National Champion (2)

Jack Partridge's superb summer continued as he won the English Schools Senior Boys 2000m steeplechase Championship at Gateshead to collect his second national title in a week.

Appearing live on Sky Sports TV, Jack controlled the race from the front in the early stages. After a couple of fairly sedate laps he started to subtly wind the pace up and at that point established a gap which he continued to stretch out over the next three laps so that he could savour the final 50m. Jack's winning time was 5:56, which put him over 4 seconds clear of his nearest competitor – in stark contrast to the previous week in which he won by less than quarter of a second and took the lead only in the last three yards. Jack's performance and technique was complemented by TV and athletics doyen Stuart Dickenson who described Jack as "the dominant force in the UK in his age group".

In what was a great race for Dorset, Jack was followed in the bronze medal position by Poole AC's Adam Sloan in his first English Schools Championships, while a bit earlier in the day Ben Westhenry of Weymouth St Pauls Harriers had come second in the Intermediate Boys race, showing the great steeplechase work that happens at Ashdown on Monday nights.

To view the broadcast of Jack's race, this can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJb-Kk7xkbM

Full result:

1 Jack Partridge (Dorset) 5:56.65

2 William Gray (Sussex) 6:00.3

3 Adam Sloan (Dorset) 6:01.83

At the same meeting, Andy Smith had a great weekend to finish tenth in the final of the Junior Boys 1500m. He qualified with a massive PB time, and county record we think, of 4:12.88. Unfortunately, he was too fatigued in the final to repeat this sort of performance and he could only manage 4:21, which is still a great effort, in Andy's first full track session.