Sgoil Ghaidhlig have done it again, we’ve won the Glasgow Schools Giant Heptathlon Championships. This the schools second victory in this event in 3 years. This year the team had only pupils who had experienced the event last year, Abbey and Peggy-Nan. The rest of the team were new to competition, some didn’t realise they were doing it until 5pm the day before. On the day the whole team performed exceptionally well. There was a tremendous display of teamwork and sportman and sportswomanship. There were 14 schools form Glasgow taking part and this year the competition was very, very tough. 97 male and female athletes took part in each event. We had a number or top 20 finishes in the individual events and a handful of podium finishes too!
Girls 600m
Abbey 1st
Peggy-Nan 2nd
Sarah 4th
Kerry 7th
Boys 600m
Rico 6th
Flynn 20th
Girls Javelin
Peggy-Nan 2nd
Kerry 7th
Ceitidh 20th
Boys Javelin
Cameron 4th
Robert 7th
Girls 60m Hurdles
Abbey 8th
Sarah 10th
Girls Shot Putt
Millie 3rd
Abbey 5th
Ceitidh 14th
Kerry 17th
Boys Shot Putt
Rico 7th
Girls Standing Long Jump
Millie 10th
Ceitidh 12th
Sarah 13th
Kerry 18th
Boys Standing Long Jump
Robert 11th
Cameron 17th
Girls 60m
Abbey 4th
Kerry 20th
Boys 60m
Rico 20th
Girls Standing Triple Jump
Ceitidh 3rd
Kerry 8th
Abbey 9th
Boys Standing Triple Jump
Flynn 11th
Cameron 13th
After each person had completed the 7 individual events there was the 6 x 100m Relays which runs as a sepearate event. This is a very exciting competition which involves heats then finals. With only 6 lanes there was only room for 6 schools in the final. Unlike last year both the girls and the boys qualified for the final. However there was mixed results in the finals. Unfortunately a finishing runner from another school cut up one of our athletes on leg 4 which resulted in our runner falling and having to get back up to hand the baton over. This ended our fight for the medals but what a strength of character to get up and get on with it. All following runners ran their fastest to the line to catch up with the pack despite this unfortunate incident. A cruel lesson learnt but I was very impressed with how the boys responded to the set back. After some not so great changeovers in the heats the girls went into the final with motivation to make things right! This year’s girls final had some very quick individuals and teams, SGG included. The changeovers were better in the final but going into the final leg we were sitting in 3rd place a second down on the top 2. A tall order for any athlete to come back from this in a 100m on a tight bend. Enter Sarah Bonad, our talented S1 pupil. Sarah took the baton from Peggy-Nan and used the first 50m to get on the shoulder of the top 2 Schools, she then went past them and won the race for SGG by a couple of strides. What a finish to top off a great team performance.
Most importantly on the day the 14 members of the team displayed enthusiasm, effort, teamwork and a lot of hard work. Regardless of any results this is our biggest success. I hope that they can continue this as we move into the summer athletics season.
A big congratulations to the team for becoming Glasgow Schools Champions!
