On Thursday 3rd July, the Flegg High School athletics team spent their day competing in probably the most biggest of athletics competitions in the whole year- the Great Yarmouth Schools Competition. Our team comprised of athletes from Years 8-10. Despite the rather sunny weather, we experienced the previous day, the outlook for the all day event looked unsettling, but the rain, fortunately, held back until the competition was over.

On the Bus, Mr Young gave a team talk- an emotional one to add, that illustrated his passion to win.

” Lots of you have been picked for this all-day event, but we have left many at the school, due their lack of passion to win the trophy. At the present, we are just fiddling around with the team, and you won’t expect to find yourself at your most favourite events. It’s all about collecting points, and I’ve got great belief that we are going to be the champions at the end of the day. But that is only going to happen if you stay focused and don’t shoot yourself in the foot. The ones that have knowledge about athletics will know that track events take priority over field events- so sign into the field event, and then go off and do your track event. Good luck, we won’t see you, most probably. If you have any problems see Mr Scadden. Work together as a team, and behave yourself.

So are we going to win…. bus shouts yes..are we going to win….bus shouts yes….are we going to win…bus shouts yes . 

“Teams are picked on throughout the year, and they are judged by your performance in class. So the team keeps changing each week, as more people are rubbed off the events and new people are placed on,” says Mr Scadden, who was going through the team on the bus prior to the event. ”It’s about getting the right people in the right events, so that we have a better chance of winning.”

Once we arrived and had done a warm up, the heats started taking place. In the 1500m, Flegg did very well. Ben Church competed in the Year 9 1500m and came 1st. Jordan Golby, followed, coming 3rd.

 The Year 10s, also did very well. The Year 10 boy team- Remy Gordan and Tom Roberts managed to pick up a 2nd and a 4th for their efforts.

  Tom Roberts, who ran the 1500m.

In the 100m heats, Tyler Spencer- Year 9- got Flegg a 3rd place. Aimee Gilbert from Year 10, managed to win, scoring another few points for Flegg.

A big well done should go to Ben Church who ran the 800m in 2:22 seconds. This would have beaten the school record, but unfortunatly, records can only be broken on a Sports day event.  Excellent effort, Ben.

  Ben Church- 2:22 for the 800m

And then, after many other events, it was time for John Pamplin- school sports co-ordinator- to reveal the final results. Was it going to be as victorious as last year. The Year 8s, came 2nd overall with 414 points, and so did the Year 9s, but they managed to scrape a few more points, getting 463 at the end. However, the Year 10s, did win their year group trophy, beating teams from Cliff park and Lyn Grove.

  Stacey and Kye picking up the Year 10 trophy

As for the overall results, Flegg just got 2nd, but an extra 30 points would have produced a 1st for our school. This years athletics competition was won by Cliff Park, with 1526 points. Well done to all who took part.

Miss Maize gave her view on the final results: ” I think that it was expected, but there was only 30 points difference.”

Mr Scadden said that the team did their best- that was what he was asking for, that day, really.

As the bus left the Wellesley, GT Yarmouth, and headed back to school, the boys even sang a song- but Mr Young was reviewing what needed improvement. Ultimately, though, you have to be in it to win it.

Daniel Evans

School Sports Journalist