Whitegrove win Bracknell Forest Primary Schools Athletics Championships

A total of 22 schools gathered at Bracknell Leisure Centre to compete in an event organised as part of the Borough Council’s Young People in Sport Scheme, with the tried and tested format of three track and field events.

Championship records have been rare in recent times, but there was one to be proud of with the Harmanswater girls’ A shot putter adding two centimetres to the old record with 8.93m.

In the first event – the shuttle run – 10 teams qualified for the final to be held later in the afternoon, before the 80m sprint heats took place.

Out in the field, Wooden Hill started well in the girls’ A long jump, with Whitegrove winning the boys’ event.

Warfield and Binfield picked up maximum points in the B long jump.

With Harmanswater setting the new record, they were victorious in the girls’ A shot putt, with Whitegrove and Birch Hill sharing the boys’ equivalent.

Whitegrove and Wildridings were the successful teams in the B string shot putt.

In the ball-throwing events, Harmanswater completed an excellent double winning both of the A string events, while Wildridings and St Josephs secured maximum points in the B categories.

Back on the track, the 600m races produced some fascinating running with the longer-distance runners coming into their own.

In the girls’ B string, Sandy Lane were comfortable winners and Whitegrove led the boys’ B string runners home by a little more than half a second.

Whitegrove won the girls’ A race by more than a second with Wildridings holding off a late challenge to win the boys event.

In the sprint finals, Binfield won the girls’ B final and then Uplands had a terrific win in the boys’ race.

Binfield’s girls then completed the double with Whitegrove completing the track action by winning the boys’ A race.

The final event was the shuttle relay which featured 10 schools each with 10 athletes. With time penalties for handover infringements the result of this event is sometimes in doubt even after it has finished.

The team which holds its nerve best often comes out on top and with the top of the leaderboard extremely close between a number of teams, the race had extra significance.

It proved to be a blur of frantic activity, and in their desire to do well a number of penalties were incurred.

Sandy Lane won the race and in picking up a full 40 points moved up into third place in the overall standings.

Whitegrove and Harmanswater finished in the middle of the pack, but secured enough points to see Whitegrove finishing in the gold medal position and Harmanswater in silver.