NUNNERY Wood in Worcester was the venue for the Hereford and Worcester County Schools’ Track & Field Athletics Competition on Saturday and there were some impressive performances from youngsters from Redditch schools.
Qualification to the championships came through District Schools’ Competitions for the young athletes, who now had the opportunity to compete not only for Schools’ County Championship titles but also to impress the selectors for the ‘Mason Trophy’ competition which takes place this coming Saturday, when there is the opportunity to represent the county in the annual Inter-Counties Competition at the prestigious Alexander Stadium in Perry Barr, Birmingham.
The weather was kind and the conditions good which led to some excellent performances.
Walkwood Middle School’s Josh Pearson took the junior boys 300m title in a championship record of 37.9sec, whilst RSA Academy Arrow Vale athlete Gareth Richardson stormed home in the junior boys 1,500m race to win in 4min.30.8sec.
Bromsgrove School’s Candy Lockett had a great competition, taking the County Championship title in the intermediate girls discus (27.32m), shot (9.89m) and hammer (42.91m) competitions.
Lauren Brown, also from Bromsgrove School, won both the intermediate girls triple jump (9.95m) and 300m hurdles (47.4sec) and it was yet another Bromsgrove School athlete – Abigail Saker – who won the Junior girls 1,500m race in 4min.59.8sec, closely followed by Livvy Worth (5min.00.1sec) from South Bromsgrove High School who has also been selected for the Mason Trophy.
For the South Worcestershire schools, there were two championship titles for Pershore High School student Tom Kenwright in the intermediate boys competitions. He took gold in the 100m in 11.2sec and then went on to run 22.7sec in the 200m for his second gold of the day.
It was also a successful day for Jack Hocking in the Intermediate competitions. Jack, from Blessed Edward Oldcorne RC School, won the 400m in 51.6sec and the long jump in which he was the only athlete to make it over the 6-metre mark (6.22m).
Ellie Ravenscroft from Royal Grammar School not only took the Schools’ Championship title but also broke the championship record with a leap of 5.23m in the intermediate girls long jump competition and ran 42.9sec to take the gold in the 300m.
Nunnery Wood student Cara Clarke jumped 4.51m to win the junior girls long jump competition, whilst Daniel Banks from Tudor Grange Academy Worcester broke two championship records in winning the junior boys 100m in 11.0sec and the 200m in 23.1sec.
For the Malvern schools Hannah Tapley equalled the intermediate girls high jump championship record as the Malvern St James School athlete jumped 1.70m.
Hereford Sixth Form College student Katie Harman beat the championship record with a jump of 2.75m in the intermediate girls pole vault competition.
