Congratulations to Reading AC’s Sammy Ball (coaches Mike Dyer and Kevin Cranmer) who was representing England at the Schools’ indoor U18 pentathlon international meeting at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow on 4 December 2021.

In a ‘frantic’ day, with just thirty minutes between events, the athletes from schools across England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales competed against each other in teams of four with results from the top three athletes in each team being counted for the final team positions.

Sammy led the competition from the start with a personal best 8.08 seconds in the 60m hurdles before extending his lead with a 15.44m shot put. In the third event, 200m, he ran in with a personal best time of 22.48 seconds before consolidating his lead with a 6.58m long jump. In the final event, 800m, Sammy again managed a personal best of 2 mins 05.76 secs to score a massively impressive 4,000 points beating the previous championship record by 146 points.

Overall, the England team achieved a one, two, three on the podium with an overall score of 11,538 points surpassing the previous 1998 championship record by 896 points.

See below for a link to a YouTube video, some photos and the score sheet.