A total of 9 Athletes and one coach from Winchester and District Athletics Club have just returned from a hugely successful National Schools Games finals in Loughborough.

This event takes place every two years and is focused on athletes in the U17 age group for Track and Field Athletics.

It is a four day multi-sport event featuring 11 sports in all with over 1500 athlete representatives being sent from across the UK nations – Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England.

This year there was even a guest team from the West Indies who competed in the cricket competition. The event is funded by Sport England National Lottery funding and backed by all the home country sports councils and UK sport. The finals were hosted at Loughborough University on a single campus site offering athletes an experience similar to an Olympic or Paralympic village.

This year’s games are the 16th in total since the inaugural games in Glasgow in 2006 and has featured many of Team GB’s current Olympic and Paralympic Athletes – Hannah Cockroft, Adam Peaty, Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Dina Asher-Smith to name a few.

The event started on Thursday, August 29, with an Opening Ceremony, with athletics action then taking place on Friday and Saturday.

Winchester Athletes performed fantastically well with a number of top placings and many athletes securing an International Vest for the first time. Representing England were Zac Reynolds (400m), Lucia Bertacchini (300m H), Jess Howells (Javelin), Gracie Osman (Long Jump) – all coached by Andy fisher, as well as Rebekah Smith (80m Hurdles) coached by David McManus, Elsie Brindle (300m) coached by Mark Upton, Beth Mballa (Discus) coached by Heather Sheffield and Lexie Trott (Pole Vault) coached by Elias Mtshweni/Tom Farres.

In addition Abi McBriar (Discus) coached by Martin McBriar represented Northern Ireland.  Head of Throws at Winchester Martin McBriar was also selected to attend the games as one of the England Team Throws coaches.