Tia Garrard won the heptathlon at the ESAA South East Schools Combined Events Championships on Saturday with a new personal best of 4951 points — 293 clear of her previous best of 4658 set last year — and in doing so secured her place at the ESAA Combined Events National Championships in September. The heptathlon is seven events across two full days. A poor event cannot be cancelled out by a strong one elsewhere — the points are the points. To move a previous best by nearly 300 requires things to go well across the board.
Here is how the competition went:
100m Hurdles — 14.95s
High Jump — 1.64m (PB)
Shot Put — 11.62m (PB)
200m — 25.88s
Long Jump — 5.72m (+2.4w)
Javelin — 22.78m
800m — 2:24.02
The High Jump was the standout. Her previous best was 1.60m — she went to 1.64m on Saturday. Four centimetres at this level is a meaningful step. The Shot Put at 11.62m was also a personal best outdoors; she had thrown 11.74m indoors earlier this year so the form was clearly there. The Long Jump of 5.72m came with a +2.4 wind reading, outside legal limits for records, but her outdoor best coming in was 5.49m so she was well clear of that regardless. The 200m in 25.88s and the hurdles in 14.95s both held up their end, the javelin at 22.78m did its job in the overall score, and the 800m in 2:24.02 — the event every heptathlete dreads after a full day already spent competing — rounded things off solidly. This has been building steadily over several seasons. She scored 2756 in the pentathlon in 2023, moved to 3316 the following year, then stepped up to the heptathlon in 2025 and scored 4658. The 4951 keeps that line moving in the right direction, and she is still only U18! Her Long Jump sits at 16th in the UK at U18 level — that event carries real weight in the overall score. The hurdles, High Jump and sprints have all improved across multiple seasons, and the throws give the profile the range a heptathlon score at this level requires. The South East Schools region is not a soft draw — Surrey, Kent, Hampshire, Middlesex and Sussex all represented, consistently strong counties with competitive depth across field events as well as track. The ESAA Combined Events National Championships in September brings together the best junior multi-eventers from across the country. Entry is by county selection, the standard is high, and Tia goes there as regional champion with a personal best score and two individual PBs from the qualifying competition. Combined events athletes tend to get less attention than their single-event counterparts — there is no clean 100m time or one big throw to point to, just a points total that takes some understanding to appreciate. The heptathlon asks a lot and does not always get the recognition it deserves. A 293-point personal best, two individual PBs, a regional title and a national qualifier all in one day is worth saying out loud.
Well done Tia 👏
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