On Saturday 4th July, at Bedford International Athletics Stadium, we competed in the biggest team competition available for schools in the country. It was a huge achievement for the team to even qualify but we wanted more.
The day started off strongly with the field events and many great performances, especially our year 9 athletes stepping up with big pole vaults and triple jumps from Louis Flinn and Matt Copley and Ollie Hocking beating his PB by 4 metres in the discus. The pressure & tension was huge but the team’s mentality and belief was strong going into the track events in the afternoon. Other teams had strong track teams but the HABS team left nothing on the track with solid performances all round.
The throwers relay finishing the day with their fastest time of the season, the team waited with anticipation for the results. We finished in 2nd place out of 900+ schools who entered the competition. This was a just reward for the commitment and sacrifice that was put in by the team to achieve this. It’s the result of 4 years of hard work & training and I want to thank each and every team member who trained endlessly and stayed healthy for weeks for that one meet. We ended on 557 points, which was the highest score ever from a Habs team and the 3rd highest score by any team in the history of the national finals.
We have ended the season with many of us becoming individual county champions, and the squad becoming District champions, County Champions & runners up in the National championships. Many of us have also had unbeaten seasons in all competitions in our individual events.
In addition, we’ve broken many records – from Ade Tokuta with 13.8s in the hurdles, Adam Shiret running under 2 minutes in the 800m, Jamie Harper with 4.13 in the 1500m and the list goes on and on.
On behalf of all of the team I would like to thank Mr Lowe and Mr Keenleyside for all of the time, effort, training and encouragement for the team, not only this season, but from when we first started in year 7. They have kept us positive, calm & focussed – encouraged us when we needed it & pushed us all to be better, stronger & fitter. They even put up with us for 4 pre-season trips to Lanzarote. This season would not have been half as successful without them.