Pete Cracks 7000 Point Barrier

Half a dozen North Down athletes have had a protracted warm weather training period when the ban on flights left them stranded in Portugal along with several others from Northern Irish clubs and universities most of whom are still there. With an early season decathon score needing to be posted, Peter Glass and Tom Reynolds took a chance and tried the airport on Thursday night and blaggeg their way back and heading straight for Somerset. Not the best preparation for the Street decathlon on Saturday and Saturday but it was the preparation they had. Both certainly had a good first day with Pete on 3732 points and Tom on 3660 including a 7.09m long jump. On Sunday Tom unfortunately no-heighted in the pole vault in wet conditions but stayed on to pace Pete in his weak spot 1500m. With a pb of 7057, Pete passed the 7000 point barrier, the point where decathlon gets serious.

Tom”s first day long jump was the first 7m plus jump by a North Down athlete and was certainly legal in combined events rules where ther is a 4mps wind limit. However the blustery conditions meant the 3.0mps recorded meant that the jump was outside the more usual 2mps limit for single events.