12 May 2023
The Athletics relay squads took part in the Achilles Relays at Iffley Road; this is a prestigious event with schools from across the country traveling to compete.
The first event of the day saw the Inter boys in the 4 x 100m and although this did not go as smoothly as planned they came 4th in their heat with some very impressive splits in the final 2 sectors.
This was followed by the Inter boys 4 x 200m (James Wall Morris, Luke Skates, Finn Gregory & Will Lyon) who ran an impressive race qualifying second overall by just 0.2 seconds and over 3 seconds ahead of the 3rd place qualifier. Later that afternoon in the final they ran a faster time of 1.36.2 but were again narrowly edged out by a strong Brighton College team.
The 4 x 800m races are often the blue ribbon events at the Achilles relays and as returning holders of the Open title many schools were looking at us for their pacing. Johnny James led out with an opening 800m of 1.59 and handed over the batton to Will d’Arcy in 1st place. Will’s 2.04 split placed us in 2nd with a strong Shrewsbury team just taking the lead before the change over. Thom Denning and Henry Channon ran the final 2 legs both recording times of 2.12 but unfortunately we were not able to retain our trophy, finishing in 3rd place. It was a great way for these four Upper Sixth students to sign off together after they have given so much to the Athletics Club over their time at the school.
The Inter boys 4 x 800m race was a different story where we led from gun to tape with a dominant display by all four runners who in each leg extended the lead. Charlie Adams led off with a strong 2.16 800m to finish the 1st leg, with a 6m lead. Monty Salmon then opened up a 15m gap to 2nd place with his 2.14 800m, this was further extended by Ralph Allen who clocked 2.10 for his 800m and handed over to Ollie Sherrat with a 40m lead. Ollie’s time of 2.10 increased the gap even further to 60m. A great start to the Athletics season and evident that there is great promise for the future in both the sprints and middle distance events.
