Category: Woodbridge News
3 out of 4 athletic teams make it to the A regional finals in the ESAA English Schools’ Track and Field Cup!!
Our junior (Years 7/8) and intermediate (Years 9/10) athletics teams went to compete in the ESAA English Schools’ Track and Field Cup at Bury St Edmunds on 11th May. Woodbridge School dominated the day. With ten schools competing on the Wednesday and the same number again on the Thursday competition was tough. Our best 13 girls and 15 boys in each group were selected for two events each, covering all the events between them. Distances and times gained points and the team scoring the most points qualify.
Our strong unbeaten junior girls’ team won with a total 346 points, exceeding the previous day’s winners RHS (309), thereby earning a place in the A regional finals as the top school. Olivia Buchanan was our top girl scoring 48 points, her javelin throw taking her off the scoring system! Emily Whyte was second top with 44 points from 800m and javelin. Bea Thomas next on 38, closely followed by Issy Eaton 37 and Ella Walker 36. Issy came second in her 100m race to the UK’s number two runner. Arianne Bilgen did well in high jump to win with 1.35m.
The intermediate girls also won, with 343 points, again exceeding previous day’s winners RHS (324), to take them to the A regional final as top qualifiers. Top scorer was Sophie Graham on 46 points from a javelin throw that took her off the scoring system, combined with her hurdles points. Next was Nell Pilkington (42) whose shot throw also took her off the points system and she also did the relay. Sarah Barker scored 35 points with a strong 1500m, Maud Peel 31 and Victoria Burrows 30. Many thanks to Annie Yates, who stepped in to cover Amy Graham who was absent on the day, and pocketed a good number of points.
The Junior boys’ team also won scoring 342 points. Ipswich School had won the day before on 307 so again we finished first overall. Top scorer was John Hendry with 40; we are hoping to add detail to this report soon.
Last year at the County Track and field Championships we took 24 pupils and 12 qualified for selection to the county athletics teams. We thought that was pretty good… This year we took 49 girls and boys from Years 8-13 with an astonishing 22 pupils qualifying in 26 events!
With five heats in the 100m (40 competitors) it gives some idea of the competition to come in the top three to qualify. On the track Issy Eaton went to the finals for both 100m and 200m – coming third in 200m to qualify and just missing out in 4th place for the 100m. John Hendry also place 3rd in the final of the 200m gave him a place too. Our distance runners were dominant: Sarah Barker and Nathan Goddard winning the 3000m and George Wharam coming 2nd. Hurdlers Sophie Graham, India Lawson and Mauricio Corfe all won their races.
The throwers did well too: wins for Sophie Graham 36.27m and sister Laura with a PB of 39.43m quite outstanding!! Olivia Buchanan came 2nd and Amy Graham (with injury) 3rd. In discus Sophie Graham won, as did Joanne Garnett, and 3rd places for Alex Weir Simmonds, Annie Yates, and Laura Graham added to the collection. In shot we had more to celebrate with wins for Jemima Potter and Nell Pilkington, and 2nd place for Maud Peel.
In the jumps we had wins for India Lawson in high jump, and Ianthe Hill in long jump with Georgia Harrold coming 2nd. Triple jump saw 2nd places for India Lawson and Hal Ottley, and 3rd place for Hugo Thomas.
Those narrowly missing out on qualification but still securing excellent fourth places were Emily Whyte in Javelin, Jemima Potter and Nathaniel Gunn in discus, Charlie Turner in 1500m, and Gussie Terry in Triple Jump.
All 49 should be proud to have achieved the qualifying distance or time to attend this event. Well done all on such a chilly day!
We look forward to next week’s athletics events which take us back to Bury next Thursday for the schools’ team event, and to Northgate on Tuesday with Year 10.
Six schools took part in the first athletics meet this season at RHS on Saturday: Gresham’s, Ipswich High, Ipswich School, Framlingham Prep, RHS and Woodbridge. Open to girls’ teams of U12, U13 U14 and U15, lots of pupils took part with roughly 12 competitors or more per event. This year the organisers were concentrating on getting as many involved as possible, giving them an opportunity to post times and distances for the season, and in true Woodbridge fashion our girls happily stepped in to do extra events to cover for some late and unavoidable absences.
