Cholmeley Shield

The 30th Cholmeley Shield athletics meeting took place on Saturday 2nd May with Harrow School hosting for the first time in the competition's history. In the ideal weather conditions, aided also by Harrow's first class facilities and with 8 top athletics schools in attendance, a huge number of exceptional times, heights and distances were recorded throughout all 3 age groups and no fewer than 6 championship best performances were set... a record in itself!

After 2 extremely close results in 2007 and 2008, with Highgate missing out on winning the trophy by the narrowest of margins on both occasions, the overall result was far clearer cut this year. Harrow, with their huge pool of athletes and home advantage, ran out emphatic winners with Eton and Epsom College battling it out for second. Highgate however could be very proud of some excellent performances, particularly from their U15 team who were always in the running for the junior team prize and who provided 2 nail-biting track victories to round off the day. Their 4 x 100m team of Casper Phillips, Conor Whitmore, Joe Fitzpatrick and Colin Kpodonu held on for a terrific surprise win shortly after Luke Ames-Blackaby had run a very mature race to defeat a close rival from St Paul's in the 1500m, missing out on the 15 year- old championship best time by just 2 seconds in the process!

It was not only in the relay that Highgate's sprinters were in fine form. Abayomi Epega and Joe Winter both achieved excellent 2nd places in their A races, Epega lowering his 100m personal best to 11.7 seconds and Winter his 200m pb to 23.5, giving Haileybury's rather casual international Antonio Infantino a run for his money in the process. New addition to the squad Oli Craig showed some tremendous potential (and enthusiasm!) with 2nd place in the senior B 200m and a mightily impressive time of 24.4 seconds in his first ever outing at the event. Captain Jesse Portner shrugged off his illness to compete with his usual dogged determination in a range of disciplines, his best performance coming in the 400m with a new pb of 53.9 seconds. Such was the exceptional standard of competition that this excellent time was only enough for 4th in the B race; Louis Wallinger actually won the A race in a similar time 4 years ago!

In the middle distances, Josh Ames-Blackaby was keen not to be out-shone by his brother, comfortably winning the junior B 1500m in a new pb of 4.57. Seb Sundvik, Nick Hooton and Ben Kovar all significantly lowered their 800m personal bests for the second week running and Michael Allan-Dan came close to last season's best of 4.31 in the senior 1500m despite not feeling 100%. Harry Ashman, Hugh Larkin and Archie Patch all picked up valuable points in the very competitive U17 races and the dependable Asher Brooks once again put his body on the line as a last minute replacement in the steeplechase!

In the field, star man was Matt Kovar who won the award for the best overall U17 field performance of the day for his colossal 45m javelin throw. Interviewed after the event, Kovar put his return to form down to the reassuring presence of his mentor Mr Jones who was on hand to offer technical and spiritual advice from the runway. Others to benefit were Marcus Constantine and Nick Lindo in the senior competition who also achieved personal best throws. Elsewhere, George De Cleyn jumped a very impressive pb of 1m60 in the U17 High Jump, Michael Neophytou arrived just in the nick of time (thanks to Miss Norris) to pick up valuable points in a range of disciplines as did Josh Morrison, Stuart Webber, Ali Coleman-Bennett, Colin Kpodonu, Ryan Evans, Henrik Sundvik, Leo Mylonidas, Tom Cooling and debutant Joe Cowan.

A special mention should also go to Tom Hood and Callum Davey who showed tremendous bravery and character to fill in for several senior absentees by running the (very unfamiliar) B 800m and 1500m races. This personified the excellent collective spirit of all the athletes who were present and hopefully those who should have been in attendance will see fit to recognize their commitment to the team and pass on their thanks.

Finally, a special thanks is due to all of the Highgate staff who once again gave up their Bank Holiday Saturday at a very busy time of the year to help officiate and cheer on the school's athletes and also to Stuart Evans for his faultless coordination of the meeting.   GDC

Overall Result:

Harrow: 641 points
Eton: 564 points
Epsom: 562 points
Highgate: 512 points
St Paul's: 501 points
Haileybury: 430 points
King Edward's Birm’ham: 412 points
Forest: 376 points

Highgate Athletes of the Match:

U15: Luke Ames-Blackaby 1st 1500m: 4 minutes 35 secs (2 seconds off championship best)
U17: Matt Kovar  1st javelin: 44 metres 82cm. (Best overall inter field performance)
U19: Nick Hooton 3rd 800m: 2 mins 05 secs  (pb). 4th 400m: 54.3 seconds. Fastest HG senior 4 x 400m leg: 53 secs

SE/GDC/DJ/NJS/KPN/DJB/HHS/SNB/AE

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