Bedford & County athlete, Thaila-Jade Mason, 17, recovered from a slow start and injury to secure a dramatic bronze medal at the Schools International Pentathlon in Glasgow last weekend.
The 5,000 capacity Emirates Arena in Glasgow played host to the event, and it was full of drama as Mason clocked a huge personal best in the 800m to storm into the medals on Saturday (16 November).
The Over-16 International Schools pentathlon decided to change the order of events, beginning with the shot put and despite a personal best for Mason (9.37m), she ended round one of five in 13th place out of 15 competitors.
Injury then hit in the next event as Mason rolled her ankle half way through the 60m hurdles while leading, although the Bedfordian was still able to recover to post a decent time of 9.16 seconds.
With her stronger events to come, Mason vowed to continue and she bounced back in the long jump.
Despite jumping far from her best, she still convincingly led the field in the sand with a jump of 5.73m to recover some ground in the points table.
The recovery continued into the high jump as Mason flew over every height for a lifetime’s best of 1.66m, rising to fourth in the table, just 13 points behind England teammate, Isla Pain.
The best was yet to come though, as Mason stormed to a huge personal best in the 800m; her time of 2.26.52 meaning she won her race and leapfrogged Pain to become the leading English athlete, winning bronze with a total of 3676 points.
Ireland’s Tara O’Connor won the event with 3809 points, with Welsh athlete, Matilda Quick picking up silver, scoring 3698 – just 22 points ahead of a resurging Mason.
This pentathlon rounded off Thaila’s most successful year yet with seven medals, including the English Schools gold, as well as medals at national and international level.
