2 minute read
Athletics 1976
from Oct 1977
by StPetersYork
Athletics at School took a leap forward this season with the inclusion of new throwing events and some longer track races at certain levels. The standards system was also revised to allow some reward for smaller improvements in performances, so that instead of the 3-point system there was introduced a 5 and sometimes 6-point system to improve the motivation for better performances.
There is surely no other sport that can cater for so many people at so many levels for so many different events or skills. Thus different somatatypes can now find success in being part of a House team in a House competition, the likes of which very few other sports can offer. That old and possibly forgotten maxim of "everyone pulling together" can be seen to be believed in the first few weeks of the School year. Yet with all these assets, the sport still has only 14 or 10 games afternoons —as is the case for 1977—in which to be brought out of the cupboard, dusted down, shown off and then put back into moth balls until the next year. A situation that might justify careful reconsideration now that the sport has a new and fuller format.
The new events included in the Standards Competition and the Inter House Athletics Shield were the Shot for all age groups, the Discus and Javelin for the under 17's, the 3,000 metres race for Under 17's and Seniors and the 800 metres and 1500 metres for the Under 15 ag6 group.
These new events make previous standards competition comparisons no longer viable as the statistics and averages involved are incompatible. So too, does the practice of achieving maximum points per age group no longer apply, but the following boys achieved the best raw scores for their ages:
J. H. Larcombe (School House) 38 pts R. E. Craig (Queen's) 35 pts K. P. Clarkson (Manor) 42 pts R. M. Craig (Queen's) 49 pts R. H. Iveson (School House) 38 pts
The average per boy in each House was as follows:— I. Queen's 21.8 Winner of the Athletics Standards Competition 2. School House 18.4 3. Rise 17.4 4. Dronfield 16.9 5. Manor 16.2 6. Temple 15.9 7. Grove 13.4
The Athletics finals day provided a very keen contest for the interHouse shield. On a day that was cold but fine, fortunate for the time of year, the competition was not decided until the very last track race with Temple just beating Queen's to overall winner. All but one of the Junior Age Group records was broken and K. P. Clarkson managed some very fast sprinting to create three new records for the Intermediate Group. Congratulations to all the winners, a list of whom, and their events, is as follows:—
