Athletics

Athletics is the major summer sport for girls and runs alongside cricket for the boys.

All students are welcomed to the athletics programme, whether they have had previous experience or not and students are warmly encouraged to participate in all events to begin with. Over time, the School’s experienced coaches, together with strong links with the Priory Athletics Club, help to bring out the best in students and enable them to achieve their goals.

Pre- season training takes place during the winter terms and training then runs weekly during the summer for all age groups. Both the boys and girls teams are entered for leagues, meetings and District competitions. Depending on performances at the District competitions pupils have the opportunity to progress to County and National levels.

In the District competitions last year our Second Form boys and girls both won their respective competitions, as did the Third Form girls. 18 students were subsequently selected for the East Surrey district team that competed in the Surrey championships. Laurie Overtoom, was crowned junior boys 200m champion of Surrey and who subsequently competed in the national championships in the 200m and the 4x100m on behalf of the County. Issie Grant also represented Surrey in the 75m hurdles, but just missed selection for the National Championships as the team was finalised before she achieved the qualifying time.
The First and Second Form girls also won their respective track and field leagues.

At the Trinity Group U14 athletics championships held at Portsmouth, the school team, again performed to a very high standard, with the boys achieving 4th place (best co-ed school!) and the girls winning their competition.

The Athletics season always ends with our school sports day. It is held on a Saturday and parents are invited to spectate. All pupils from the First to Fourth Form have the opportunity to shine and win awards both individually and for their Form.

Complementing the Athletics programme is a running club which takes place weekly throughout the winter and prepares individuals for cross-country and track distance events. This year we had 13 girls and two boys representing the District at the County Cross-Country Championships and Laura Gent and Henry McCann went on to compete at the Nationals. Laura Gent was then selected to represent England at the World Schools Cross Country Championships in Malta where she helped the team win Gold.