A huge amount of work goes into the event behind the scenes but when you witness the excitement of the final relays and the jubilation of the overall House Champion, read out by the Headmaster, it’s all worth it. It really is an impressive spectacle and embodies many of the things that are so special about King’s College.
As with the House Swimming Sports a couple of weeks ago, the standard of competition was high, and it once again went down to the final relays before the overall House winner was decided. The conditions for running were ideal and over the course of the week there were a total of eight championship records broken.
Across every single age group category there were some hard-fought battles to decide the overall individual champions.
Junior Boys
In the Junior Boys category there were nine separate students who won individual events. However, when it came down to it there were really only two boys in the hunt for the Junior individual title. Liam Denny (Peart) was most impressive, winning the 100m, Long Jump and High Jump and placing 3rd in the 200m. In the end though, James Ford (Parnell) was simply on another level. James came a close 2nd in the Long Jump and won the 400m, 800m and 1500m, setting new records in all three of the events. This was an impressive display of middle distance running and I look forward to seeing James develop over the next few years at the College. The overall Junior House competition was won by Greenbank.
Intermediate Boys
The Intermediate Boys category was the closest competition of the lot. Rory Van Riele (Peart) was in outstanding form in the sprints and upset the form guide to take out both the 100m and 200m sprints. James Harding (Greenbank) showed amazing stamina to take out the 400m and then back it up shortly afterwards with a new intermediate school record in the 800m. The mark to beat for any serious 800m runner is 2 minutes and James ran 1:59, although it is worth noting that despite breaking the championship record it wasn’t even his personal best time!
Zane Powell (Peart) showed his class to be crowned as the Intermediate champion. Zane won the 1500m, 3000m and the 2000m Steeplechase and set new championship records in all of them!
The Intermediate House competition was won by Peart House.
Senior Girls
In the Senior Girls competition, as there was in the Juniors, there were nine different winners across the spreads of events. Ultimately though the race for the title was really only between two girls. Ruby Gibson (Major) won the 200m, 800m, 1500m and the Triple Jump. Sophie Adams (Peart) won the 100m, 100m Hurdles, 300m Hurdles and the High Jump. For a student to win four events is a great effort. To have two students achieve four wins is exceptional and as such Sophie and Ruby were crowned joint individual champions. In the Senior Girls House competition Averill were the winners.
Senior Boys
In the Senior Boys competition there were some close tussles for 1st place honours and once again competition was fierce for the race to be crowned as the overall individual champion. In the Blue-Ribbon event of the Senior 100m the sensible money was on Mogammad Smith (St John’s). However, in perhaps the biggest upset of the week, Fergus McLeay (Major) ran the race of his life to not only pip Mogammad on the line, but in doing set a new championship record of 11.00. The roles were reversed in the 200m where Mogammad was simply too quick for the rest of the field and cruised home comfortably to take 1st place. Bruno Corban (Greenbank) ran well to take 1st place in both the 3000m and the 2000m Steeplechase. The rest of the events were dominated by two athletes. James Robertson (Greenbank) was in fine form winning the 400m, 800m and 1500m titles. However, it was Judda Turahui (St John's) who was once again too strong for his opponents on the day. Judda won the 300m Hurdles, the Long Jump, Triple Jump and the High Jump and was rightfully crowned as the Individual Senior Athletics Champion. The overall Senior House competition was won by St John’s House.
Relays
After a week of races and field events it came down to the relays to finish off the week. On the Tuesday preliminary day Parnell ran a fantastic race to come from a long way behind on the last leg to take out the much-coveted Top House Relay Cup.
In the other relays Greenbank took out the Junior Boys, Parnell the Intermediate and Marsden the Girls. In the very last race of the event we were treated to an outstanding spectacle. With 400m to go, St John’s and Averill were neck and neck at the changeover. Josh Nicol (St John’s) and Aiden Fraser (Averill) set off on the last lap. As they came in to the home straight the boys were shoulder to shoulder and it still looked as if it could go either way. In a dramatic twist, Fraser who had given it his all, stumbled and fell some 3 metres from the finish line to leave Josh to cruise to victory for St John’s. As Aiden was trying to regather his feet, Ollie Dunshea (Major) snuck past to take 2nd place before Aiden managed to crawl over the line (literally) to secure 3rd. What a finish to what had been a great event!
The winners!
Finally, it came down to the point when the Headmaster reads out the overall points tally for each House. In the end it was Averill House who were crowned 2019 Overall House Athletics Champions.
