News
Welsh Schools Sportshall Finals Report
11/03/2019 00:00, In School News /
WSAA Sportshall Final - Cwmbran Stadium - Sunday, March 10th
Welsh Schools held its’ annual Sporshall final at Cwmbran Stadium on Sunday, writes Steve Jones (WSAA). The event is the culmination of a series of regional qualifiers held across the 8 School Districts and represents one of the largest grass roots events in Wales with many athletes who sit outside the club system. It provides a great vehicle for both talent identification and for providing young athletes with a fun, safe and exciting introduction to competitive athletics.
This year teams representing North West Wales (Eryri School District), Powys, Dyfed, Afan Nedd Tawe and Cardiff & the Vale all took part. The event features team competitions at both Under 13 and Under 15 levels with an individual competition for Under 15s (based on a points system similar to multi event competition).
It was again teams from North West Wales and Powys which dominated the event. However, it was Powys who came out on top winning 3 out of 4 team events with the North West having to settle for a win in the Under 15 Boys as well as one team silver and 2 bronze. Teams from Dyfed (2) and Afan Nedd Tawe (1) shared the remaining silver medals whereas Cardiff & the Vale and Powys shared the remaining team bronze medals one each.
There were closer battles for the individual trophies, the girls’ event being successfully defended by Keira McVeagh (Powys) on 137with 3 athletes ties for second as Maya Omar (Cardiff & the Vale), Zara Evans (Dyfed) and Ela Oliver (North West Wales) all scored 135. North West Wales’s Owen Parry took the boys individual (142) from team mate Jacob Davies 139. There was another tie for third with both Ben Vincent (Cardiff & Vale) and Ryan Jeffries (North West Wales) both scoring 138.
The winning teams will now advance to the UK final in Manchester during mid- April, they are accompanied by the two individual winners who get the chance to contest the individual competition which runs alongside the team event.
Thanks go to Chris Moss and the Network Officers Team from Welsh Athletics as well as all the teachers, district officers, sports development staff and press-ganged volunteers who supported all the qualifying matches and yesterday’s final. Special thanks also go to Adam Burgess and the team from UK Sportshall for the great job they do in driving the competitions.