The girls showed dominance on the middle distance track 800m with Sarah Barker 1st and Amy Graham 2nd in U15 team, Bea Thomas 1st and Amy Goddard 2nd in the U12 team, and Emily Whyte 3rd at U13. The throwing events were equally successful: in javelin U12 Katie Norman came 1st and Tess Walker 3rd, U13 Olivia Buchanan 1st Emily Whyte 2nd, U14 Nell Pilkington 1st, U15 Amy Graham 1st and Freya Nyberg throwing well. In discus Ella Smith1st Olivia Brown 3rd, U13 Lakisha Charema 3rd and Jess Elmer 4th, U14 Annabel Yates 1st Saffron Holliday 3rd, U15 Cristine Lui 1st Joanne Garnett 2nd. Special mention to Cristine whose success followed from just one training session with Mr Graham! In shot U14 Nell Pilkington was 2nd with 9m to the winning throw of 9.03m! In the U15 team event Maud Peel came 1st and Joanne Garnett was 2nd. Meanwhile Ella Walker finished off her very successful day as part of the winning U13 relay A team (Emily Whyte, Katie Bellhouse and Eleanor Wright) having already won High Jump and 200m.
Apologies to anyone not mentioned who did well; a full set of results will follow from RHS. Thank you to all the parents who brought the girls to school on the Bank holiday weekend and those out supporting at RHS. A big thank you to Mr Goddard and Mr Graham for their presence and training, and to Mrs Pilkington and Miss Sanders for their leadership on the day. Most importantly thank you girls and well done!
The cross country season ended on a high for Woodbridge pupils at the weekend with the English Schools championships in Norwich. An astonishing seven Woodbridgians were running for Suffolk, all of them a year young for their age category.
The course was dry, flat, and frankly rather boring but the event was impeccably organised and the many thousands of spectators were very well entertained. The English Schools is incredibly competitive and just 10 seconds at the end of a long race can be a difference of over 50 places.
On a day of superb Woodbridge results the standout performance belonged to Nathan Goddard. Running a year young for the Inter Boys he was first back for Suffolk in 68th. Top 15 at next year’s English schools is looking a realistic target for him!
Most gutsy performance of the day probably belonged to Kit Evans Lombe. The runner in front of him fell over in the Suffolk ‘pen’ at the start of the race. Kit was left 3rd from last after the first 300 metres but he had overtaken nearly 100 of the best runners in England before the finish!
Suffolk has a small population so is graded as a category C county for the English Schools. The excellent results from Charlie Turner, George Wharam, Kit Evans Lombe, Bea Thomas, Nathan Goddard, Sarah Barker and Amy Graham made a big difference to Suffolk’s standing in the category C team competition. 2nd in the girls and 2nd in the boys, a fantastic result for Suffolk and a phenomenal end to a fantastic season for Woodbridge.
Year 10 Graphic Communication students took part in a publishing competition for local charity Just 42. They were set a brief to design a new newsletter for the charity to send out to their supporters. The students worked hard during lessons for about four weeks to research the charity, and then come up with a design that represented the charity but was also clear and easy to read. Caroline Rutherford at Just 42 was highly impressed with all the designs, and said that the students had made a real effort to understand exactly what the charity is about. It was a hard decision, but Charles Sutton was the overall winner of the competition. Caroline said they were mostly impressed by his simplistic approach to the project, and that the overall layout was clear and easy to follow. Well done Charles!
Putting together a string of impeccable performances, Zara Lye won the under 18 Novice at Poplar Park at the Horse Trials on Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 March with a best dressage score of 24.5 (75.5%), and clear Show Jumping and Cross Country rounds. She also won the prize for best Suffolk U18 rider by winning the class. Next stop is Belton International on Friday 31 March for her first GB Junior Trial. Many congratulations to Zara on her outstanding achievement.
10 am, slipping and sliding alongside thousands of others under a heavy sky in the rolling Leicestershire countryside… and that was just walking the course at the UK Inter Counties Cross Country championships! As usual Mark Goddard and Dr Wharam were assisted by an absolutely superb parental support team and it was fantastic to see the Woodbridge runners making up such a sizeable proportion of a Suffolk team who were looking to punch well above their weight.
The UK Inter Counties is an elite competition between the very best in Britain with 44 counties (Wales, Scotland and N Ireland are divided into larger districts) fielding their best 8 runners in each age category.
