SCHOOL ACES GET TIME IN SPOTLIGHT
SCHOOL teams had their moment in the spotlight as the NASUWT Cymru Wales Cup and Plate finals took place at the Penlan Arena Track in Brecon.
It is arguably the biggest grassroots competition for secondary schools in the summer term.
The Cup competition has been organised each year since 1988, while the Plate final was added in 2007.
A total of 36 schools from across the eight districts in Wales qualified to field 62 teams in the final.
Each district had one team in the Cup competition and one in the Plate.
It was split into two age groups, under-14s and under-16s.
Every single point was important, with more than half of the competitions coming down to the last relay event.
Six schools from the Dyfed district won or came second in their respective age groups in the district final at Haverfordwest High School and travelled to Brecon looking to compete with the best in the country in a competition with international athletes on show.
Ysgol y Preseli and Ysgol Coedcae both came second in their respective Cup and Plate competitions in the under-14 girls’ event, with both finishing strongly with a top-two finish in the relays.
Haverfordwest High School finished fourth out of the eight teams in the under-16 girls’ Cup, while the first of the Queen Elizabeth High School teams were runners-up in the Plate.
The under-14 boys’ Cup saw Ysgol Aberaeron secure a top-four finish, and that result was matched by the QE High boys in the same position in the Plate.
The Carmarthen school were seventh in the under-16 boys’ Cup final and they were joined in the same age group by Plate finalists Ysgol Dyffryn Taf, who were in the runners-up spot at the end of the competition.
A performance to note came from Morgan Batten (Dyffryn Taf), who threw a new championship best performance of 48.02m in the under-16 boys’ javelin.