DAC athletes shine in English Schools Combined Events

Two Derby Athletic Club athletes were delighted to be part of the Derbyshire team at the strongly contested English Schools Combined Events National Finals.

The finals, staged at Bedford in September, saw DAC multi-eventers Jacob Watson and Sammy Coulson join Oliver Thornhill of Stockport AC and Ben Lowe of Mansfield AC to compete in the Intermediate Boys’ octathlon over two days.

Ben Lowe, Sammy Coulson, Jacob Watson and Oliver Thornhill competing in the ESAA combined events at Bedford.

The competition got off to a flying start in the long jump with Sammy jumping a huge personal best of 6.35m putting him into fourth place. Jacob also impressed with 5.66m.

Oliver showed his strength in the discus and javelin, achieving 25.11m and 34.46m, and Sammy also impressed in javelin, improving his PB by more than 6m. In the 400m, the final event of day one, Oliver had an excellent race, finishing in 54.75.

Day two began with 100m hurdles, with Sammy posting a very good 14.83 and Jacob also looking good in 16.83.

Jacob and Ben both specialise in high jump, and achieved excellent clearances at 1.71m, with Sammy not far behind at 1.65m.

Some steady point scoring followed from all of the team in shot put, before the final gruelling event of the competition, the 1500m. Oliver led the way for Derbyshire with a fantastic 4:59.57, just ahead of Jacob with 5:16:65 and Ben with 5:19.45.

The Derbyshire team all finished very close in the competition, with Jacob leading the pack with 3480 points, Sammy 3456 points, Oliver 3442 points and Ben, in his first octathlon, on 2804 points. Overall the Derbyshire team finished fifth.

Pictured below: DAC athletes Jacob in action in the hurdles and Sammy in the long jump.