Reading ACs Sammy Ball competing in the U17 Octathlon for Berkshire Schools has scored the highest points total ever.
Sammy started the two-day event in Lee Valley, London with a 6.77m long jump which is forty centimetres down on his 7.17 m personal best. He compensated for this with a seven and a half metre improvement to his discus attaining 37.92m. Javelin followed with a 39.84m throw, close to his previous best. Day one ended with a blistering 49.3 second 400m run smashing three seconds off his previous best in October 2020 and going home with a respectable 2,669 points, three hundred and fifty points up from his previous best.
Day two commenced with a safe 100m hurdles in a personal best time of 13.4 seconds. Sammy then cleared 1.86m in the high jump, four centimetres below his best. To make up for that, he then broke his own shot put club record by twenty centimetres with a put of 15.20m.
Going in to the final event, the 1,500m, Sammy was 780 points short of the all-time UK record of 5,800 points. This equated to an estimated time of 4 mins 24 secs meaning Sammy would need to cut eight seconds off his previous best performance. After a good first lap his pace dropped over the second and third laps leaving him four seconds off the pace with 300m to go. Sammy then moved up a few gears, and came into the home straight with the entire stadium in support to help him across the line in 4 mins 22.8 secs.
In his characteristic style, Sammy stayed on his feet, turned around and clapped home every other competitor. Without a timer on the finish line there was an agonising few minutes wait before the announcer informed the stadium that the previous UK all time best performance, dating back Birchfield Harrier’s Ed Dunford in 2001, had just been beaten. Overall, Sammy’s score was 5,813 points. Together with his Berkshire team which won the overall competition, he now moves on to the National English Schools Octathlon in September in Bedford.