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Jr House Athletics

Junior House Athletics had a new look for 2010 with girls and boys competing side by side for the first time and a fiercely contested competition ensued on far field. With Mr Miller and Mr Gocoldas performing heroic laptop duties with the incoming results, it soon emerged that SG and EG looked set to contest a dogged 2 horse race for 1st, with MG, WG, KG all strong contenders for the remaining podium places.

Star performers on the track for the girls were Molly Patch for QG and Emmy Yatagai for HG. Fresh from her victory at the Middlesex Schools Championships, Patch surged clear of the field in the 800m to record a blistering time of 2m39, whilst Yatagai fought off competition from Polina Andreeva-Asprem and Rosa Verity in the 100m in an equally impressive time of 13.4 seconds. Yatagai then leapt to victory in the Long Jump with 4m48, a distance which would have featured high up the boys’ rankings also.

Martha Moffatt upset the odds slightly in the 300m to record a valuable win for the TL and there was an equally impressive victory for Kimara Saldanha of MG with a winning throw of 7m92.

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For the boys, Luke Ames-Blackaby was determined to notch up maximum points for SG in the 800m and 1500m and he made no mistake with brother Josh and Josh O’Neill coming in 2nd and 3rd in both races for WG. Fellow Southgater Conor Whitmore then sprinted to victory in the 200m in 26.3 seconds and Simon Hurst of QG surged through the field in similar fashion in the 400m to win in 60.2. Joe Berriman (EG) in Y9 was the surprise winner of the 100m in an excellent time of 12.3 and later picked up a bronze in the 400m. In the field, a very high standard of javelin throwing saw another Y9 Kane Rayner defeat his older peers with a new personal best of 34m, before grabbing his second gold of the day in the Long Jump. Seasoned performer Henry Smith won the Triple Jump and was a very close second to ‘dark horse’ Fin Anastasiou of SG in the high jump.

With less than 10 points separating SG and EG and just the 4 x 100m remaining, there was no room for error and the tension began to mount as, going into the final leg, both Houses were virtually neck and neck. Whitmore of SG dug deep though to maintain his 5 metre lead through the line, but it was EG who clinched overall victory by the narrowest of margins, with QG the best performing House for the girls.

Thanks go to all of the Housemasters for their excellent team management under the new format, to the staff who helped to officiate (especially Mr Starbrook who enjoyed his last House competition at Highgate as ‘ammunition-less’ starter) and to Mr Evans for ensuring the smooth running of the event.  GDC

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