Star Performers in District Athletics

As soon as the summer term began the Year 9s and 10s were performing in the 2014 District Athletics. Mr Hudson, Mr Farrely and Mr Dean took the best part of 50 athletes down to Hillingdon Stadium in Uxbridge. The venue for this year’s event was held there due to the Handycross venue being upgraded, and the new track at Little Marlow not yet open.

The stadium was fantastic and gave rise to a great day of athletic performance by GMS pupils.  Last year’s success was going to be hard to match due to some of the eligible Year 11 pupils having left, but everyone remained focused and very positive!

The star performers in the girls Year 9 side were: Chaya Roberts who finished 3rd in the shot putt;  Siofra Bracken in 4th place and  Rachel Pearce in 5th place in the unglamorous, but highly demanding, 1500m. We congratulate all three girls.

The Year 9 boys came in an impressive 3rd place behind RGS and John Hampden only. There were points scored in every event, bar the shot putt, showing our strength in a number of athletics disciplines. Maximum points were awarded to Josh Cook in the high jump and Cameron Almand in the 400m and 1500m. New school records saw GMS comfortably beat close rivals Borlase!

The Year 10 girls came in a comfortable 4th place. This was a new record for them and was achieved because they scored in every single event. Sophie Knapman was the star performer scoring maximum points in the shot putt, and breaking another school record. Her success was supported by a range of other girls working hard to score points. One highlight was Maia Kipping running the 200m and 300m double, in phenomenal back to back racing. She  managed to achieve 5th and 6th positions. A second highlight was watching Mille Simons who ran in  the ‘dirty double ‘of 800m and 1500m and successfully earning  3rd and 5th place respectively!

The Year 10 boys matched the 4th place of the girls, but were even closer to 3rd place! Again points were scored in every event contributing to the overall record achievement. The top 3 places were achieved by Kai McKenzie, 1st in the high jump; Kai McKenzie, who came 2nd in the hurdles; Louis Bullon Savory, 2nd in the long jump.  Sean Bergh was 3rd in the discus. The boys relay team finished 2nd in the final event of the day! Other notable performances were from Harry Donkin who scored in three different events and Alex Moss in two!

The Year 7/8 District Athletics took place at Hillingdon Stadium on one of the hottest days of the year. Again, 50 students across both years performed and certainly showed everybody what they could do!

The Year 7 girls  brought credit to themselves and GMS when Lauren Goodchild came 3rd in the shot and Harley Stevens came 5th in the discus, which is a new school record. Emily Amend scored in two events and was the other star performer of the day.

The Year 7 boys came in 4th place overall. They earned valuable points in every event, bar the 100m. Reece Wing must be congratulated for being the star of the show for coming 1st in the shot and 2nd in the 1500m. His score was supported by Jacob Wratton who finished 3rd in the 300 and 5th in 800m. This year group has so much potential: certainly it is a year group to keep an eye on in the years to come.

The Year 8 girls were a depleted team through injury and sickness, so to come 5th overall was a real achievement. Valuable points were scored in two events by Jenna Glover and in three events by Emily Dix.  However, the star was Rebekah Rous who scored highly when she came 4th in the ‘blue riband’ event of 100m and 3rd in the 200m.

Finally, to the success of the Year 8 boys. The grand finale of the whole two days at Hillingdon was when all the GMS pupils gathered for the 200m boys final with Lucas Blyth racing! The spectators, who were on the opposite bank to the start, began cheering Lucas on by chanting his name. He responded by asking for more. Teachers and coaches cannot wish for a more impressive sight than the supportive cheering all of the GMS students for the one pupil representing their school  in the final race!

The boys scored in the majority of the events, but unfortunately did not earn the big points that would have pushed GMS further up the leaderboard. Freddie Lewis, Max Bowles and Charlie Bonwick scored in two events each helping us to our total of 74 points. Had the boys not been DQ in the relay final it could well have been another 3rd place!