News
Welsh Schools Sportshall finals, Cwmbran
09/03/2020 00:00, In Blog / School News /
Welsh Athletics held its’ annual Sportshall final at Cwmbran Stadium. The event is the culmination of a series of regional qualifiers held across the 8 School Districts and represents one of the largest grassroots events in Wales with many athletes who sit outside the club system. It provides a great vehicle for both talent identification and for providing young athletes with a fun, safe and exciting introduction to competitive athletics.
This year teams representing North West Wales (Eryri School District), Powys, Dyfed, Afan Nedd Tawe and Cardiff & the Vale all took part. The event features team competitions at both Under 13 and Under 15 levels with an individual competition for Under 15s (based on a points system similar to multi-event competition).
It was again teams from North West Wales and Powys which dominated the event. Honours were even this year with the 4 team titles shared equally. North West Wales also picked up 2 team silver medals with Powys and Afan Nedd Tawe sharing the others. The bronze medals went to Afan Nedd Tawe (2), with Powys and Cardiff & the Vale picking up one each.
There were close battles for the individual trophies, the girls’ event being won by Teleri Jones (North West Wales) on 142 with 2 athletes tied for second as Megan Gwyther (Afan Nedd Tawe) and Poppy Holloway (Powys) both scored 140. Powys’s Norton Collins took the boys individual (147) from defending champion Owen Parry (North West Wales) (143). Sam Dungey (Cardiff & the Vale) was just one point behind on 142 in third.
The winning teams will now advance to the UK final in Sheffield during mid- April, they are accompanied by the two individual winners who get the chance to contest the individual competition which runs alongside the team event.
Thanks go to Chris Moss and the Network Officers Team from Welsh Athletics as well as all the teachers, district officers, sports development staff and press-ganged volunteers who supported all the qualifying matches and yesterday’s final. Special thanks also go to Adam Burgess and the team from UK Sportshall for the great job they do in driving the competitions.