Long jump: England Athletics Indoor Championships
My son recently came 5th in the under 20 men’s long jump at the England Athletics Indoor Championships in Sheffield. He came 10th in the same competition in the under 17s category in 2020. We couldn’t have been happier or more proud of his recent achievement, especially as he’d had a rather shaky start to the indoor athletics season. There are nowhere near as many indoor athletics competitions as outdoor ones –...
English Schools national athletics championships
So it was third time lucky for my son and he finally managed his dream of competing in long jump at the English Schools national athletics championships. He made the county team in 2019, but had to pull out due to a fractured pelvis. The competition didn’t happen at all in 202o, and 2021 had a more challenging route to qualification, but he got there! He was so excited to have achieved his dream and we were so excited for him....
English Schools athletics: Qualification!
For the last couple of months, my son has been determined to make it to the English Schools athletics national competition for long jump. He actually made the team two years ago, but missed out after breaking his pelvis two weeks beforehand. Needless to say, there was no competition last year. So we hoped 2021 would be third time lucky for him. Normally there are district, county and regional schools competitions leading up to...
Long jump progress
After getting a new PB of 6.75 in his long jump, my son plateaued a bit. It’s to be expected. You can’t get a PB every single time you compete. He’d reached and exceed the qualifying standard of 6.70 for English Schools nationals, but he also needed to be in the top 16. When he jumped 6.75, he was in the top 16. But every weekend he slipped down a little bit, because everyone around him was competing and improving...
Feeding an athlete
For an athlete like my son, who is really serious about doing his absolute best in his sport, you have to get everything right. Every little change – from the right shoes to the right length run up to different warm up exercises – can just give that few extra centimetres which make all the difference to him achieving his dream. And one of the most important things to get right is food. There have been times when...
