The results of the 5th Annual Jantathlon are now available
2005 saw the largest Jantathlon to date - not only in terms of number of events but also in the spirit of competitors. There were strong efforts made by familiar faces and competitive appearances by a number of new joiners but in the end it was the established name of Ben Richardson who would raise the Jantathlon trophy, making its first return to a boy since Gavinder Sangha won it back in 2002!
Split over 3 days the 2005 Jantathlon was the most gruelling yet with 8 events being competed, only 6 of which would score to the final total. Day 1 started well for new joiner Grant Stirling sporting his trademark bare chest, a Jantathlon best in the Long Jump was only diminished by massive leaps by both Gareth and Ben which would have been huge JB's in their own right. Event 2 saw the return of the loved 50m, with a headwind there was little chance of a JB in this event but Rico and Grant gave it their best shot, finishing only 0.1s off the previous mark held by Darryn Campbell, who faded badly with a knee injury. The only female challenge this year came from Cat and Helen, neither of whom were able to compete in all the events, much to the relief of the other competitors. Helen would set a new JB in the shot but that achievement would be somewhat set back by Cat couragously putting with a broken shoulder. Nick Horton also stayed close to what he knows best by (for the 3rd year in a row now!) only competing in one day of the Jantathlon, which in its self could be considered a record.
New-Comer Ross Langford managed, in only his second training session with the group, to break the Janthathlon record for the high jump by 3cm, wiping Bryan Barnes from the record books. Indeed the entire fate of the competition would come down to the final day and the pressure became all too much for Grant who failed to show, possibly costing him a victory though we will never know.
Previous Hopeful Tom Berry considered himself a hot favorite to win the Jantathlon but he was let down by a lack-lustre High Jump and a limp 600m, narrowly beating out Cat in the home straight. Rico's strongest event, the 150m would prove to be his highlight of the competition as he equalled Darryn's JB in what can only be described as very, very, very tail windy conditions, recognising his weakest event was the 600m he would stroll round and take it as one of his missed events. The same was not the case for Darryn and Gareth though who both knew that a fast 600m could just win out on the day, Gareth took it out hard but was overtaken and defeated by Darryn who would cruise to a Jantathlon Best by almost half a second. Although he was only 6 points behind he was still a 'loser' and Ben would lift the Jantathlon Trophy for the first time. Tom has vowed to either return and defeat Ben next year, or destroy the Scoring System, whichever is easier.
