two or a third place in a new personal best if he was
to qualify from the last heat. Despite a spirited final dash for the line to
clinch third spot Dominic's time of 1:55.51 was insufficient to take him
forward.

As a winner of the junior boys 1500m two years ago when the event was last
at Gateshead, Nathan was looking for another strong showing in the inter
boys 1500m. Looking controlled throughout his heat, Nathan eased to a
guaranteed place in the final with 4:05.41 in third. In the final Nathan was
content to sit in the back of the pack, but was too slow to respond to an
aggressive burst from two of the country's top ranked runners at the half
way point. With the major medals gone the rest of the field raced it out for
the bronze, with Nathan fighting down the home straight for a sixth place in
4:07.19. A disappointed Nathan later explained "as I tried to push on at the
bell there was nothing in my legs".

The Harrier's sole competitor, Alex Wiltshire, went into the final of the
steeplechase event ranked in fourth place in the national rankings, but
disappointed with an 8th place in 4:38.70.