The Championships this year saw East Grinstead send a team of 27 Quadkids and 8 U13s to K2 in Crawley; which meant we also brought a lot of support and encouragement with us. With the first events under way from 1100, the stand was quickly filling with East Grinstead, a sea of blue and yellow running vests jogging around the track to begin warming up.
First up were the U13s, with the U13 boys starting with a qualifying round where the winner of each race and the four fastest losing athletes qualifying for the final too. With no representation from East Grinstead in the first heat, Lukas Togwell was in the second heat, winning in 11.08s and qualifying for the final. Race 3 saw Leo Tongsom and Lucas Eastfield next, Leo finishing 3rd in 11.27s and Lucas 6th in 12.46s, both new PBs.
Around the track, the Academy girls got underway with the standing jump and the boys were starting with the howler. Evie Walker led the girls, finishing 2nd with 1.97m and Tyler-Storm Alderson led the boys, finishing 1st with 37.98m.
Next saw the U13 girls 75m, Beth Mitchell finishing in 4th in the first heat in a time of 11.72s and Holly Grange finishing 6th in 12.29s. In the second heat, Kaelen Thompson finishing in 6th with 13.24s.
With only a short break before the final, Lukas was back on the track, finishing in 8th in a time of 11.14s.
It was then the turn of the Academy to do their 75m sprint. Once again, Evie Walker led the girls, coming 3rd overall in a time of 12.28s, narrowly beating Fern Lock with the 4th fastest time of 12.29s. For the boys, William finished 2nd quickest overall in a time of 11.55s and Luca De Wolf was third overall in a time of 11.59s.
Elsewhere on the field, Ethan Dean was in the U13s high jump, reaching 1.05m to finish in 6th. For the U13 girls, Beth jumped 3.52m to finish 12th and Myah Nassiri jumped 3.22m to finish 20th in the long jump.
Next on the track was the 150m for the U13s. Lukas was in the first heat, running a new PB of 21.87s and finishing 1st. Heat 3 had representation from East Grinstead as well, Leo finishing 4th in 22.60s and Lucas finishing in 8th in 25.24s, both setting new PBs. For the girls, Myah ran 24.99s to finish 7th in her heat, Beth ran 24.51s to finish 6th in her heat, and finally Holly ran 24.42s to finish 4th in her heat.
By now, we’d all been caught in some heavy downpours and there were many more on their way. However, this didn’t deter any of the athletes and so the girls moved on to the howler and the boys to the standing long jump. For the girls, Fern Lock finished 3rd with 23.92m, Evie finished 4th with 22.39m and Anya Heffer finished 5th with 19.43m – all of our athletes demonstrating the hard work and effort they had put in over the last few months was paying off. With the boys in the standing long jump, Beau Parker secured 5th place with 1.90m, Luca came in 7th with 1.89m and William was fractionally behind in 9th with 1.87m.
With three events down, that left the 600m as the Quadkids final event of the afternoon.
Once again, it was the turn of the U13s to get into action. The girls 70mH was a straight final and saw Myah finish in 6th with a time of 16.92s which was followed by the 150m finals for boys. In his second final of the day, Lukas ran 21.95s to finish in 7th.
With torrential showers falling across the track, the Academy girls ignored the weather and began warming up for their races. Chloe Slaughter was fastest for East Grinstead, coming home in 2m17.36s to finish 10th overall, Anya Heffer only just behind in 13th with 2m18.00s. For the boys, it was again close between William and Luca, William finishing 2nd overall in 1m57.16s, only 0.5s ahead of Luca in 3rd running 1m57.69s. With the competition over, it was now a case of sit and wait to see how many points had been accumulated and where everyone finished.
That didn’t mean the athletics stopped. In the U13s, Ethan was jumping 3.48m to finish 19th in the long jump, and the sun was trying to make another appearance.
Finally, with the England football match looming for some, results were through and certificates were being handed out. In the girls competition overall, Evie Walker secured 2nd place and received silver for her efforts. For the boys, Luca De Wolf secured 1st place, picking up gold and William Baldwin secured 3rd place, picking up bronze. Not only was this our most successful medal haul ever in the Quadkids competition, this was our strongest team yet, with magnificent performances from all of our athletes.
Congratulations therefore must go to;
Alex Lambert, Alice Timbrell, Amelie Levitt, Anya Heffer, Beau Parker, Billie Griffiths, Chloe Slaughter, Eden Zarb, Evie Tyler, Evie Walker, Fern Lock, Harry Dean, Jack Wells, Jim George, Leo Nassiri, Luca De Wolf, Max Kirby, Owen Arthur, Owen Morkot, Rosa Knock, Sebastian Flint, Sofia Mell Garcia, Tyler-Storm Alderson, William Baldwin, William Mead, Willoughby Mitchell, Zara Thompson.
For some of our Academy athletes, this was there last opportunity to compete in the Quadkids as they move up to our Under 13s team. For the others, they have another year to look forward to with the experience of a competition behind them already. Roll on 2025!
