ESAA National Cup

Posted: 09/07/2018

On Saturday, 7th July, our Prep School boys' athletics team capped off a truly memorable year when they took part in the prestigious English Schools' National Cup Final at Gateshead International Stadium.

The day could not have started any better when Louis U won his heat and came third overall in the 80 metres hurdles - Louis ran the fastest time ever by a Bromsgrovian in a National Cup Final. Billy M ran the fastest time ever by a 'B' string hurdler, and Louis and Billy amassed a staggering fifty-two points jointly in the hurdles.

Next up was Sebastian P who ran the race of his life and led for most of the time in the first heat of the 1500 metres, an event everybody dreads, to clock a huge new life time best performance of 4 minutes 47 seconds coming fifth overall and third on the Prep School all time list (only two seconds off the Prep School record). William H also ran well in the 1500 metres and was close to his fastest time. Sebastian and William between them became the first Bromsgrovians ever to score over forty points jointly in the 1500 metres.

Joe M, Neil C, Morgan M and our only Year 7 representative, Joe Mc, all ran well in the 100 and 200 metres, and Callum W and William B both ran two big personal bests over 300 metres.

In the field events, we continued to record many impressive performances with the highlight being Harry D-B winning the discus and breaking his own Prep School record. Zach A came third in the shot put just 2cm short of his own School record. Fyodor S, who had shown great commitment to the team having flown back from Moscow the previous day, threw a huge new life time best performance in the hammer finishing third, and Louis U also finished third in the javelin and equaled the Prep School record of fifty-five points in the competition for two events. Only two boys out of 168 from the twelve schools scored more points than Louis (they scored just one more point than him). Alex R, despite carrying an injury, still managed to finish seventh in the javelin.

The above performances are right up there with as good as any performances we have ever recorded as a School in a National Cup Final, and we should all be very proud of this. It was amazing that so many families rearranged their family holidays to enable us to contest this National Final a full week into our holiday. When all the points had been tallied, Bromsgrove finished in 11th position as a team from an initial entry of 540 who contested the first round back in May.

A huge well done to Louis U, Harry D-B, Billy M, Sebastian P, William B, Joe Mc, Joe M, Morgan M, Callum W, Fyodor S, Zach A, Alex R, William H, Neil C