Record Breaking Henry
While many of us were perhaps enjoying a break in the sunshine over the summer break, Year 12’s Henry was busy having a summer he is unlikely to forget. Henry started the summer having just completed his GCSEs, knowing full well that his training had gone to plan and a medal at English Schools Track and Field was a realistic target.
His summer of racing commenced on Friday 8 July where he won his heat in the 1500m at English Schools in Manchester. He was back the very next day to race the final, showing great heart to lead the 1500m from gun to tape, running quicker than he had ever run to take gold in 3:54.89. In winning this race Henry was selected to represent English Schools at the home international in Belfast the following week.
On Saturday 16 July he lined up against the best 1500m athletes from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Once again Henry led from start to finish to smash the lifetime best he had set the week before, winning in 3:51.64.
In the second half of the summer Henry switched his attention to the longer distance of 3000m with some incredible results. First up was an open meeting in Watford in early August where Henry (still aged 16) finished 2nd in the Adult A race, running 8:15.36. To give this performance context, that time ranks Henry 5th on the UK All Time list at U17 and the person he relegated to 6th at that age was none other than Mohamed Farah. Now Sir Mo Farah!
Henry took the confidence from this event to the English U17 Nationals in Bedford on Sunday 28 August. He won the 3000m title in an incredibly tight finish, winning by just three one hundreds of a second after seven and a half laps of the track. In doing so Henry ran 8:24.06, breaking the championship record that had stood since 1980 – that’s 42 years!
What a summer for Henry and a real inspiration to other pupils involved in sport at Woodbridge School.
