Herts Phoenix and Presdales athlete, Laura Wake, competed for Hertfordshire in the 2008 English Schools Combined Events championships at Alexander Stadium in Birmingham last weekend.  In this competition, Laura was up against most of the best U20 age group heptathletes in the country and finished in a very creditable 8th place out of a total of 32 competitors.

Laura is now consistently scoring over 4000 points in her heptathlons and last weekend’s tally of 4147 points is her second best ever total only to be bettered by the 4310 that she achieved in the regional round in June.

Laura’s results on the Saturday were 16.49s in the 100m Hurdles, 1.45m in the High Jump, 7.83m in the Shot and an impressive 25.01s in the 200m giving her an overnight total of 2495. On the Sunday Laura started strongly with 4.95m in the Long Jump and this was followed by 27.12m in the Javelin and 2.30.71s in the 800m to achieve the two day total of 4147 points.

Other Hertfordshire athletes competing in these championships were Sophie Lee from Abbott’s Hill School, Hemel and Dacorum and Tring AC, Rhys Clarke from Watford Boys School and Harrow AC, Chloe Vernon Hamilton from Highfield School, Letchworth and Stevenage and North Herts AC and Nick Stoppard from Hitchin Boys School and Stevenage and North Herts AC. Sophie achieved 8th place out of 41 in the Junior Girls event. Rhys was 12th out of 40 in the Junior boys event and Chloe was 17th out of 39 in the Inter Girls competition. Nick unfortunately had to withdraw after 5 events through injury.

Ian Burrows – Herts Schools Combined Events Team Manager