An emotional rollercoaster,

Gwil Price the Warwickshire Schools Athletics supremo  commented to Paul Bearman “What will stay with us both, always, was the exceptional battling performances of Lolita, Annabel and Isla to take the Championships title away from Notts in the very last event!!

When the result was announced, everyone witnessed what it meant to them when they jumped so far in the air they landed 5 seconds later! Faces/actions show it all!”

ESAA Combined Events Midlands Regional Final 2026

Report – Paul Bearman

Stratford juniors have long had a reputation for producing excellent multi-eventers ….run throw and jump….. and it is the backbone of the way the juniors are organised, in what are fundamentally multi events groups, especially in the U12 to U16s.

Specialisation can come as the athletes mature both physical & mentally and it is our belief that young athletes should grow at their own pace and try the different parts of athletics. 

After competing in the respective county Combined Events Championships, Stratford athletes once again showed their prowess with 9 being selected to represent Warwickshire and Lila Gallinagh participating on behalf of Herefordshire & Worcestershire in the English Schools (ESAA) Combined Events Midlands Regional Final held at Moorways Derby. 

Combined events is tough and is literally a series of highs and lows with bumps along the way. Every tenth of a second and centimetre counts for points and the prize for winning the discrete age/gender team and individual competitions is to go forward to the National Championships in September. 6 of our athletes have qualified for the final after a brilliant 2 days of competition against other athletes from Derbyshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hereford & Worcestershire, Nottinghamshire and West Midlands.

First to compete in the energy sapping hot conditions on the Saturday were Junior Boys Fynn Allen, who has a few competitions behind him but Toby Wilkinson has only just got himself involved with CE and is a novice by comparison.

It was obvious from the hurdles, the first event, when Toby just popped over them, that his groin injury had flared up again, but he was determined to continue and so we had to nurse him through the events. Even carrying the injury he battled through the other events and went from 17^th up to 14^th at the finish. Gutsy chap. 

Fynn started very well in the hurdles and kept things ticking along and even after a little blip in the High Jump, his consistency took him into 5^th place

With their 2 other team mates they accumulated over 300 points more than the 2^nd placed team Derbyshire, meaning they won their age group and they’re on their way the final. A brilliant result

Afterwards Toby said “Despite being in a lot of pain with my groin strain, I got through it and was really happy to qualify for the national finals with my team!”. Fynn added “This past weekend I thought we did great as a team and we worked well together to achieve the 1st place we wanted. I am really looking forward to putting in the hard work over the next two months and being ready for the English Schools National Combined Events Championship”.

Lila Gallinagh,  representing Herefordshire & Worcestershire is well versed in the stresses and strains of CE and as with all multi eventers she played to her strengths and worked hard throughout to maintain a top 3 position but a tremendous run in the 800m consolidated her in 2^nd just missing top spot by 6 points and she qualified for the final in September. The only sour note was a poor decision on the long jump by the official, who called a no jump when the VAR officials (her mum and Carolyne) proved conclusively on video that her best jump wasn’t a foul but that didn’t dampen her delight at scoring higher in all her events than last year when she finished 5^th.

Lila said “I really enjoyed my day and it was pleasing that I achieved three PBs. The day was a rollercoaster of emotions. I went into the last event in 2nd place, however the points were very close and I had to dig deep in the 800m. Luckily, I achieved a PB and managed to finish in 2nd place only 6 points from 1st place! I was so pleased that I managed to get through to the Nationals”.!

Lucia Ogilvie-Putt and Maggie Silvers are both primarily middle distance runners and CE rookies. They earned their place in the team after their performances in the County Champs. In fact Maggie was called into the team as a late replacement, which meant that she had to have a crash course in the technical events and their performances helped the 4 girl team to 3^rd place.

They both really did very well throughout the competition and Lucia reflected “my combined events summed up in 3 words….. ….Enjoyment…..Weather!…….High Jump…..

I really enjoyed doing the combined events and I hope that I can do it again in the future. The weather on Sunday was a bit crazy – it went from pouring rain during the shot put to blistering heat during the high jump! Even so high jump was the highlight of my day as I got a really big improvement on my PB”.

The Intermediate girls compete over 2 days in 7 events and Annabel Stacey, Lolita Newby-Vincent and Isla Hinton (Coventry Godiva) all had to make sure they completed the 7 events to score in the team event because the other athlete from R&N didn’t turn up. They maintained a tremendous high level of performances across all the events to finally win the team event and so they go as team onto the final.

Annabel is a seasoned combined eventer, but Lolita is new to it all this year and Annabel said “It was an emotion packed weekend in the best way possible and it was great to experience it alongside my teammates Lolita and Isla and I’m really looking forward to all of us going to the National Final”.

