Chronicle Summer 2024

61 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

reward for their commitment to training and school athletics. It is not only these records, 1st places and medals which are to be celebrated, every athlete has this season achieved a personal best - the best measure of success you can have in track and field. A central record of times and distances from the season’s fixtures is kept so that targets can be set, so that everyone has something to “look up” to. With steely determination and an intrinsic drive for constant improvement, along with the encouragement and support of an impressive team of coaches, Teddies’ athletes have looked up, focused, and succeeded. The lower years have also had a wonderful group of Upper Sixth athletes and role models to look up to. The team has been very well led by Captains Alice Hannah, Aidan Walker, Jack Wood and Nina Brown, all talented athletes who could not have set a better example at our school fixtures. To the Upper Sixth who are leaving and to all of the Athletics Club: always look up, but you can also look back on a fantastic season and many happy memories. I know I certainly will.

competition is fierce; it is the place to go to for a new PB and a top three finish is something to be proud of, a win even more so. Charlie Jones did just that, winning a very close senior boys’ 1500m race, and in the 800m races Aidan Walker crossed the line in 2nd for the seniors and Ronan Mulji was 3rd in the inters. Toros Esen was 2nd in the inter discus, javelin and high jump, and Alex Hitchings was 2nd in junior triple jump and 3rd in the 300m. In the B-string events Jack Wood and Aidan each won their 800m and 1500m races. Overall, the team finished in 4th place out of eight behind Harrow, Brighton and Whitgift. In our second visit to Harrow, Aidan went one better, and the pick of the track performances was a brilliant win by him in the 800m, tactically timing his race to perfection. There have also been school records broken this year. Aidan Walker set a new senior boys’ 800m record of 1:56 mins and Charlie Jones broke the senior boys’ 3000m record with a time of 8:30 mins. No one has run these two races faster since the 1970s. Charlie also bettered his own senior boys’ 1500m record (set last summer) by 4 seconds when he ran the race in 3:54 mins. We wish Aidan and Charlie all the best at the English Schools’ Track and Field Championships in July - both have qualified and been selected to represent Oxfordshire schools. This summer we hosted the first Teddies ‘home’ fixture at Iffley Road, fittingly in the same week in which Oxford University celebrated the 70th anniversary of Sir Roger Bannister’s sub-4-minute mile. On the same famous track, Nina Brown broke the senior girls’ 400m record which has stood for 10 years, Florence Williams broke her own IG 800m record, set last year, and Alice Hannah equalled her own senior girls’ high jump record. At Marlborough, Xanthe Docherty took 1 second off the junior girls’ 75m hurdle record and jumped 1.45m to set a new junior girls’ record for the high jump. Sophie Wright also went into the record books when she broke the senior girls’ 200m record on Sports Day, with a time of 27.91s. Impressive running and jumping by all six of these athletes, and just

Katie Gill

Radley Multi-Events Senior Silver winners: Jem Mavroleon, Walt Moore, Aidan Walker and Kit Heffer