During the summer term Prep III-VI classes have focused on athletics in their PE lessons each week. The result of such a targeted drive on this sport has been an upsurge in personal bests for individuals and team successes in a competition against other schools. The overall results are in from the Lady Barn House Virtual Athletics competition and Bridgewater have come out on top in a host of events. The competition involved six schools, Lady Barn House, Manchester High School for Girls, Bootham Junior School, The Queen’s School, Tower College and Bridgewater Prep. Each school had to complete four events with all competitors scoring points for their school, therefore every child really did matter! The events were held over four weeks and consisted of the 600m run, a Standing Long Jump, a Rounder/Cricket Ball Throw and 10m shuttle sprints.
The Standing Long Jump proved to be the most successful event for Bridgewater athletes, with four teams winning overall. Prep III, V and VI boys won their event as did Prep III girls, with Maia, Raj, Johnny and Esme winning the individual events. The Prep V boys, Raj, Anton and Alex took all three medal spots in the event, whilst Seb took third in the Prep VI event and Isabelle of Prep II took third in the Prep III event!
Bridgewater had similar successes in the 10m shuttle sprints, with the same teams winning this event. Prep III, V and VI boys and Prep III girls showed they can run and jump with equal prowess and posting some impress individual scores along the way. Alfie, Seb and Luca battled it out for top spot in a closely fought internal competition that saw them take 1, 2 and 3 in the overall competition. A similar story emerged in the Prep III event with Patrick finishing in between two Prep II ‘speedsters’, Reuben and winner Benjamin. Molly won the Prep VI girls, Maia won the Prep III girls race, with Isabelle again in third spot, whilst San and Tommy Jack finished runners up in their respective events.
The final two events were somewhat tougher for Bridgewater athletes in general, but it again there was individual successes of note. The Prep VI boys won the event with some consistent throwing from all the boys in general, but a brilliant cricket ball throw of over 46m from Alfie beat all other competitors by over 10 meters. The Prep III boys narrowly missed out on the win, but can take pride in a good second place and we now know the areas to develop in athletics moving forward.
In the final week of the competition, everyone had to take on the 600m run for a third and final time to try and beat their previous times. In the team events, Prep III, V and VI boys remarkably won the team event once again, whilst the Prep IV boys put on their best team performance to finish in second place. Sam won the Prep III race, San won the Prep IV race, Alex and Anton shared victory in the Prep V race and Alfie won the race in 1min 56 secs, 23 seconds faster than any other runner from all six schools. Maia again topped a fabulous individual performance by taking third in the Prep III girls’ race, whilst Molly just missed out on a podium spot in the Prep VI race to also cap a superb individual set of results. All in all, the competition provided a focus for our athletics this term and we would like to thank our hosts Lady Barn House for organizing the event. The competition amongst classes and individuals across the age groups ensured that everyone was driven to try and do their very best in lessons. It will be interesting to see how Bridgewater will do in the ISA Virtual Athletics Regional and National Finals this week. Watch this space…..!