East Area Prep Championships and Track and Field Competitions 2026

There were two early starts for Woodbridge athletes over the last two weeks, first was the East Area Prep School Championships in Bedford on Friday 5 June where year 6, 7 and 8 competed with athletes from 53 Eastern region schools.

Those athletes who finished first and second were rewarded with a place in the East team to compete against the other regions at the National Prep School Championships in Birmingham on 1 July at the prestigious Alexander stadium where the European Championships will be being held this summer. It was a busy day with 27 athletes from Woodbridge School competing in a variety of events.

National qualifiers were: Year 8’s Chloe with a win in the 1500m for the third year running, Year 7’s Ralph who took 2nd place in discus, and the Year 7 4 x 100m relay team of Walter, Max, Stanley and Callum who came in 2nd place.

Other top ten finishers were:

• 3rd – Year 7’s Sofia – 800m
• 3rd – Year 8’s Matilda, Belle, Katherine, Chloe – 4 x 100m relay
• 4th – Year 7’s Ralph – shot
• 4th – Year 7’s Callum –100m
• 4th – Year 7’s Walter – 200m
• 4th – Year 7’s Sofia, Florence, Sophia, Issy – 4 x 100m relay
• 5th – Year 7’s Issy – javelin and 200m
• 5th – Year 7’s Walter – high jump
• 5th – Year 7’s Tweel – discus
• 5th – Year 8’s Archie – 800m
• 6th – Year 8’s Ollie – 1500m
• 7th – Year 8’s Miles – hurdles
• 7th – Year 7’s Florence – 1500m
• 9th – Year 8’s Katherine – 100m
• 9th – Year 8’s Martha – javelin
• 9th – Year 7’s Stanley – javelin
• 9th – Year 8’s Will, Seb, Archie, Miles – 4 x 100m relay
• 10th – Year 7’s Ralph – shot

The rest of the team included: Year 8’s Elodie, James and Luke, with Year 7’s Anasuya and Alex. Well done all on a busy and long day!

Our second early start was for the Regional A Final of the Track and Field Cup for both the qualifying girls teams on Tuesday 9 June in Thurrock. A team of twelve/fourteen students have to cover all events between them, doing two each (one track one field), scoring points for their distances and times.

Junior girls are a mix of Year 7 and Year 8 and inters Year 9 and Year 10. It is a difficult competition with athletes often having to compete in their second or third best events in order to maximise team points.

It was a tough competition for the Woodbridge School students, competing with the best schools from Essex – but they rose to the occasion working hard and producing some great performances.

Top scorers were: Year 8’s Martha with 43, year 8’s Chloe with 42, Year 9’s Alexandra with 41 Year 9’s ,India J with 37, Year 7’s Issy with 36, Year 9’s Imarah with 34, Year 7’s Sophia with 34, Year 8’s Katherine with 33, and Year 10’s Eirann with 30. Both teams finished in 11th place.

Thank you to the staff helping and parents supporting and a very big well done to all the athletes who gave maximum effort and were a great credit to Woodbridge School.