ALEX Carter threw down the challenge, gave it his best shot, but frustratingly just fell short of making the medals podium at the Aviva English Schools’ Championships in Birmingham, writes KEVIN FAHEY.

The 14-year-old St Laurence School (Bradford on Avon) student showed he has the temperament to cope with the big occasion by taking up the pace when it slowed and made appositive bid to impress himself on the final of the junior boys’ 1500m.

Sadly he couldn’t shake off all his rivals and while he battled all the way to the finish on the final lap he crossed the line in fifth place in a time of 4mins 15.68secs, his second fastest ever and only 0.34secs off the personal best he set in the heats.

“We talked about the race beforehand and we knew Alex didn’t have the kick if he left it to the final 200 metres,” said coach Adrian Stenner.

“So Alex knew he had to take it on from a long way out to split up the field and if it worked brilliant and if didn’t come off, well at least he would know he had a go.

“Of course he could have just tucked into the pack and may have still finished fifth but then he would have been left wondering what might have happened.

“He bravely gave it his best shot and I applaud him for doing that. He had a race plan and implemented it but some of the others lads were just quicker on the day.”

For Hardenhuish School’s Loren Bleaken there was little satisfaction if finishing fourth in the junior girls’ 1500m after winning a silver medal in the same event twelve months ago.

Bleaken had hoped to turn that silver into gold last weekend but her challenge was knocked off course by a sore throat in the days leading up the championships and she was clearly not feeling 100 per cent.

“Loren won’t blame the illness but I think she looked a little lacklustre and was clearly not herself,” said coach Adrian Clover.

Overall it proved to be a weekend of near misses for the Wiltshire squad with just a solitary bronze for Swindon hurdler Keeleigh Chapman in the junior girls’ 75metre event.

Sheldon School’s Connell Macquisten should feel proud of his fourth place in the senior boys’ pole vault in his debut at the event but he, too, had hopes of getting among the medals.

“I had hopes to do better so I’m not really happy with that,” said Macquisten.

Of the other vaulters Tom Gibson and Laura Butcher both finished 10th in the senior boys and senior girls’ events respectively and 15-year-old St Laurence School athlete Hannah Grubb, who went to Birmingham third in the UK Under 17 Rankings, was forced to pull out with a recurrence of a back injury.

Devizes School all-rounder Joe Hutchison, a former champion of the junior boys’ 200m, finished sixth in the senior boys’ 110m hurdles after clocking a PB of 14.57secs in the heats.

Fellow Devizes School athlete Bradley Hill was ninth in the junior boys’ long jump and Warminster-base Imogen Wolsey was a very creditable fifth in the inter girls’ 3000m.

RESULTS

Senior Girls - 400H: 7 Amelia Clifford 64.68 (hts 63.44); PV: 10 Laura Butcher 2.70; SP: 9 Gemma Young 10.10.

Inter Girls – 300hts: Evie Cummings 44.49; 800s/f B: 6 Katherine Turner 2:19.42 (hts 2:17.48); 3000: 5 Imogen Wolsey 10:21.38.

Junior Girls - 800: 4 Alex Mundell 2:15.55; 1500: 4 Loren Bleaken 4:39.46; hts Lillie Bellamy 4:52.84; 75H: 3 Keeleigh Chapman 11.30; hts: Elisabeth Clifford 12.02; 4x100m relay: 7 Wiltshire 50.34; HJ: 10 Emily Dixon 1.60.

Senior Boys - 400hts: Josh Eades 50.90; 110H: 6 Joe Hutchinson 14.72 (hts 14.57); PV: 4 Connell Macquisten 4.40; 10th= Tom Gibson 4.10.

Inter Boys – TJ: 15 Marcus Beer 12.47.

Junior Boys - 100 2nd round: George Harford 11.74; hts: Jamaal Lewis 12.01; 1500: 5 Alex Carter 4:15.68 (9hts 4:15.34); 4x100m relay: DNF; LJ: 9 Bradley Hill 5.69; DT: 11 William Seward 34.41.

MORE SPORTS NEWS AND PICTURES IN FRIDAY'S WILTSHIRE TIMES