Thirteen hardy souls braved the outskirts of Luton to take part in this year's county athletics championships at Stockwood Park. On the seniors front, the ladies 3000m and the men's 5000m were also the annual club championships.

The first event on the card where we had competitors was the U15 girls high jump, in which new member Leoni Ring cleared 1.25 to finish fourth. Leoni then continued her competitive day by taking part in both the 100m and 200m. In the 200m she qualified for the final, despite it being at the end of a very long day after she had run the 100m. In the 100m she put in an excellent performance to earn a silver medal, just 0.3 seconds behind the winner and being a year young in the age group. Leoni clearly has a huge amount of potential to bring out in the coming years.

At the youngest end of the championship scale is the U13's and Leighton had two of those on the day. Jamie Stancombe warmed up for his 800m by competing in a very large long jump field where he finished half way down/up! Having used a few sprints on the runway as a warm-up he decided that he fancied the 800m rather than the 1500m he had actually entered. This put him in one of the largest fields of the day with 10 other lads gunning for half mile glory with Patrick Clay. Patrick did not have one of his better days but finished in a creditable 3.11.5. Jamie however, flew around the two laps faster than most of the seniors could and just held off a late charge to win a silver medal in a time of 2.36.2.

The U15's had two competitors on the day, with Joe McGarry competing in hurdles, high jump and 1500m whilst Jordan Clay specifically targeted the 1500m alone. Joe set up his tent next to the high jump semi-circle so that he could focus on getting over his mental block of 1.30m and used the early hurdles race to get his legs moving for the rest of the day. Despite the low numbers the high jump was a high quality competition with the winner clearing 1.70m, but on his second attempt at his second height Joe managed a personal best 1.40m which meant he just missed 3rd place on count back, but was a really good performance.

The two lads lined up for the 1500m on what had turned out to be a chilly grey afternoon with six boys from other clubs around the county, both with PB's in mind. Joe's very long day and efforts in other events had clearly taken a bit out of him as he came home in 5.20.3. Jordan however, went out with purpose as he led the race for the first of the three and three-quarter laps in his bid to get under 5 minutes for the first time. Although Janes of Bedford came through on the second lap, Jordan held his good form together and came home to take a silver medal in 4.50.2 and was very pleased with the performance.

The early part of the day saw four of Leighton's elite squad of ladies take to the track for the 3000m. Fiona, Lynn, Jane and Amy were far from raring to go, but with such a huge improvement in standard over the last year it was great to see them all there. With the youth of Bedford leading the way, Jane and Lynn chased off after the other ladies early in the race at a very quick pace as Amy hung on to their coat tails. However, as the seven and half laps progressed Amy gradually pulled them back in and went past. She paced the run very well as she completed the second 1500m quicker than the first and crossed the line in 12.04, with Jane in 12.29 and Lynn in 12.52. Fiona completed her customary storming finish in 15.16.

At this stage it is worth emphasising the huge strides that have been made by Leighton's ladies, as last year Jill Richardson was second behind Gail in 12.45 and Amy ran 13.21! At this rate of progress they will be world champions in a few years!

In the men's 5000m race, unfortunately the four Leighton men were the only competitors and so it was split into two immediately as Ben Corfield and Simon Coombes had one battle, while Andy Inchley and Ian Grimshaw had another. In the battle for the minor places, Andy held off Ian on this occasion to record a PB of 16.47, nearly a minute quicker than last year, while Ian's 17.23 would have earned him silver last year and was a great effort for his first track race.

At the front of the field, Simon completed lap after lap with Ben tucked in behind him. The question was whether Ben was just waiting or trying to hang on? With 800m to go Simon just put in a touch more effort and started to open up a gap on Ben which was up to 15m by the time they got to the last 200m. The race was over………or was it? With an extreme final effort Ben saw his opportunity to sneak up on Simon and sprinted for home. Holding his breath a tiptoeing so he couldn't be heard, with a last monumental effort he caught Simon with 20m to go and just ducked past to take the title. Cheeky bugger!