English Schools athletic championships 2018

The English Schools Athletics Championships were held at the Birmingham International Athletics Stadium over the weekend. School county teams are selected based on the athletes achieving performance standards. Four Colchester Harriers athletes competed Friday and Saturday.

In the Senior Girls 100m Joy Ogunleye, Essex, had a tough heat and ran well. She finished third in a time of 12.25s, to qualify for the final.

Also competing in the same event was Caitlin O’Reilly. Caitlin was representing Suffolk for the sixth time and was their women’s team captain for the event. Her time of 12.66s, unfortunately was outside of the qualifying times.

Competing for the first time for Essex was Sam Shippey in the Junior Boys 300m. Drawn in what proved a strong heat Sam had an incredible run. He finished third in a new personal best time of 36.52s, achieving the national standard for the first time. This time qualified him for the final and broke his own club record.

Running for Essex for the final time was Rebecca Jeggo in the Senior Girls 200m. Spurred on by being awarded their women’s team captain she finished second in her heat in a time of 25.06s.

All three Essex athletes finished seventh position in their respective finals.

Joy and Rebecca also ran in the senior girls 4 x 100m relay. In what was a strong Essex team, with all four athletes qualifying for their event’s individual finals, the Essex side were comfortably the fastest qualifiers from the heats. However, with the leg two runner being helped off the track in the final of the 100m and Rebecca needing medical assistance after her 200m final it was touch and go whether they would even compete in the final.With Joy giving Essex the lead from her first leg, Rebecca held off the fast finishing Surrey athlete on the home straight, securing a well deserved silver medal for Essex.

Essex won the overall team event, more than 70 points ahead of the second place county. The trophy was collected by Rebecca, in what was a satisfying end to her time at the English Schools competition.