Round 2 Panathlon Success

14 Apr Round 2 Panathlon Success

On Friday 18^th March Mr Kilminster, Ms O’Keefe and I accompanied ten students from Jo Richardson who were representing the Borough as part of the Barking and Dagenham 2016 Panathlon team.  The Panathlon consists of a number of inclusive sports including boccia, table cricket, new age kurling, precision bean bag and indoor athletics.  This event took place between four Boroughs: Barking and Dagenham, Newham, Redbridge and Haringey, and the stakes were high as only the winning team would go through to take part in the London wide finals at the Copper Box in the Olympic Park in June.

The first event was the wheelchair slalom, in which Abigail and Reece took part, showing great consistency in performance, with Panathlon newcomer Reece, again putting in a personal best performance, and securing a silver medal for the team in this event.  The next team to go was the precision bean bag, where Georgina Hart put in an amazing performance, alongside Reagan from Trinity to win a well-deserved gold medal.  Jake Pengelly, in his first year competing in the new age kurling competition also achieved gold, and played some fantastic tactical shots to help the team win.  The table cricket team, Louie Filbert, Arnit Gashi, Khai Sesay and Sam Deriouch played very well, achieving a bronze medal.  The team also achieved bronze in the running races where Harry Ely and Nathan Batt took part.  It was a really closely fought event and right up until the running races we were unsure who would win, however, in the end Barking and Dagenham beat their nearest rivals in the running races and won their place at the Copper Box!

Well done to all the students who participate with an excellent spirit of fair play.  Thanks also to Mr Kilminster and Ms O’Keefe for their support on the day and to Ms Hall for also coming along and giving the team her support.  Can’t wait till June – Copper Box here we come again!

Ms Montague

School Games Co-ordinator