Lolita’s only disappointment was her Javelin when she somehow managed to hit the back of her head….no idea how…. but still managed to get a mark and those points made a lot of difference to the team scores. 

Gwil Price the Warwickshire Schools Athletics supremo and I were basking in the success of our athletes and said “as we have both commented, we witnessed some hugely committed and mightily successful young athletes over the weekend with SUAAC providing many in Derby. What will stay with us both, always, was the exceptional battling performances of Lolita, Annabel and Isla to take the Championships title away from Notts in the very last event!! When the result was announced everyone witnessed what it meant to them when they jumped so far in the air they landed 5 seconds later! Faces/actions show it all!!”

With the Inter athletes competing over 2 days, apart from the physical strain of competing in 8 events for the boys and 7 for the girls, the mental strength to keep producing at your best can be daunting but, as always, our athletes rose to the challenge.

Last year Will Hovell finished 6^th and vowed to return “stronger and faster” this year and he smashed all his 2025 performances with several PBs on the way and by finishing 3^rd he booked his place in the final.

He said “it was another amazing experience, and I’m really pleased with my performances and going to the final again. It was such a great track to go to and some very hot conditions but the heavy rain shower was a big surprise Thanks as always to the club for all the support”.

Finn Jackson has really bought into combined events this year (“I like it better than football now!!”) and once again he eclipsed all his 2025 performances with improvements. He said “It was an honour to represent the county and encourages me to improve and do even better next year, when I’ll be at the top end of the age group like Will. I was really surprised to finish 6^th and my highlight was my 14cm PB in the High Jump”. 

After two gruelling days competition we saw Seb Hillard standing on top of the podium again after he blitzed his 2025 performances as well, finishing with an outstanding 6193 points, 546 more than last year.

Seb has had to combine his athletics with his England rugby commitments and that demonstrates what a brilliant performance this was with highlight (literally) being his 3.50m Pole Vault.

He reflected “it was a great weekend at my third decathlon, finishing with 6193 points and 6 PBs. Exceeding the 6000-point mark is a huge milestone for me. Like the other athletes, I’m thankful for the team support that got me there and I’m looking forward to keeping the momentum going for English Schools in September ,so I’ve got a very busy few months ahead training along with the rest of the Stratford athletes going to the final”

Carolyne Johnston and I were 2 very proud coaches mulling over the highs and the very few lows of the weekend driving back and the looks of surprise and delight….Lucia and Finn’s High Jump spring to mind. They all proved to themselves to be fantastic athletes and whilst it is an individual competition and celebrating individual successes, it is also being a part of the county teams with athletes from other clubs and schools. 

The majority of our athletes competing are sprinters and when they have an 800 or 1500m to look forward to at the end of a hard competition it takes a special kind of athlete to compete in combined events….strangely Will loves the 1500m and aims to lap someone as motivation and he did so again.

We have an exceptional bunch of hard working athletes when it comes to training and this is how it pays off and for those going to the final stand by for some more fun…..well I call it fun!!. 

On Saturday, before we left for Lundy and with no parkrun, I went to browse round the boot fair after my early run. 

A poster of James Dean caught my eye with this quote on it…. 

“Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today.”

I had to buy it as it was going to be my mantra for Lundy Half.

I have to admit I was worried it was beyond my capability!

I did wonder at mile 6, taking my life in my hands, if I should be sitting in the garden with a cold drink! 

But No ! I am so glad I took myself out of my comfort zone and felt the fear ! It was a most amazing memorable day and I shed tears when I finished. 

Thank you to Sarah,  my running mate, for trusting in me ! 

Elsie Gould was selected to represent South Leamington in the Central Warwickshire Primary Athletics Championships, competing in both javelin and long jump.

She performed exceptionally well — finishing 4th in the javelin, 3rd in the mixed relay, and 2nd in the long jump. Elsie was especially pleased with her long jump result

Carolyne Johnston commented “This is brilliant for Elsie! She really has gained so much confidence since she started with us. Age group leader Michelle Bartlett added “ This is an amazing achievement! From the girl who started to who she is today is a credit to her. She has worked so hard, especially on her long jump and we are so proud of her!

MCAA U18/U16/U14 Championships & U12 Quadrathlon

27th & 28th Jun 2026

Pingles Stadium

20 of our junior athletes were among the 561 entrants at this meeting, held in somewhat windy conditions but returning with PBs and medals aplenty.

At the time of writing the official results don’t seem to be available but below is smashing photo of a couple of our U12s as a taster for, hopefully, some sort of a report next week.