First up the U13 boys. Following the mudfest of the Nationals at Nottingham, and then the excitement of taking the first three places at the East Anglian Prep Schools Finals, this was their third demanding weekend in a row. Did George Wharam, Charlie Turner, and Kit Evans Lombe still have anything left in the tank? And how would Edward Rufford, as a Year 7 running ‘a year up’, cope in such a big and talented field?
Charlie and George worked together moving steadily past their competitors, up and down the hills through the gooey mud; 60th, 50th, 40th, 30th, and still they pushed on pacing it brilliantly … 22nd for George Wharam, 27th for Charlie Turner. Kit Evans Lombe was 94th and Edward Rufford came an excellent 262nd that bodes well for the future. Suffolk just missed out on the medals with 4th place, an incredible achievement for such a small county. What a start for Woodbridge!
Next the U15 boys. Two weeks ago at the Nationals, Nathan Goddard edged into the top 20 for the first time with a brilliant 18th but the UK Inter Counties would be harder with some very good Welsh and Scottish runners expected to push him further down the order. With an impressive 29th Nathan was first back for Suffolk continuing his excellent run of form. George Rufford coped well with the mud and hills to finish 240th.
Inspired by the success of the boys it was now the turn of the U13 girls. Bea Thomas was second back for Suffolk in 152nd. Amy Goddard in Year 7, competing ‘a year up’, ran with maturity and intelligence to finish an excellent 177th.
The U15 girls were determined not to be outdone. Sarah Barker led the way for Suffolk in 48th, another National top 50 on what she described as one of her hardest ever courses. Amy Graham dug in to come a well-deserved 158th whilst Milly Buckingham paced it well and finished an encouraging 251st. To give you an idea of how fast the runners come through, Amy Graham, at 158th was just 27 seconds from breaking into the top 100!
So, yet another exceptional day for Woodbridge’s endurance runners! Eleven pupils ran for Suffolk against the very best in Britain, with four in the top fifty. Already being talked about as a national centre of excellence for endurance running the school has plans to develop this further.
Next weekend is the English Schools, the last race of the cross country season. A tough one as nearly all our runners will be a year young for their age category but confidence is high and rightly so.
Woodbridge travelled to RHS to compete in the Suffolk Sevens hoping for a chance to qualify for the East of England finals at Franklin Gardens. It was a tough afternoon with 18 teams wanting to claim the two places available from the two winners pools.
Woodbridge started well and defeated Ipswich with tries from John Hendry (3) and captain Mak Zie. Jack Christie converted for a 22-7 win.
Next were Thurston and a whole squad rotation allowed for a comfortable win with tries from Tom Turner, Will Franklin, John and Mak. Jack added two conversions. Two late tries in the dying seconds flattered Thurston’s score but a 26-14 win was achieved. Woodbridge were now through as winners of their group and were in the A league finals.
The next pool was a tough one with one team claiming the right to play at Franklin Gardens. Finborough drew first blood before John equalised just before the half time whistle. Finborough pulled ahead soon after with another try and Woodbridge were almost out. In the final minutes John scored and Jack converted for a 14-12 lead. Mak sealed the win with a great burst through close to the line and Jack converted for a 21-12 win.
Woodbridge now had to play Colchester RGS straight after their tight encounter against Finborough. The lack of a break proved too costly and after a few minutes Colchester were gifted 3 quick tries. Woodbridge, after playing some fantastic Sevens were now reeling and the dream had disappeared despite a consolation try late in the game from John. So close at the end but we had fallen just short of the main goal of the afternoon. Finborough then took advantage of a tired Colchester but Colchester just eased them out to win the group. Despite the disappointment the squad remains buoyant having played some great Sevens in preparation for the next tournaments.
Our cross country athletes close the season with three National Cross Country Fixtures – Competition at the highest level.
The Saucony English National Cross Country Championship – Entry through your club and the largest event with over 8000 athletes competing in 10 Age Group races.
British Athletics Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships where our students selected will represent Suffolk County ( Loughborough on Saturday 11 March)
New Balance English Schools Cross Country Championships where our students selected will represent Suffolk Schools (Norwich on Saturday 18 March)
Last weekend, Saturday 25 February, a group of seven travelled to Nottingham to compete for Ipswich Harriers in the first of the three Nationals with some fantastic performances.
