Sport Round Up - June 2021

Millfield Athletes competed across the UK over half term. The endurance group ran well with Max Nicolle ranking 3^rd in the UK at U20 level in the 2000m steeplechase. His personal best run of 6.10 was a personal best and a national schools qualifier. Upper Sixth Will Aitkin ran sub 4 minutes in the 1500m with 3.55 in the Millfield BMC classic event, a national school’s qualifier. Year 10 student Iris Courtney ran an 8 second personal best of 4.52 mins. On the field events, Jamie Holland threw a shot putt personal best and English Schools qualifier of 11.21 metres to rank inside the UK’s top 16. In the sprint events, Harriet Tuson ran her 3^rd personal best of the summer of 58.69. Lucy Fellows ran a 200m personal best of 25.51 to give her a third event she has qualified for the national schools in.

Millfield played host to 16 schools for the South West final of the English Schools cup. It was a great opportunity for Year 9 and 10 students. The English Schools cup is a team event where each result is turned into points and added together to develop an overall team score. Both boys and girls teams were victorious. Year 10 Maddy Beeching set a new school record for the 2^nd time this month in triple jump with 11.00m. Melissa McClusker ran 200m in 2.23 before running the 4x100 metre relay less than 10 minutes later. Iris Courtney ran a strong 1500m race in 4.50. For the boy’s team, Mack Niddrie threw a new personal best in the javelin of 51.59m.

Lower Sixth students Harry Barton and Sophie Hamilton competed at the England U20 Championships. Sophie won a silver medal in the u20 women’s javelin with a massive new personal best of 46.83, this performance sets a new Millfield school record breaking a record which had stood since 1973. Harry competed in the 110m hurdles, running 14.16 seconds to finish second in a high-quality race and beating the current school record.

Year 9 athletes competed in the Somerset School’s U15 Championships. Year 9 Stefan Chirita won the U15 boys triple jump with a new personal best of 11.23, ranking 7^th in England for the season. Bill Godden (discus) and Oscar Webb (high jump) won their events with a new lifetime best from Bill of 34.95. All three boys now rank high enough to represent Somerset at July’s English Schools championships.

Other county medal winning performances were seen from Skye Kay (hurdles and 100m), Sengul Ceylan (100 and 200m) and Charlie Tuthill (hurdles).

Millfield athletics hosted to an inter-schools match offering local school pupils an opportunity to race and compete at a real athletics venue. Over 300 students from 10 schools competed across the course of the day with some superb athletics taking place.

64 Millfield students compete in the first athletics championship for two years in Yeovil.

Millfield achieved 30 gold medals, 16 silver and 13 bronze medals contributing to an excellent 59 medals in total alongside three championship best performances, three school records and a huge number of personal bests.

The first event of the day was the 400m hurdles where Lower Sixth Lucy Chalmers ran a new personal best to win a high-class race. Her 61.08 keeps her at the top of the UK U20 rankings, broke a championship best that has stood for 36 years and created a new Millfield school record. Upper Sixth Abbie Lovering finished third in the same race, qualifying for the English Schools championships with a new personal best of 65.37 seconds.

On the field, Lucy Fellows jumped 6.06m to win the inter-girls long jump, reaching the top of the UK rankings for 2021. Maddy Beeching won the inter-girls long jump with a school record of 10.64 metres. Seb Clatworthy set a new championship best in the high jump of 2.05m, booking his place in the English Schools championships in July.

The senior girls javelin saw Millfield sweep the podium with Sophie Hamilton throwing a huge new personal best of 43.14, now ranked 4^th in the UK. Millie Quaintance and Jamie Holland both threw well with Jamie earlier having won shot putt.

Upper Sixth Harriet Tuson stepped onto the track for the senior girls 400m event, winning gold in a new personal best and English Schools qualifier.

The senior girls’ sprints saw two impressive races with Tottie Taylor winning the 100m event by just 0.01 seconds from Kiera Gilman, both running personal bests. Footballer and sprinter Ella Smith came just behind in a new personal best. The 200m event saw roles reversed with Kiera coming out on top in another dip finish with Kiera, Tottie and Ella all running personal bests again.

The senior boys hammer saw three rugby players take up a new event this summer and perform well to all make the podium. Congratulations Eric Nixon Castillo, Jac Cross and Tom Williams. Emma Gooding took the win in inter-girls pole vault in her first ever competition.

Millfield athletes took part in the prestigious Achilles Relays for the first time since 2019. The event held at the famous Sir Roger Bannister Athletics Track at Oxford University saw a number of teams compete for relay glory. The open girls event saw Millfield quartet Abbie Lovering, Ella Smith, Lucy Fellows and Tottie Taylor storm to an Achilles victory and school record of 48.6 seconds. A fantastic team effort with a strong mix of multi-sport and athletics specialist talent.

In the U17 girls event, Year 11 quartet of Maya Kendell, Sabrina Jones, Izzy Mackenzie and Florence Tuthill finished a hard fought second in the 4x100m before taking the 4x200m victory. The Year 10 team of Emma Gooding, Libby Kilner, Kizzi Reed and Maddy Beeching finished 4^th in both events.

