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LeagueAthletics Meeting: Summer Fields
(Saturday 18th June)
The build up to the League Athletics Meeting
was not at all favourable where weather
was concerned, but a dry spell overnight
immediately beforehand ensured that the
competition could take place, despite light
rain at the very start. However, that rain was
sufficient to delay the High Jump competition
until the end of term.
DJ Banda
(Case)
deserves congratulations for winning the U11
Cricket Ball competition in a new U11 School
Record (49.72m) – a record that has stood for
23 years.The cups this year were presented
by Mrs Russell, as mother of the Head Boy,
but the League Athletics Cup would have to
wait until the completion of the High Jump
competition, before its awarding. At the end of
the prize giving Athletics Colours were awarded
to eleven boys.
Prep SchoolsAthletics Mercia Region
Championships: Radley (Thursday 23rd June)
Encompassing twenty-nine schools, Mercia is
widely believed to be the toughest athletics
region in the Country.A comparatively small
squad of eighteen qualifying boys travelled
from Summer Fields to Tilsley Park Athletics
Track to compete in their events.While
overcast and sporadically wet, the conditions
were not at all bad for athletics competition
and the meeting could not have started any
better with Gourlay and Edu each winning
their heats in the U14 75m Hurdles – the first
two events of the day.
It is always pleasing to take competitors
younger than the U12 minimum age group.
Tilewa Balogun
(U11) competed in both the
100m and 200m at U12, winning the heats for
each event and bettering the U11 100m school
record that he already held by 1/100th second.
He went on to take Gold in the two finals,
qualifying him for the Nationals in both events,
and improved his record still further by another
17/100th second.
In a superb U14 75m Hurdles final, a stumble
on the third-from-last hurdle moved Gourlay
back to second place behind
Tanitoluwa Edu
,
with both qualifying for the Nationals. Our
captain then went on to win the U14 800m
in a four-way sprint finish.
Edward Bingham
took on some enormous opposition in the U14
200m heats, qualifying for the finals in second
place. In the finals he took Silver, in a time fast
enough to qualify him for the Nationals.
Oliver Newall
was our only field eventer to
qualify for the Nationals, taking Gold in the U13
Javelin, with a distance just short of the fifteen-
year-old School U13 Record.
There are two ways to qualify for the Prep
Schools National Championships: winning
your event in the Regionals, or coming second
with a very good time/distance/height. Thus
it is always very disappointing for those
who come second, but just miss that critical
qualifying goal.
Ayomide Ajibola
did just
that in the U13 100m, made more frustrating
because his time in the heats would have
been sufficient to make it to the Nationals.
Sadly, though, the qualifying time has to be in
the finals. The U14 4x100m Relay Team also
missed out in similar fashion.
The Regional Championships is an
unforgiving proving ground and each of the
Summer Fields representatives should feel
proud to have qualified to compete at regional
level, irrespective of their results.To progress to
National Championships level remains quite
a rare feat, but one we seem to do rather well.
Edu, Gourlay, Balogun, Bingham and Newall all
qualified for the Nationals, competing in seven
separate events at the Alexander Stadium,
Birmingham.
Prep SchoolsAthletics National Championships
Alexander Stadium (Monday 4th July)
This prestigious event sees the twelve athletics
regions of the United Kingdom compete at
one of the top athletics venues,The Alexander
Stadium in Birmingham.Always a very long
day, it is nevertheless a pleasure for Summer
Fields to compete in the Mercia Team,
alongside Cheam, Caldicott, the Dragon, and
U14 Best Athlete:
Gold and Senior Victor Ludorum:
Jago Gourlay
Silver: Edward Bingham and Tani Edu
Bronze: Charles Bell
U13 Best Athlete:
Gold: Ayo Ajibola and Oliver Newall
Silver: Jeremy Ogbonna
Bronze: Tommy Sainz de Vicuna
U12 Best Athlete:
Gold and Senior Victor Ludorum:
Nick Crawford
Silver: Clyde Lartey
Bronze: Finley Smith
U11 Best Athlete:
Gold: Tilewa Balogun
Silver: Gus Stanhope
Bronze: DJ Banda
U10 Best Athlete:
Gold: Henry Snow
Silver: Lade Ogundeyin
Bronze: Obum Onwu
Athletics Colours
E.A.H. Bingham, J. Gourlay, A.A.
Amusan, P.J. Murray, T. Edu, C.J.C. Bell,
A.O. Ajibola, J.J.H. Barrie, T. Sainz de
Vicuña, J.M. Ogbonna and O. Newall.
The Athletics Standards Trophy
Case
S u m m e r F i e l d s
2 0 1 5 – 2 0 1 6
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