Fabulous five fly the flag in English school finals

English schools

There were five local athletes with the honour of representing their county schools in the English schools championships at the weekend.

All five did themselves justice in the highest standard of competition of the annual schools calendar.

Of interest to Chichester were two from Bishop Luffa School, whose head of PE Tim Brown was one of the Sussex team managers. Both Luffa sixth-form pupils came fifth.

Ellie Farrow was impressive in the senior girls’ 800m heats with a 2min 10sec time, the fastest of the finalists, but she was just edged out of the medals in the final.

Leo Stallard went into a straight final in the senior boys’ 2000m steeplechase and ran a new personal best time of 6.13.11, again just out of medal contention but enough to give him a top-ten ranking in the UK for his age group.

Usually a Sussex athlete, Liam Dunne finds himself in the Hampshire team for the schools competition through being a Bohunt pupil, and was delighted to reach his first final at these championships with fourth place in his heat in a relatively modest 4.10. Tenth place in the final followed.

Seaford College sixthformer Olivia Macdonald used her cross country background to good effect with an excellent fourth place in the senior girls’ 1500m steeplechase with a new PB of just over 5.8 seconds. Jess Hall, of Midhust Rother College, was in the senior girls’ pole vault and was near her best with a 3.20 clearance for a top-ten finish.