English Schools' National Cup Final
Posted: 07/07/2014
On Saturday 5th July Bromsgrove Preparatory School's leading twelve athletes from Years 7 and 8 girls took part in the most prestigious athletics team event, the big English Schools National Cup Final at Bedford International Stadium. To qualify for this National Final is incredibly difficult and this was only the fourth time that the girls had qualified in the thirty five year history of the competition.
The day could not have got off to a better start as Olivia Corcoran and Emily Gieron both ran personal best times to amass forty nine points in the 75 metres hurdles, which is a record for one event for a Prep School girls team. Emily's time was the equal fastest time of the day out of the twenty four athletes there, this was a National Final after all which puts into context the magnitude of her achievement and her time of 12.2 seconds was just 0.4 seconds shy of the Championship best performance. We were the third best school there on the day in the hurdles event, incredible. Testiment indeed to the incredible work Mr Skipp puts in with our hurdlers.
Next up were our 1500 metre runners and Orla Walker ran another good race and had great support from Siena Horton who ran a new personal best time. Elyssa Jones and Scarlett Fender both ran season best times in the 100 metres and Lauren Whensley and Katie Morrice recorded good points for the team in the 200 metres. Kitty Luscombe and Ella Gardner, first run of the season, both ran well in the 800 metres to see us through to 191 points by the half way stage, which was only a point short of what the team achieved in the Midland A Final.
In the field events the javelin and shot put were our strongest events. Olivia Corcoran broke her own school record by 4 metres in the javelin with a throw of 23.38 metres. Olivia was our second highest individual points scorer on the day with 45 points which is an ESAA Platinum badge level, a truly exceptional achievement by any athlete, but more so since Olivia is a Year 7 girl and is the highest points recorded by a Year 7 Prep School girl. She had great back up from Maisy Hucker with a PB throw with the new 500 gram implement. Emily Gieron and Lauren Whensley secured forty points in the shot which also meant that Emily recorded 50 points in two events which equalled the Prep School girls record in this competition and also meant that she was the second equal highest junior girls points scorer on the day, such a special achievement and a day she will never forget. Ella Gardner and Charlotte Harmer in the high jump and Elyssa Jones and Scarlett Fender(PB) in the discuss secured thirty three points for the team. Kitty Luscombe (PB) and Kattie Morrice both secured good points in the long jump.
The final event of the day saw Siena Horton, Charlotre Harmer, Orla Walker and Maisy Hucker set a new school record for the ESAA Cup in the 4x100 metres relay of 59.0 seconds which is incredible given that they are all in Year 7.
At the presentation ceremony the points were read out and our total of 383 points was incredible given that it was only five points down on our total from the Midland A Final. What made this remarkable was that we had three athletes unavailable. Many girls adjusted to doing different events. We were only one point behind Millfield Prep and five schools were separated by only ten points so we had been very competitive.
The record number of Year 7 girls present will hopefully have the hunger to try and qualify again next year. Such an amazing day with many fond memories.