St Edward's Chronicle October 2016

29 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

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.

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.

Left to right: Michael Krakue, Tanaka Chitsenga, Brume Otubu, Greg Kratt, Lucy Prower, Clemmie Montgomerie, Dan Brady and Dekoye Coker