England were once again the winning nation at the annual schools’ international national (SIAB) after scoring the most points in both the girls and boys categories on Saturday 19th July. The competition brings together the gold and silver U17 medallists from the English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish national schools championships to fight it out for individual medals and team prizes.
This year’s event was held at the International Athletics Stadium in Cardiff instead of the scheduled Scotland due to the Commonwealth Games, and saw a number of eye-catching performances, most notably by England’s Harriet Knowles-Jones who broke Yvonne Murray’s championship best performance of 9.30.00 by a second in the 3000m. She led from the gun and a superb last lap saw her record the new leading mark of 9.29.11.
Wales drew first blood on the track with victory in the boys’ 400mh. Reuben Cole of England topped the rankings going into the race, and held the lead going over the final hurdle until Ryan James – the Welsh champion – powered past him in the final few meters. England soon had their revenge in the boys’ 800m where Wales’ Jake Heyward – given a big introduction from the stadium commentators – was beaten by England captain Daniel Rowden, who led by example to brilliantly hold off the fast-finishing Heyward.
The forecast thunderstorms failed to materialise leaving sunny but windy conditions in the stadium. Defending champions Ryan Gorman, Charlotte McLennaghan and Alicia Barrett managed to hold onto their titles for England in the sprints but times were down as the athletes had to cope with strong headwinds of over 2m per second so no records were set in the shorter runs despite the best efforts of competitors involved.
Victories continued in the field for England too as Andrew Douglas, Patrick Sylla and Kevin Metzger won the high jump, long jump and triple jump respectively, while Jake Norris took gold in the hammer, as did George Davies in the javelin. In the girls’ competition, wins for Abby Ward in the high jump, Tilly Hooper in the pole vault and Sophie Mace in the discus kept up the points tally for England.
Ireland looked in contention for the overall prize at one point as they racked up podium after podium, with unexpected wins in the boys’ 400m and girls 100m, and the multi-talented Michaela Walsh won the hammer and shot with new best performances in both. Ireland also scored well in the 3000m race walk, taking silver in the girls. In an entertaining boys’ walk,Abdi Osman, the Welsh athlete, was disqualified for running with 100m to go leading to a chorus of boos from the crowd. The race was won in dominant fashion by Ireland’s Aaron Egan, who led from the start to finish almost one full minute ahead of his nearest rival.
However, England pulled well ahead in points scored, and sealed their overall result with wins in all the relays, with the 4x400m boys’ quartet looking particularly impressive.
Final Scores:
Boys:
England: 248
Ireland: 187
Wales: 126
Scotland: 113
Girls:
England: 246
Ireland: 172
Wales: 120
Scotland: 110
