Bicester AC’s Samuel Rayson was selected to compete in last weekend’s prestigious English School’s 32nd Combined Events Athletics Championships and enjoyed a very good competition in the under 15 boy’s competition finishing 26th with a tally of 2,320 points which was a personal best and national grade 3 score. Rayson competed in the pentathlon, which takes in 5 events of a varying degree designed to test all round athletic ability.
With one event to go Rayson was in 17th place, but a slightly below par 800 metres (2mins 32.04secs) cost him 9 places in the last event. Rayson’s highest points score was in the 80m hurdles where he posted a national grade 4 effort of 12.94secs despite running into a headwind. His best effort was probably in the long jump where he produced his 2nd longest ever jump of 5.53m (national grade 3).
Rayson also produced a superb new personal best in the shot putt of 10.12m, which was a national grade 4 mark. However, in what is his strongest event, the high jump, weather conditions turned against him and he could only manage a national grade 4 mark of 1.56m. His final points tally places him 42nd in the national rankings for his age group.
Written by N Dolden