Blow for talented borough athlete (From Thurrock Gazette)

Aveley's Olawore robbed of chance

5:04pm Thursday 20th September 2012 in Sport

ATHLETICS: INJURY cruelly robbed Aveley's Josh Olawore a shot at a gold medal at the English Schools Multi-Events Championships.

It was a cruel blow for the talented borough athlete, writes Ryan Goad.

The 17-year old was leading the senior boys decathlon at Bedford after the first day.

But an injury to his knee meant he was unable to start the 110m hurdles on day two. And this left him only able to complete the throwing disciplines.

It was such a shame for the telented Olawore who had come out on day one in great form.

Of the five events on the first day he recorded three personal bests and two season’s bests.

His personal bests came in the 100m (10.98s), shot putt (12.88m) and 400m (51.26s), while his SBs came in the long jump (7.13m) and high jump (1.84m).

Despite injury he managed two PBs on day two in the discus (27.51m) and javelin (40.63m).

Despite not recording scores in the 110m hurdles, pole vault or 1500m, Olawore still managed to finish in 17th place with 4,655 points.

And that helped ensure the Essex team of Olawore, Liam Yarwood, Mitch Etheridge and Danny Wilson finished as silver medal winners.

In the intermediate boys’ octathlon, Khai Riley-Laborde, from Purfleet, was unable to finish the final two events, the shot putt and 1500m.

His scores until that point were: long jump (5.47m), discus (33.06m), javelin (27.31m), 400m (55.05s), 100m hurdles (13.29m) and high jump (1.74m).