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ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE
Athletics
By Becky Drury, Head of Athletics
The athletics squad enjoyed a fantastic
summer season; never before have so many
records been broken.
At the Oakham Relays, the inter boys
finished in first place overall and the senior girls
were second. Alfie Armitage-Hookes (
Dulwich
College
) stood out as the athlete of the fixture:
he ran in the 400m relay, the 800m leg of the
Medley and covered the greatest distance in
the Dreilauf. All runners at Oakham are to be
commended for their resilience: sleet is not
usually a feature of summer sports!
At the Achilles’ relays, records tumbled.
Brume Otubu (
British International School,
Lagos
), Dan Brady (
The Warriner
), Dekoye
Coker (
Summer Fields
) and Greg Kratt
(
Swanbourne House
) broke the six-year-old
4x100m record by taking the baton around
the track in 45.0 seconds. At the same
event the senior girls’ 4x100m team of
Georgie Blanchard (
Headington Prep
),
Clemmie Montgomerie (
Beaudesert Park
),
Kendall MacDonald (
The Royal Masonic
School for Girls
) and Lucy Prower (
Port Regis
)
broke the school record, as did the senior
boys 4x400m team of Tanaka Chitsenga
(
Dragon
), Theo Ross (
New College School
),
Alex Niang (
The London Oratory
) and
Vincent Moisy (
Dragon
).
In the 1st Team Brandi Akpobome (
Day
Waterman College
) smashed the senior girls’
shot and discus records and became County
Champion with an impressive throw of
10.44m in the shot. She was just 6cm short
of qualifying for English Schools. Tanaka
Chitsenga broke the senior boys’ triple jump
record by leaping to an impressive 12.58
metres at Marlborough.
In the inter boys’ team Alfie Armitage-
Hookes broke the school 800m record, set
by the superb distance runner Ed Womersley
10 years ago, by 2 tenths of a second at
Marlborough. He then went on to break it
again by a further 4 tenths at the County
Championships, becoming County Champion
in 2:02.4s. Dekoye Coker fought back hard
after a slow start in his 100m County final to
become County Champion and top off his
record-breaking season. He was not only part
of the senior 4x100m team, but also set new
inter boys 100m and 200m school records
of 11.0s and 23.3s. He also took first place in
both events at Harrow against an incredibly
strong field. This was the first time a Teddies
runner has crossed the line in first place in one
- let alone two - track races at this event.
The Radley multi-events once again
provided the medal winning finish to the
season. The senior boys won the team silver
medal, with Harrow taking gold - although
they did beat Harrow to win the 4x200m
relay. Josh Moore (
Matthew Arnold
) delivered
four very impressive performances to win
the individual gold medal in the Fourth
Form, beating athletes from Harrow, Radley,
Abingdon and Cheltenham.
At the Oxford City Schools Championships
our Shell boys were crowned City Champions
and our Fourth Form boys City Runners-Up – by
just 2 points. Stand out performances on the day
came from then Shells Maxi Madrian (
Leckford
Place
), Arjun Bhundia (
International School of
Geneva
), Felix Burton (
Dragon
), Max Morris
(
Dragon
) and Isaac Brennan (
Dragon
). In the
year above Fergus Flory (
Pilgrims’
), Max Liddy
(
Dragon
), Josh Moore, Louis Williams (
Davenies
),
Will Monks (
Moulsford Prep
) and Oli McCrum
(
British International School Jakarta
) provided the
top results. Ruby Smith (
Dragon
) and Poppy
Webb (
Dragon
) produced outstanding individual
performances to win their respective 1500m
races and qualify for the County Championships,
as did Amber Walkinshaw (
Dragon
) by coming
second in the javelin.
I have always said that athletes should aim to
improve their personal bests first and foremost.
Intrinsic motivation is so important in sport,
and in athletics, unlike other sports, you have
no influence over the opposition. You cannot
mark the best player out of the game or park
the defensive bus against better opposition; you
can only control your own race, jump or throw
and do the best you can. Alongside the rest
of the athletics coaching team, I am incredibly
proud to have coached and managed a team
who did just that this year.
Thank you to Freddie Boyce (
Ryde Academy
)
and Storm Sunderland (
Winchester House
) for
being truly excellent captains and role models.
Left to right: Michael Krakue, Tanaka Chitsenga, Brume Otubu, Greg Kratt,
Lucy Prower, Clemmie Montgomerie, Dan Brady and Dekoye Coker