Five young athletes from the Grantham area represented Lincolnshire in the 83rd English National Schools Track & Field Championships at the weekend.
The two-day event, known as the ‘Kids Olympics’, is the fourth largest athletics meeting in the world, with more than 1600 athletes representing 44 different counties taking part.
It was held at Alexander Stadium, Birmingham on Friday and Saturday and featured some of the best young athletes in the country.
In the under 17 boys’ event, Joshua Brown, of the Priory Ruskin Academy, was third in the 400m hurdles in a season’s best time of 54.93 secs.
He has been selected to represent England in the Schools Invitation in Dublin on July 20, against athletes from Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
In the same age group, Oliver Williams (King’s School) was 16th in the long jump with a best leap of 5.85m.
Zoe Lucas (Walton High), also competing at under 17, took part in the 80 metres hurdles. She finished second in her heat with a time of 11.77secs, almost half a second faster than she had ever run before. She then came sixth in her semi-final in 11.94.
She was the lead runner in the 4 x 100 relay, with the Lincolnshire team finishing sixth in 48.85secs.
Under 19 hurdler Hannah Dunderdale (Carre’s Grammar School) ran a personal best time of 61.74 in finishing fourth in the final of her event.
Naomi Collier (KGGS) competed in the under 19 800 metres and, up against some tough competition, she came fifth in her heat with a time of 2mins 17.95secs.
For the seventh consecutive year, the Saturday afternoon finals were televised live on Sky Sports.