To give the results some context, junior races typically have 400 to 500 of the fastest cross country athletes in England competing. If you consider that in team sports an England Squad is typically around 30 strong before the final match day side is selected, in cross country it is widely recognised that top 100 takes some doing and top 50 is knocking on the door of National Standard.
Our individual results were as follows:
U13 Boys –
Charlie Turner – 38th – a fantastic second half saw Charlie storm his way into the top 50 pacing his race perfectly
George Wharam – 58th – again a powerful finish saw George closing in on that top 50
Kit Evans-Lombe – 118th – A first National event for Kit and not far away from that top 100. Such is the level of competition in fact that Kit was only 6 seconds behind 100th.
The boys helped Ipswich Harriers to 6th place in the team competition against the very best clubs from around England.
U13 Girls –
Amy Goddard – 215th from 467 finishers. A first National for Amy and she was our only athlete on the day running a year up. 48 seconds between 100th and 215th shows the depth.
U15 Girls –
Sarah Barker – 42nd – an outstanding run saw Sarah power through to finish first for her club as well as break into that top 50 on a National stage for the first time.
Amy Graham – 136th – closing in on that elusive top 100, just 15 seconds ahead. A good return to form for Amy.
Amy and Sarah helped Ipswich Harriers to an incredible 4th place at the Nationals. The Clubs best result of the day!
U15 Boys –
Nathan Goddard – 18th – A top 20 finish at Nationals !
Nathan’s highest ever finish at a National Cross Country fixture and just a tantalising 9 seconds from top 10. Another mature performance moving from 26th to 18th in the final 500 metres.
Congratulations to everyone that competed and we wish you well for the remaining fixtures.
Following our usual practice, Woodbridge pupils arrived at Abington Park, Northampton nice and early so that they could walk the course for the Anglian Schools Cross Country Championships in a relaxed and unhurried way. Despite the well hidden nerves there was plenty of good humour and mutual support with the glorious sunshine and parental support team working its magic.
First up were the minor girls. Ruby Vinton (Y6) and Amy Goddard (Y7) came an exceptional 4th and 8th, setting an inspirational benchmark.
The minor boys did not disappoint with Henry Dinwiddy (Y7) piped on the line but still a brilliant 5th with Ed Rufford (Y7) 25th and Ed Buckingham (Y6) an excellent 38th; Suffolk taking the minor boys trophy with ease.
Bea Thomas qualified for the English Schools with an impressive 23rd place in the Junior Girls (7th for Suffolk) whilst Molly Marshall came a well deserved 46th; Suffolk missing this trophy by just two points!
In the Junior boys Charlie Turner, George Wharam and Kit Evans Lombe were all running a year up but they exceeded all expectations on this hilly course. Charlie and George came an amazing 3rd and 6th (1st and 2nd for Suffolk) with Kit 22nd. All three off to English Schools a year young and looking strong. Charlie can be especially proud winning the bronze medal a year young.
In the intermediate girls, Sarah Barker, Amy Graham and Milly Buckingham were again running a year up, but the results told a different story – Sarah 7th (and 2nd for Suffolk), Amy 26th (6th for Suffolk) and Milly a well deserved 32nd (9th for Suffolk so still in contention for English Schools).
In the intermediate boys, Nathan Goddard was also running a year up, but after an exceptional run last weekend at Parliament Hill, London, in the Southern Championships, he was confident and relaxed. Running a tactically astute race, he finished a brilliant fourth, taking some notable scalps.
So; an amazing seven top 10 finishes for Woodbridge pupils, five of them a year younger than the age category in which they ran; and aided by the excellent performances of Woodbridge pupils, Suffolk took the overall trophy.
Running is progressing fast at Woodbridge with Dr Wharam now assisting Mark Goddard on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays throughout the year, so that training can be split into 3 or 4 groups with an emphasis on running for fun and fitness. Parents are welcome as well, and it is not unusual for there to be 40+ runners of varying abilities, ages and commitment at a training session. Training sessions run 52 weeks a year (yes, we did train on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day!)and there is an infectious enthusiasm. An increasing number of pupils also use the running club as a way to improve their performance in other sports.