"Schools out for summer"

A song from my past, when I was at school!

I thought i would use this summer break to report on some performances by our Teens at recognised schools championships, i.e. county and regional schools championships. I want to do this as we recognise performances in such events towards the Club Track and Field records (link).

I have already reported on Aria's and Ed's experiences at the Club's based county and regional championships in another blog (link).

Four of our boy Teens competed at county or regional / national schools based events:

• Ben Clarke (15) at the "Gloucestershire County Schools Championships" on 14th June in Gloucester

• Joshua Dunn (12) at the "National Preparatory Schools Athletics Championships" on 2nd July in Birmingham

• Lewis Jone (15) at the "Gloucestershire County Schools Championships" on 14th June in Gloucester and also the following week at "South West Schools Championships" on 21st June in Exeter

• Tom Hoskins (15) also at the "Gloucestershire County Schools Championships" on 14th June in Gloucester

RESULTS

Ben ran the Under 17s 1500m in 4:35.2 which is a Level 3 PB Award standard and a PB, which he subsequently went on to beat at the Midsummer Opens (report here). Good progress, Ben

Joshua also ran the 1500m, but in the Under 13s, in 5:20.87 which is also a Level 3 PB Award standard - really well done, Josh.

Lewis ran the U17 800m at both meetings in very consistent times : 2:06.6 and 2:06.23 which are Level 5 PB Awards. Well done, Lewis. He's now only 3 seconds outside the 1986 set Club record.

NB Lewis would have another year to break it, if they weren't changing the age groupings, except I'm not sure the schools are - it's going to be a nightmare for record keepers!!!

Tom ran the U17 400m in 57.0s which is also a Level 5 PB award and is only 2 seconds outside Archie Hatt's club record set two years ago. Well done, Tom.

All really good performances but no Club records this year, but I'm hopeful for 2026.

Dorian