The best of times for the Chandlers
Brothers on top form at Sheffield championships
Balfron brothers Tom and Matt Chandler were on great form as they both set personal bests at the UK Indoor combined events championships in Sheffield recently.
Tom finished a superb fifth in the Senior Men’s Heptathlon while younger brother Matt finished seventh in the under 20 event.
Twenty year-old Tom was returning to indoor action two years after winning on his first Great Britain international appearance in the junior age group. Contesting the senior men’s heptathlon, he had a strong start with 7.41secs in the 60m, 6.45m long jump, 11.99m shot and 1.80m high jump to finish in 10th place at the end of the first day.
He started well on day two in the 60m hurdles, winning his heat in a PB of 8.74secs to move up to third in Central’s all-time list for the event.
However it was the pole vault where Tom produced his best performance of the day clearing a new club record 4.38m at the first attempt.
He was still in 10th place though and targeted a good run in the final 1000m event to improve his position.
He finished second in the heat in 2.47.56 and was rewarded for his run by picking up five places to finish fifth overall. His final score of 4981 points now puts him 10th on the Scottish all-time list for the event.
Matt (19) was contesting the under 20 heptathlon for the first time having just moved up an age group. This was his first combined events competition since he helped Scotland win the schools international for the first time this century in November.
He started with 7.55secs in the 60m, 6.36m in the long jump then 9.90m in the shot for 16th place. Matt then produced a superb pole vault PB of 4.18m, the second highest of the day, to leapfrog into seventh place at the end of the first day.
Another strong performance in the 60m hurdles of 8.92secs, at the start of day two, maintained his position and an excellent PB 1.89m in the high jump, lifted him to sixth place.
He dug in for a PB in the 1000m of 2.55.54 to finish seventh overall and his final score of 4663 points place him 12th in the Scottish all time list for the age group.