Three Chesterfield schools triumph at Derbyshire School Games
Three schools in Chesterfield have seen considerable success at the Derbyshire School Games – a national competition, this year featuring sprint stars Jonnie Peacock MBE and Harry Aikines-Aryeetey.
Top achievers at Springwell Community College were proud to receive both gold and silver medals in the Tennis Plus, while Tupton Hall School took home silvers in a total of three events – Cricket Plus, the Super Sixes Golf Plus and the Quadkids Athletics Secondary competition.
Also celebrating are students at Brookfield Community School who were pleased to scoop bronze in the Super Sixes Golf Plus.
Paralympian Peacock – London 2012 gold medallist in the T44 100m – was interviewed during the opening ceremony about his rise to stardom and spoke about how he had been inspired as a School Games athlete.
“These Games are so important because it teaches the kids so many different things on so many different levels,” he said. “If they can look at my journey and emulate that in any possible way, that’s going to be a huge win for me.”
World, European and Commonwealth medallist Aikines-Aryeetey was just as popular, giving a speech about the importance of having a positive, ‘can do’ attitude.
Aikines-Aryeetey said: “It has been really fun, an honour to be here. I really enjoyed listening to the young people talking about their experiences in sport, watching them in action and seeing the enjoyment on their faces.”
Both athletes took part in the opening ceremony, which saw captains from each of the school sport partnerships act as flag bearers, accompanied by athletes on the Derbyshire Institute of Sport (DIS) programme.
A Heritage School dance group also performed at the opening ceremony and then assisted Katherine Wilkins from Deda in leading the warm-up routines.
Others to show their support at the Derbyshire Sport-led event were nine-time Paralympic swimming medallist Martin Mansell, Paralympic footballer Leon Taylor and Commonwealth Games bronze medalist Caroline Povey.
Almost 1,000 young people from across the county attended the Derbyshire School Games Event at Trent College – all competing in 11 events in a total of seven sports.
Each of the 87 teams from 58 schools taking part – from High Peak to South Derbyshire – had already excelled to get through to this stage, having qualified by winning their local area competition.
Image: Tupton Hall School students with DIS athlete and Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Caroline Povey and Paralympic CP footballer Leon Taylor.
