The 2024 School Games National Finals took place at Loughborough University this weekend, 29 August to 1 September.
Since 2006, the School Games National Finals have provided the perfect opportunity for young athletes to experience a mini-Olympics / Paralympics style competition, while spectating and supporting other sporting events across the weekend, staying in fantastic team village accommodation and competing as part of a wider team.
Aimed at U17 athletes, the top 8 in the United Kingdom in each event/sport are selected to compete before being split into a number of equal ‘Olympic’ style teams. Athletics is just one of a number of different events to take place over the weekend, in addition to the likes of Cycling, Triathlon, Cricket, Hockey and Netball.

Zara Jones (Pictured above) finished 4th in her Aquathlon (swim and run) heat which qualified her for the final. She then went on to finish an excellent 4th in the final. In the Bike Circuit Race she finished 5th/28 and in Technical Skills she finished 19th/28.
We also had 3 athletes competing in track and fields events, which is the largest representation the club has ever had at an U17 School Games! Thomas Hill (Pole Vault), Hugo Douglas-Reeves (100m Hurdles) and Izzy Edinboro (300m Hurdles) all qualified by being in the top 8 in the UK for their events. Even more impressive is that Hugo and Izzy are both 1st year U17’s so they came up against competitors a year older in the rankings.



Thomas Hill rounded off a superb season in style, not only jumping a new PB of 4.25m, but also clearing it first time before 3 failures at 4.35m, setting a new club record in the process. This was enough to earn Thomas a superb Bronze medal on countback, having cleared all of his previous heights.
Hugo has had a superb season as a 1st year U17, making the step up in distance to 100m Hurdles from 80m last season as an U15. He’s regularly been in contention for National medals at this age group already, which bodes really well for him next year!
On the day, Hugo narrowly missed out on a Bronze medal by photo finish, finishing in 13.63. The winning time was 13.25 compared with Hugo’s best time this season of 13.33. Excellent performance and all the more impressive as Hugo only took up hurdling last year! He also managed another victory over fellow northern hurdler and all-rounder, Luke Pichler. Quite the rivalry brewing there!



Izzy Edinboro was taking part in the 300m Hurdles at this competition. Despite normally being a flat sprinter, she was still ranked highly enough over hurdles to qualify for the School Games in this event. Izzy finished 5th in 45.97, only 0.01 seconds behind 4th. Even Izzy’s PB of 45.32 wouldn’t have been good enough for a medal on the day, showing the high level of quality athletes on display.
All athletes had another chance of a medal however, having being selected in various relay teams. Hugo helped has team win Gold in the Boys 4 x 100m Relay, with Thomas’s team finishing 4th in the same race. Izzy took part in the 4 x 300m Girls Relay and she will be delighted to have won a Bronze with her team!


Absolutely amazing that each Track and Field athlete came away with a medal and it sounds like a fantastic experience for all involved. Congratulations to all 4 athletes and a fantastic advert for our club and the terrific work put in by our Juniors and coaches.