Decathletes Lewis Church (photo) and Harry Kendall, from Tonbridge Athletic Club, returned home from the British Championships at the weekend, with the silver and bronze medals, adding to their English Championship gold and silver from a month ago.
The championships, held at Sports City, Manchester doubled as the Olympic Trials for the GB teams for Tokyo, with those achieving a top two position, with the respective qualifying standard, guaranteed selection.
The Decathlon started on Friday afternoon, with the first five events taking place then and into the evening. Chilly and breezy conditions didn’t help performances, with both the 100 metres and Long Jump taking place into the wind. Kendall ran 11.47 and Church 11.82 in the sprint and then Long Jumped 6.56m and 6.61m, respectively. Shot Put throws of 12.95m for Kendall and 13.34 for Church put them in 5th and 7th places, after three events.
Both athletes scaled 1.92m in the High Jump to move to 3rd and 6th overall, before nudging up a place each after the 400 metres with 50.52 for Kendall and 51.54 for Church. This left Kendall on 3656 points and Church on 3574, at the end of day one, the leader being Tim Duckworth, the pre-event favourite on 3900 points. However, Duckworth was already carrying an injury, as he battled for Olympic selection.
The weather conditions improved on Saturday, being day two of the competition. The warmer and less breezy conditions helped considerably, with Kendall in particular taking advantage, recording four personal bests. The first event, the 110 metres hurdles went well for both as Kendall recorded a pb of 15.20 and Church ran 14.94, as they sat in 3rd and 4th places, after this event.
Their positions didn’t change for the next two events, as Kendall threw the Discus 41.88m and Church 42.21m, before they cleared 4.34m and 4.44m in the Pole Vault. Incredibly, in the penultimate event, the Javelin, both athletes threw 58.09m, which for Church was a personal best by more than three metres and for Kendall just a few centimetres short of his recent pb. At this stage Kendall held the silver medal position, with Church just behind, but generally being the stronger 1500 metres runner.
The 1500 metres, after the nine previous events, is a tough challenge for decathletes, but both knew they needed good performances to secure their medal positions. Church went with the faster runners and ran a very solid 4.34.56, whilst Kendall was just inside his best-ever time, with 4.46.23. These performances managed to fend off any other challenges, although Church leapfrogged above Kendall, as they won the silver and bronze medals. Kendall scored 7249 points, just 4 points away from his lifetime best, whilst Church posted 7308 points. The scores are someway short of the Olympic standard, but should give both athletes the incentive to try and reach the Commonwealth Games standard of 7750 points over the next year. Tim Duckworth managed the second day events well to win the overall competition with 7447 points.
Amongst the other Tonbridge athletes who qualified for the championships was James West who was 6th in the 1500 metres in 3.44.45. Chris Olley placed 10th in the 5000 metres final in 13.56.99 and Ben Murphy ran his personal best when finishing 4th in his 800 metres heat with 1.48.48, to become the third fastest Tonbridge athlete ever over the distance. Sean Molloy, Miles Weatherseed, Kieran Reilly and Simon Coppard were all eliminated after the heats of the 1500 metres.