March 29, 2019

Months of practise, determination and achievement culminated in three spectacular finals at the Cumbria School Games Spring Finals, held earlier this week in Penrith, with almost 700 children taking part in the events.

Organised by The Cumbria School Games Local Organising Committee, supported by ourselves, the event saw schools from across Cumbria coming together to represent their district after having qualified through Intra and Inter school competitions organised by their local School Games Organisers.

Sportshall Athletics

The atmosphere was electric for both Sportshall events, with all school teams cheering and encouraging their athletes on whilst they tackle the high tempo relay races and challenging field events. This year saw the introduction of new event for secondary schools to enhance the Sportshall provision across the age ranges. The Sportshall athletics programme is renowned for its exhilarating, fast paced, energetic competitions with athletes taking part in a wide variety of track and field events, with relays bringing the competition to an exciting finale.

The Secondary school winners were:

• Lakes School, Windermere  -Year 7 Girls
• Trinity School, Carlisle - Year 7 Boys
• Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Penrith - Year 8 Girls
• Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Penrith -Year 8 Boys

Alistair Worth, PE Teacher at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School said: “It’s been wonderful to see so many of our students thoroughly enjoying this superbly run event. I’m proud to see how well our young people have performed and behaved” 

Medals were presented by Ken Oakley, former facilities director at UK Athletics and Secretary at the Amateur Athletics Association. Ken said: “It brings back lots of memories being here today, I was at the 2^nd ever Sportshall Athletics Event in the early 1960’s as a coach and gradually worked up to be Director at UK Athletics being involved in the design of the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, and the Director of the World Student Games in 1991. It’s great to see that the format for Sportshall has stood the test of time, all athletes no matter how big a name have gone through Sportshall at School, such as Paula Radcliffe, and who knows, we might have the next Paula here today.”

The Primary school winners were Seaton & St Paul’s C of E Junior School who came first place for Team Allerdale.

Amanda Dickinson, Headteacher at Seaton & St Pauls said:

“We are very proud of our fantastic athletics team. Their hard work and preparation has paid off. Sport and the arts have a high status at this school and this is an achievement to celebrate. I’d like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to the school staff for their hard work and high aspirations for pupils of this school”.

Both events were supported by trained young leaders from Lakes College, West Cumbria who officiated and judged the event. Cameron Farish, Sports & Public Services Lecturer at Lakes College was once one of the Young Leaders at this event, he said:

“I came to this event as a young leader myself, so it’s been great to be here today as the Tutor assisting the Young Leaders. The students have been confident and mature about what they are doing. It’s been great to see everyone enjoying themselves and benefitting from Sport in different ways.”

Gymnastics

The Key Steps Gymnastics Finals comprise of six separate competitions for small and large schools, the competitions are split into Key Steps Gymnastics 1, 2 and 3 in small schools and Key Steps Gymnastics 1, 2, and 3 in large schools. The finals were supported by 32 young leaders from Caldew School in Carlisle and Ullswater Community College in Penrith, who had all received accredited training prior to the event to give them the skills to undertake such tasks as score keeping and officiating.

It was a clear sweep for Team Furness in the small schools competition with Newton School taking the trophy for Key Step 1 and Lindal & Marton School taking the trophy for both Key Step 2 & 3

In the large schools category, Stanwix School claimed victory for Team Carlisle in Key Step 1, whilst St George’s School did it for Team Furness in Key Step 2 and Yarlside School took the trophy in Key Step 3.

Laura Davidson, Early Years Teacher at Newton School said:

“We are absolutely ecstatic with today. The children have loved every minute and from such a small school we are so proud to have reached this level and won”.

Vanessa Foster, event organiser from Cumbria Schools Gymnastics Association said:

“It is great to see the standard of gymnastics improving year on year with pupils and teachers growing in confidence, we’ve all had a fantastic time today and it should be remembered that this was the culmination of almost 1500 children taking part in gymnastics across the county to get to the finals.”

Richard Johnston, Active Cumbria’s Senior Operations Manager said;

“It’s wonderful to see all the children taking part in the activities over the last two days. The hard work put in by the local School Games Organisers, sports leads and teachers was evident throughout making for an enjoyable two days. All of the young people involved gave some really great performances and it was great to see the first Cumbria School Games medals of 2019 handed out to teams from across the county”.

The points from both the Primary competitions in these Cumbria School Games events are accumulated and overall Cumbria School Games district winners are announced at the final event in the Cumbria School Games calendar, which is the multi-sport festival on 10th July in Carlisle.