Children enjoy athletics success

Around 200 children ran, jumped and threw their hearts out and at times the noise was deafening.

Heron Way triumphed amassing a total of 291 points. Arthur Mittendorfer was one of their leading figures, in the words of team manager Abby Vincent ‘smashing’ all the field events. Southwater Junior Academy was not far behind with Nicole Saunders’ running prowess being a leading feature in their success. Third place was taken by Greenway Academy with Harry Long and Brooklyn St Martin both excelling with their running and Long impressing with his jumps too, and with a name like Long so he should!

Shelley and Arunside both accumulated scores in excess of 200 points. Arunside’s Kyle Ball was particularly commended by coach Ingram for the all round talent she displayed, describing her as a ‘natural’. Shelley’s Madeline Way was another to capture Ingram’s attention with her ability. Kingslea were delighted with their first time indoor athletics event outing tying with Leechpool for sixth place. Kingslea’s Mason Massey leaped out of his skin on the standing long jump to achieve 1m 82cm whilst for Leechpool Martha Howard and Carys Leyshon were both praised by their teachers for a mixture of perseverance and stamina in their events.

Northolmes too competed well with Yaqi Zhu impressing to win the win the two lap sprint, Heather Surley performing well overall and Ruby Soffe doing well in the parluff. Castlewood brought the biggest team of any school to allow as many children as possible to enjoy the fun and whilst they came bottom they never stopped trying and did their teachers proud as a result.

Sports leaders from Collyer’s ably orchestrated the proceedings, with Molly Adams at the forefront deserving of particular mention.

Athletics coach and experienced sports hall athletics event organiser Dave Ingram kept a supervisory eye on everything having trained the leaders beforehand.