SPORTS DAY 2017
Starting our “Big Weekend” with a bang, Mr Morison organised sunshine, ice cream and a fantastic day of athletics.
With the sun shining and ice cream van booked, all was set for another fantastic day of athletics at the annual Inter House Sports Day.
As with last year’s event, many of the competitions had already take place in PE and Games lessons in the lead up to the day. The scores from these events gave Arnold a slender lead on 210 points with Denys and Ken tied on 191 points. The stage was set for an enthralling afternoon of competition.
This was the first year that the entire school, including the Upper Sixth and Year 11 had been able to take part together. Staging the event before Speech Day also gave many more parents the opportunity to attend and I am grateful for all the tremendous support that they provided on the day. A special mention should go out to all those parents who joined in with the final event of the day, the Open Mile. It was impressive to see so many pupils, staff and parents participating and even more impressive to see Mr Stretton-Cox stride round in bare feet and cargo shorts as he finished a creditable third place behind Sports Assistant, Mr Wilson and Year 11 pupil, Sam Boughton.
In the main event, there was an opportunity to watch some top performances though the nine pupils who had recently been selected for the County Schools’ Championships. Joe Wildman (200m), Ben Cook (Shot Putt), Salome Rotanavunivasa (Long Jump and 100m), Theo Fitz-Johnson (200m), Benson Hsiao (Shot Putt), Carolina Fellner (200m), Anna Payne (1500m), Charles Broillard (Discus) and Megan Galpin (Javelin) all won their respective events and three of these pupils ended up on the podium at the recent County Championships in Swindon. Our congratulations go to Ben Cook in the Junior Boys Shot Putt and Carolina Fellner in the Intermediate Girls 200m for their second place finishes last weekend.
The star of the show was undoubtedly Megan Galpin. Megan won the Junior Girls Javelin at Sports Day with a huge throw of 33.21m. This broke a record that has stood since 1977! Frighteningly, this distance is well below her personal best of 39.00m. She set this new mark whilst winning the County Championships last Saturday and in the process, setting a new County Championship Best Performance. She will be competing for Wiltshire at the South West Championships in Exeter later this month.
Of course, Sports Day is not just about these outstanding individuals. The joy of the day for many of us is seeing the number of participants, not always the most able, but certainly very willing to put themselves in the spotlight to earn points for their house. In fact, the biggest cheers of the day are often reserved for those athletes who finish last in the 800m or earn a point for stepping into the Discus at the last minute. To all those pupils, we thank you for your commitment to your house.
As always, the day came to an end with the 4x100m relays. Unusually, all three houses were still in with a chance of winning the impressive Inter House Challenge Trophy. The double points for these relays were keenly contested and the final results saw just 20 points separating the teams. This year’s champions were Denys House and many congratulations to them for an impressive display of team work.
Results:
Victor Ludorum
Minor Boys – Charlie Rogers
Junior Boys – Theo Fitz-Johnson & Bryce Furlong
Intermediate Boys – Robbie Maclean
Senior Boys – Ed West
Victrix Ludorum
Minor Girls – Scarlett Slack
Junior Girls – Charlotte Robinson
Intermediate Girls – Salome Rotanavunivasa & Jade Hartley
Senior Girls – Cassandra McCormack
1st Denys – 824
2nd Ken – 820
3rd Arnold – 804
Many thanks to Jon Edkins for the fantastic pictures.
Tom Morison