12:30pm Thursday 17th May 2012
By Alan Feldberg
A TRIO of talented athletes left the Olympic Stadium with medals after rising to the occasion in a London Games mini dress-rehearsal.
The UK School Games was a multi-sport tournament designed to replicate the London 2012 format, and Olivia Caesar, Becca Croft and Stephanie Clitheroe all took the grand stage to return with medals.
Caesar, from Beaconsfield School, won her medal in the 4x300m relay.
She took the baton in third and promptly surged into the lead, only to lose the ground she’d made up in the change over.
But her run helped her team, South West, to bronze.
Highcrest pupil Clitheroe went one better with a silver medal after running the first leg of 4x100m.
She had warmed up for the event with a personal best over 200m, when she showed no signs of being overwhelmed to come home in fifth in a time of 25.56 seconds.
Completing the hat-trick, Croft benefited from the enthusiastic and vocal support of a large team of her Beaconsfield High schoolmates, who were among the 30,000 ticket holders for this event.
She was running in the 3,000m in one of the classiest fields of the day, and was part of a breakaway group of four who pulled away from the bunch.
She held on until 1,000m from the end, but battled on her own to protect her position and shatter her personal best by 15 seconds.
Meanwhile, in the hurdles, Clitheroe hit the first obstacle.
At this level that rules out any chance of a medal but she still picked herself to finish the event.
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