The Sports Faculty

Lastyear was certainly challenging in many ways, but of course this gave us an opportunity to develop other skills and avenues for development. For instance, I hope that you have had the chance to listen to the podcasts we produced, ‘A Trip down Goddington Lane’, where we discussed the sporting journeys of some of our most successful sportsmen and women. With a focus on personal fitness and adapted team games the aim was to ensure that students were gaining the benefits of physical activity but also were able to socialise with team-mates. The absence of many sporting fixtures against other schools was certainly frustrating but we were impressed with how our students responded to this amended curriculum. When extra-curricular activities were able to resume we were overwhelmed at the number of students attending activities – on some days over 100 students from just one year group. A thirst for sport certainly has not diminished in recent years! The summer term was welcomed with a return to competitive fixtures in cricket, athletics and tennis which culminated in our own Sport’s Day. I would like to take this opportunity to thank both staff and students for their positivity during these difficult months and commitment to helping run the PE and sports programme – we often say in sport that it is in adversity that you learn the most about yourself. As a faculty we have learned that we are privileged to working with this cohort of young people and the staff who give up their time to help them develop. There is much to be positive as we look ahead to the new year –new facilities and new opportunities to grow and shine: we look forward to sharing the journey with you.

Kenward Director of Sport

Swimming

Congratulations to Srikar Namireddy, who was selected to compete in the 2021 British Swimming Championships in London during April. This event will feature highly in the qualification process for the Tokyo Olympic Games. This is a great opportunity for Srikar to put in a strong case for European Championship selection, if not an Olympic event, and he is reaping the rewards of an immense breakout season in 2019/2020.

Special Achievement

Isaac Olaleye has been selected for the Kent Under 15 Football Squad for 2020-21.

Old Olavian, Keiron Walton, is playing Premier League Hockey for Exeter University Hockey Club

Badminton

Paulius Bartkus, won a Gold medal in the doubles and a Bronze medal in the Kent Badminton tournament. Sai Reddy achieved success in badminton by winning a Bronze medal in the Kent U16 tournament, especially impressive as he is a year young for this.

Arjun Jadhav won a Silver in the U16 Boys Double at the Kent Junior Restricted Badminton Tournament held in Canterbury. Caleb Boy turned professional as a squash player and has already played a couple of professional matches. In the boys U17 national rankings for this month he is ranked at number one in England. Congratulations and we look forward to following his squash career

Gatliff Marathon

Congratulations to Matias Morgan who completed an ultra-marathon over the summer break. The event took place on 22 August, with an ultra-distance route of 50km (just over 31 miles) on paths and trails through the Kent and Surrey countryside. It was not just a run though as the course was not marked and had to be navigated by following written instructions only which added to the challenge, and meant a distance of 55km (34 miles) was actually covered! Matias finished in a total time of just over 9 hours with a well-deserved jam and cream scone at the end!

Cricket

Due to the pandemic, last year’s U12 team had to wait until September to play their county Plate final against Judd. The opposition eventually posted a total of 150 and, despite an excellent 58 not out from opener Yuvraj Tibrewal and an enterprising 28 from captain Liam Butterworth, we fell 20 runs short. An excellent occasion though and well done to the boys for playing so well

Tennis

Well done to our Year 7 tennis team who played against the City of London School. This was a very competitive fixture culminating in a close win for the A team and a loss for the B teams. Congratulations to all the players who performed. Also, well done to all the Year 10 athletes who competed at the Bromley Schools’ Intermediate Championships.

Rugby

Despite lockdown preventing any fixtures, rugby was still played by the various year groups as House matches and in training. Arun Kaushik was made captain and the senior players led by example through their positive attitude in adversity.

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