The School Games is a multi-sport event at which 1600 school kids from across the UK get to experience an Olympic-style competition made up of 12 different sports, an opening & closing ceremony and an ‘athlete’s village’. Some of the sports involved include hockey, table tennis, swimming, rugby 7s, gymnastics, cycling & of course athletics, to name but a few.
The 2016 Games took place in Loughborough from 1st-4th September with the athletics being staged at the famous university track on Friday 2nd September. Competition is always tough and medals were few and far between for the NI team that was competing against 5 English regional teams (North East, North West, South East, South West & Midlands) & Scotland.
Competing in her second games, Holly Brannigan (Wellington College) found it tough going in lane 7 of the 300m, and despite running into a stiff breeze on the back straight, was only slightly outside her PB when finishing 7th with 41.40s. Holly also ran a leg of the NI 4x300m relay that finished 5th in 2.53.93. In her first games, Rebecca Webb (Glenlola Collegiate) was up against strong opposition in the long jump but produced a consistent series of jumps, the best of which was 4.66m and also placed her 7th.
As boy’s team captain and one of the few genuine medal chances for the NI team, the pressure and expectation was on Aaron Sexton (Bangor Grammar) to deliver, and he didn’t disappoint. Despite coming at the end of a long, busy season, he ran an impressive race in the 200m to produce (albeit wind assisted) his second fastest time of the season with 21.72s (+2.3w). Despite narrowly missing out on the gold, he was still delighted to finish second and claim NI’s only silver medal of the day (there were no gold & three bronze). Later Aaron ran 3rd leg in the 4x100m and brought the team from seventh to second but the NI team were unable to hold on and eventually slipped back, finishing fourth in 43.92s.
