Luke Okosieme (U20) and Kacey Walters (U15) of Cambridge Harriers made the trip to Bedford on Bank Holiday Monday last week to take part in this fantastic competition held by Carol Jackson, (one of the UK’s top high jump coaches). It was really lovely to be able to stand on the track and stand right near the beds/pits for a change and get so close to all the action from the high jump and long/triple jumps. It was also the first time we attended a competition whereby they implemented the new 30 second time ruling complete with electronic countdown timer and yellow flag, so that was good experience. The atmosphere was really friendly and relaxed, and we were very lucky with the weather.
The high jump event was broken down into 4 pools with Luke going in Pool C and Kacey going in Pool B. Each pool was made up of mixed age groups (mainly under 17s up to senior level), and Luke won 4th place with a jump of 1.96m in his pool of 10 athletes (with glimpses of his return to his previous 2.02m form), and Kacey came 11th in her pool of 15 athletes, and although she found the competition slightly daunting being the youngest competitor in the whole event at 12, and one of only 3 under 15s taking part, she still managed to equal her official PB of 1.56m, with help from the event’s organiser who very kindly also had one of her athletes look after Kacey throughout the competition to ensure she wasn’t too overwhelmed. It was a great experience for both of them jumping with athletes of such high calibre, and it was fantastic seeing the likes of Tom Gale and Dominic Ogbechie in action.