Brilliant Bronzes at UK Combined Events Champs
A small band of Jersey Spartan athletes headed to the Emirates Arena in Glasgow to take part in the UK Combined Events Championships. And it was well worth the visit, with two bronze medals and a 6th position gained by our members, plus a whole load of PBs and a Club record!
Evan Campbell achieved a bronze in the men’s heptathlon with 5,123 points, Lucy Woodward also achieved the bronze in the woman’s pentathlon with 3,551 points, and Katie Le Rougetel, also in the women’s pentathlon, came in 6th with 3,124 points.
Evan had this to say about this performance:
This weekend I won UK championships bronze in the indoor heptathlon in Glasgow, with three PBs out of seven.
With three of the top ranked athletes absent, this was a great opportunity to compete for a medal and with solid performances in the 60 metres and long jump. I threw a 14.68m PB in shot put, and high jumped 1.97, my best in over 5 years to give me the lead after day 1. Going into day 2 I felt I could hold out for gold, but expected it to require three PBs out of three, as I knew I’d lose ground in the pole vault. Unfortunately the pressure must have got to me, I guess I never expected to be in the running for a UK title this indoors, and I made a big mistake in the hurdles, getting my strides wrong to hurdle one and essentially having to stop and jump over it. That lost me about a second and which equates to over 200 points, disappointing but I had to stay positive. I went on to secure a 7cm PB in Pole Vault with 4.07 (which is a new Club record) and ran 2:48 in the 1000 metres, a three second PB. This amounted to 5123, a 70 point improvement from my South of England performance in December, and a UK bronze medal.
I was only 180 points of the lead, so if I’d have ran a solid time in the hurdles, I think I might have won, as my next closest contender no heighted in the pole vault, which removed him from contention. On the other hand, there’s so much that went well, and I did well to recover and salvage some points in the hurdles helping me to a medal I would 100% have taken coming into the completion. Overall I’m proud of my performances and excited about the break throughs I’ve been making recently.
Lucy also gave her thoughts:
This was my first pentathlon in 7 years having lost my mojo for multi-events due to issues with my LJ and HJ. The last time I did HJ in a multi event I scissor kicked!
First event was 60mH: was a slow start but ended up 0.01 sec off pb. Next was HJ, better than I could ever have imagined. Only expected to jump 1.45 based on training so started at 1.39m. I just kept clearing the bar by skin of my teeth and did not NJ till 1st attempt at 1.54. I then went on to clear 1.57. So had no legs left for 1.60 (pb) and I called it a day after 2nd NJ at 1.60 but delighted with result. Shot was respectable at 11.01, not a PB but over 11 which was my goal. LJ, furthered season best by 1cm in round one (5.41) and discovered a massive jump in round 3 but NJ by about 5cm. 800m – I went out hard, as I always do, let the faster girl overtake me going into lap 3, coaches words “don’t’ get lazy in lap 3” ringing in my ears and hung on with a PB finish of 2.23.54. Finished with overall pent score of 3551 smashing target of 3400 set by coach Mike Holmes and enough to get British Bronze Medal.
Katie and I were a great support for each other and she finished 6th , happy overall with her performance and still quite new to multi-eventing.
Katie also got a new pentathlon PB, with a PB in the 60m hurdles of 9.94s, shot of 9.55m, equalling her HJ PB of 1.60m, and a new 800m PB of2:45.83.
Great to see our senior members performing so well on the UK stage.