The longer relay of the 3x800m saw the girl’s team of Iris Courtney, Melissa McCusker and Pia Lewis take the win after Pia stormed through in a sprint finish on the final 100m to anchor the team to victory. The boys team made it a double in the 800m as a controlled front run form Jack Harvey, Truts Von-Rechenburg, Voiter Horack and Max Nicolle cruised home to take the victory.

The final medals of the day saw the sprint girls produce another superb performance in the 4 x200m as the Achilles record fell again! This time a quartet of Kai Snell, Ella Smith, Harriet Tuson and Tottie Taylor running 1.45.1 to take the gold medal.

Matthew Hall stepping in on short notice to run all three of the 4x100m, 200m and 400m showing great heart fighting for every metre of track. Melissa McCusker also stepped into the 3x800m team at short notice and ran a well-paced race to set up the final leg runner to take home the gold.

English Schools championship selections were confirmed over the weekend, 17 students were selected. Millfield’s second highest total in the last 10 years. Read more here.

South West Combined event athletes got their first taste of combined competition this year. All Athletes represented Somerset with the winning team and two other highest finishing individuals advancing to the national final.

The first day started brightly with Toks Akanbi-Mortimer jumping a personal best of 5.99 in the long jump and Lucy Fellows running an 80m hurdles best of 11.79. In high jump, James Connelly (1.50), Lucy (1.62) and Stefan Chirita all jumping personal bests or finishing 1^st in their competition. James, Toks and Lucy all finished their day with close to personal best performances in the 200 and 400m respectively. After a strong first four events including a personal best in the 80m hurdles (12.14), Long Jump (5.28m) and High jump (1.62m), Stefan sat in 2^nd place. He ran a fantastic 800m to win the race in 2.15 to hold the second-place spot and qualify for the English Schools combined events in September.

Day two started strongly with James Connelly successfully completing his first 110m hurdles race. Toks also performed strongly in the hurdles (15.15s) to move back into first place. A consistent performance in the Long Jump saw Lucy finish 3^rd to hold onto her overnight lead with 5.46m. A personal best and second place finish in the Javelin of 28.58m saw the gap close before a battling performance in the 800m saw her finish in second place to qualify for the English Schools Combined Events championships.

James completed his first pole vault competition, jumping 2.30m to finish fourth in that event. Closing his competition in the final round, James ran an impressive 1500m in 5.15 to finish in 6^th place overall and qualify for the English Schools Championships with the Somerset team. Toks finished day two with a strong 11.72m in the shot put before finishing the 1500m to see him finish 4^th overall. Toks advanced with the Somerset team winning the championship to take them through.

Athletics OM Jazmin Sawyers has been selected for the Tokyo Olympics.

In Equestrian, Millfield riders qualify for the NSEA Championships at Addington in October. The team in the 90cm class were placed second and our Blue team in the 1m won their class.

90cm class: Millfield riders Josh, Rupert, Siobhan and Ella with their trophies and rosettes

In Fencing, Year 10 Verner Krynauw recently competed in the National Biathle Championships at Millfield, finishing fourth overall and qualifying for the GB team. Read more here.

In Hockey, players Lower Sixth India Owen and Upper Sixth Gwenno Manley have been selected for the U18 and U23 Welsh national hockey teams. Read more here.

Lower Sixth goalkeeper Lottie Wakeham-Dawson has been selected for the England Hockey U18 squad. Read more here.

In Netball, Upper Sixth Ella Porter has been reselected for the Wales Senior Squad alongside Development Coach, Celyn Emmanuel. Read more here.

Millfield’s Team Bath Academy Development Centre (ADC) has had the highest number of players selected into the U17 NPL Long Squad. Congratulations to Lower Sixth Sophie Hamilton, Bella Adu Valeur, Sasha Hartley, Fleur Florin, Year 11 Izzy Mackenzie and two external athletes Alice and Ella. Read more here.

Millfield Polo held a friendly school’s tournament with Marlborough College at Vaux Park Polo Club. Millfield’s team consisted of Year 11 Amani Nzomo, Jemima Heffron, Charles Heffron & Henri Grimme. The first match was against Marlborough college who had a 1.5 goal head start due to a difference in experience of teams the final score was 5-1.5 to Millfield. Millfield then played Harrow who also had a 1.5 goal head start and finished with a winning score of 3-2.5 goals.

Year 11 Jemima Heffron has won the prestigious Black Diamond Ladies Tournament alongside the best polo players in the world.

In Rugby, OMs Ollie Lindsay-Hague and Alec Coombes have been selected to compete in the Tokyo Olympics on the Team GB Rugby sevens side.

In Sailing, Millfield sailors Vanja Ramm-Ericson and her partner, Year 8 Maia D have qualified for the World Sailing Junior Championships in Germany. Read more here.

In Swimming, five current students have been selected for the European Junior Swimming Championships. Sixth Formers Joseph Deighan, William Ellington, Evan Jones and Tamryn van Selm will compete for Great Britain and Year 11 Dimitrios Tsaliagkos will represent his home country Greece. Read more here.