U12 Mercia Regional IAPS Athletics Championships
Date: 13th June
Report: This turned out to be a ray of sunshine in what had been a week of complete washout of sporting events. We arrived at Stourport Sports Club ready and prepared for what the weather had for us and we were not deterred as Ashley and Adam got off to a great start in the boys’ high jump. Ashley jumped to a good 7th position with a leap of 1.15m and Adam came 8th with a clearance at 1.10m which puts him in a good position for next year as he was competing a year young.

First up on the track was Phoebe J who came home in an impressive 5th position with a personal best of 5.39s. She then stayed and eagerly watched on as Storm came 3rd on count back in the girls’ high jump going out at 1.25m. The next race on the track was the U12 boys’ 800m in which we had Oliver S and William S competing for school. The competition was very strong with 18 runners competing, with the winner coming home in 2m.34s. William came home in 8th place with a personal best of 2m.45s (a year young) and Oliver came 9th in 2m.45.9. Next up on the track was sprinting and we had Ojal and Kate in the girls’ and Ishan in the boys’ 100m race. Over three heats 24 girls competed, with Ojal gaining a time of 15.7s and Kate qualifying for the final in her heat with a time of 15.0s. Ishan was in the second heat of 4 with 32 boys trying to qualify for the final Ishan ran an impressive 14.9 to be one of the fastest 8 and enter the final. In the Final of the girls race Kate came 6th out of 8 with a time of 14.6s and Ishan came 8th with 14.4s and 0.3s off taking 3rd place.

Back to the field events we had Felix leaping into 3rd place with an impressive jump of 3.95m and Ojal came joint second in the girls long jump with a leap of 3.48m but on count back got placed third and so did not go through to Nationals as the other girls had a better second jump. Ay had been eagerly waiting for his shot put event and threw 5. 40m whilst Ashley being egged on pushed to 6.40m although the boys did not qualify they certainly showed great strength and sportsmanship.

Then was the turn of the girls’ shot put. Both Gracie and Kate were entered for this event. Gracie finished 8th with a throw of 4m 75. Kate stole the show however and with a throw of 7m 41 she won the event and qualifies for the National finals. Very well done, Kate!

Back to the track with the 200m events starting we had Ishan and William B representing the school and they had good races, with William finishing with a time of 31.2s and Ishan again qualifying for the final with a time of 30.7s. Ishan went on to run in the 200m final and came 6th with a time of 30.4s.

In the girls’ javelin throw Storm was a contender for top 2 places having watched her practice throws. However, her 3 throws during the competition were classed as fouls and unfortunately Storm did not go through. The final event we were competing in was the girls U12 800m. We had Bea and Indira (a year young) who ran tremendous races with both gaining personal best with Bea achieving 2m.57s and Indira coming home at 3m.02s. This was such a great event with pupils really pushing themselves gaining personal bests and at times poor weather conditions. The pupils as always did us proud and I am sure the whole of the Blue Coat community will wish Kate S well as she goes on to National Athletics Championships at Alexander Stadium on the 1st July to represent the Mercia region.