Prep Athletics

Posted: 05/07/2017

Prep Athletes have been busy on the athletics track and in field events.

On Saturday our Year 7 and 8 boys team contested the ESAA National track and field cup final at Horspach stadium, Oxford. The boys had done incredibly well to qualify for this big day. We were on the track first and highlights included; Louis Upton running the second fastest time ever for a Year 7 Prep School boy over the 80m hurdles in a time of 12.9 seconds. Benjamin Whitby came 2nd in his 200 metres heat. Matthew Burke achieving a personal best in the 300 metres. Alexander Collin running on of the fastest times for ten years for 800 metres for a Prep School boy in 2 minutes 22 seconds and coming fifth overall and he was our highest placed track athlete.

Our field events were much stronger with Matthew Burke creating history by becoming the first Bromsgrove School pupil ever to win an individual event at these national finals with a throw of 38.68 metres in the hammer, quite a remarkable season for his debut season in this event. The javelin was as good, if not better, with an incredible competition unfolding where Louis Upton broke a Tim Sheasby seventeen year old school record with a throw of 29.77 metres in the third round only for his team mate, Alexander Ranger to take the record off him with a monstrous throw over 31 metres in the fourth and final round, quite remarkable. We scored more points than any other school in the javelin event, this was a national final we mustn't forget and both our boys are only in Year 7. Our strength in the throwing events continued with Benjamin Whitby and Mikhail Strelkov both throwing big life-time best performances in the discus and we scored the third highest number of points for this events

When all the points were tallied up we finished in ninth position from the twelve participating schools with 439 points. Matthew Burke was one of only two boys who scored thirty points in an individual event from a total of 336 performances by the twelve teams competing, a very rare achievement indeed. Six hundred and one teams contested the county rounds in forty six counties at the start of the season, so to finish in ninth place nationally was outstanding.

Individual points as follows:

Platinum
Matthew Burke and Louis Upton 47 points. Louis becomes the highest individual points s order for a Year 7 boy from Prep School.
Benjamin Whitby 40 points

Gold
Alexander Collin 39 points
Alexander Ranger 37 points
Oliver Brown 36 points
Mikhail Strelkov 35 points

Silver
Gordon Wong 32 points
Billy McDonough, Sebastian Purvis and Sebastian Perry 30 points Teddy Broadhurst 29 points Zach Armstrong 28 points

Bronze
Samuel Hibbert May 23 points


Following this amazing performance, on Tuesday five Year 7 boys were in action at the annual IAPS track and field championships at the Alexander Stadium, Birmingham. To qualify for these championships is very tough requiring athletes to win the Midland regional round or achieve a minimum standard if they come second.

Louis Upton and Billy McDonough were tipped once more to shine over the 70metres hurdles, and they did not disappoint. Louis was the fastest qualifier from the heats and Billy the third fastest qualifier. Drawn next to each other in lanes 4 and 5 the boys produced a great race with Louis winning in 11.24 seconds to be crowned National Champion and Billy coming second in 11.48 seconds to move them both to second and third on the Prep School boys’ all-time list behind Sam Roberts. We were the only school on the day to get pupils coming first and second in the same event so this was a very special and proud moment for the School. Next up was Harry Draper-Barr in the discus and he produced a life-time best performance of 30 metres, moving him up to second on the Prep school all time list behind Nicolas Jakobsen, as he finished in fifth position overall only thirty centimetres off a bronze medal. The boys were not done there as the Year 7 boys 4x100 metres relay team comprising of Billy McDonough, Louis Upton, William Brown and Joseph Morgan ran superbly to come third in the final and win a bronze medal, the winners set a new national record, and finished off a superb day of athletics.