Record Breaking Sports Day

On what may have been the hottest day this Summer, the annual Sports Day took place. From mid-morning to mid-afternoon, our pupils were running, jumping, swimming and tugging their way to House victory. All events were in the age categories of Lower School, Junior and Senior. In the track and field events, Shiplake’s girls were representing one of the five main houses and the Lower School battled it out for the Titans and the Olympians.

First up: track and field! From 100m to 1500m, our boys and girls ran… and then some! Special mentions go to George Lucas, who broke the Junior 400m record with a brilliant time of 58.7 seconds. Also to Joe Kerrison, who incredibly ran 1500m in the Senior Final to achieve a school record of 4 minutes 33 seconds!

Shiplake’s own triathlon star Adam Hunt, Year 10, also set a School record in the Junior 800m Final. In just 2 minutes 15 seconds, he crossed the finish line and earned Bevan the race. Just minutes later, Olivia Morgan won the Girls’ equivalent for Burr house in an impressive 2 minutes, 36 seconds.  

Next up was the Long Jump and Shotput! Some brilliant results from the Lower School, none however that exceeded Theo Fewtrell’s Long Jump record of 4m 42cm in 2016. Year 13 Leaver Brett Fullard also retains his Lower School Shot Put record of 9.02m. This year’s Lower School Shot Put was Josh Hamer for the Titans, and the Long Jump belonged to Flynn Wilson, of the aptly named Olympians.

Charlie Burgess managed to leap an incredible 3.8m in the Long Jump and gained the girls’ victory for Skipwith while achieving the girls’ new school record. Congratulations to Will Parton, who won the Senior heat for Lapping, Fyn Brown who won the Junior heat for Welsh and Flynn Wilson who brought it home for the Olympians of the Lower School.

After two hours of non-stop events, the results were in! The Lower School track and field champs were the Olympians, while the Junior league was won by Welsh House and the Senior league was won by Wells-Furby.

After tens of heats, the House Tug of War was left up to either Burr or Everett to claim the victory. After a tense first round, Burr pulled their opponents over the line. After swapping ends, they pulled their way to success in a matter of seconds! Well done to Burr.

On now to the swimming events, held in our very own pool. The boys were put through their paces in the following categories: Freestyle, Breaststroke, Backstroke, Butterfly, Individual Medley, Freestyle Relay, Squadron Relay and the Wells Trawl; a unique race to Shiplake in which competitors must get from one side of the pool to the other, without the use of their arms!

The Junior and Senior Freestyle races saw two new School records beaten. Dylan Hillier of Lapping swam two lengths of the pool in just 28 seconds, while Michael Scanlon of Wells-Furby achieved a brilliant time of 30 seconds. The Olympians dominated in the Lower School heats, while Dylan Hillier brought it home for Lapping in the Junior Breaststroke and Butterfly. For the Senior heats, Michael Scanlon won the Individual Medley, Butterfly and Freestyle, setting two new records along the way.

Organiser and Lower School Housemaster Mr Tom Crisford said ‘it was such an awesome day; I loved every minute of it. It’s my favourite day of the year and if you ask any of the PE and Sport teachers, they’ll tell you the same!’.