The seven metre long jump
My son has been aiming for a seven metre long jump for a couple of years now. It is a really big milestone and he has been moving towards it very gradually. It’s possible that without all the Covid restrictions in 2020 and 2021 he might have got there previously, but we can never be sure. This season, he’d already made it to 6.92 – just one cm short of his PB set last year. His 2020 PB (when there were hardly any...
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....
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...
English Schools athletics and the long shot
Since 2019, my son has dreamed of getting to the English Schools athletics national finals. And the chance keeps getting taken away from him. We realised he was quite good at long jump in year 7. He remained quite good in year 8 and year 9. In year 9, he even made it to English Schools regionals. Then in year 10, we realised he was really good at long jump. Suddenly a whole world of possibilities was opening up for him. He realised he...
