Regional IAPS championships at Bedford

Thirteen athletes took time out form the middle of their exam week to compete in the Regional IAPS athletics championships at Bedford. Blessed by some good weather the levels of performance were very high with some 60 schools taking part from the East and South East of England. The Habs squad mainly from year 8 rose to the occasion with 6 athletes gaining Eastern regional team selection to compete in the National championships at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham on June 24th.

Rohan Oyewole became champion again this time in the U14 age group winning the Boys Javelin with  a throw of 36.17m becoming only the second Habs athlete to gain selection for the Regional team in every year he has competed.  Jacob Steinberg gained selection for the Regional team for the  second time but this time as champion with a throw off 11.70m in the U14 shot and Henry Mattey completed a clean sweep in the throws in the U14 boys  age group by winning  the Discus with  a 30.71m.

On the track Yanarthan  Sriskanjarajah finished 2nd in  the U14 75m Hurdles in 12.3 in exactly the same time as the winner, Jeevan Bhuller ran another sub 25.5 sec 200m in  the U14 race to gain 2nd place and Ben Bellman again equalled his own school  record school  and set  a new meeting record as he secured the 300m title in 40.4 secs.

All these boys have gained selection, the highest number of athletes from Habs to gain selection in one age group. In addition, Tolu Elesin is first reserve as he gained 3rd place in the Under14 800m in 2.18.6 secs taking 8 seconds off his previous best with a very  determined  run. Haroui Fang came 3rd in his heat of the 100m but just missed out on making the final, Daniel Greenstein came 7th in the 1500m, Aidan Tang jumped 1.40 in the High Jump to finish 7th and Stefan Bontas Long jumped 4.71  to finish  6th.

The two year 7 athletes who competed were Roshan Patel, 6th in the U13 discus with 21.79 and Adam O Reilly 8th (U13 800m in 2.37.6 and 9th U13 High Jump 1.25)

The final event of the day was the U14 boys 4 x100m. Habs had qualified through the heat as the fastest team just point 3 of a second outside the meeting record. They were hopeful of not only gaining selection as the regional representatives but also breaking the meeting record. Sadly it didn’t quite work out as a poor first change meant they lost ground on their main rivals and although they moved through to finish second in the race behind Oakham school the poor changed was considered illegal and the team was subsequently disqualified. The team remain upbeat however, with some improved slick baton passing a new school record and a sub 50 sec time is on the cards.