Sporting Stars

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SPORTING STARS H

Phoebe

Phoebe has been one of our elite athletes for two sports - tennis and netball since she started Knole in year 7. Phoebe has represented U18 Sevenoaks tennis club who compete in the premier tennis league, playing both singles and doubles. She recently won the Park Langley woman’s doubles grade 3 tournament, and has been called up to the Women’s Kent summer county cup team playing alongside Wimbledon legend Emma Raducanu. Phoebe was also selected for the U19 Saracens Mavericks netball squad when she just turned 17 at the end of year 12. During lockdown Phoebe was able to train in Hertfordshire three times a week and play against Surrey Storm whilst training and playing tennis for Kent as well as completing 3 A levels at Knole Academy. Phoebe is following in her sister Beth’s footsteps by going to the University of Hertfordshire and carrying on with the Saracens Mavericks squad.

It has been a pleasure to teach and coach Phoebe in the last 7 years and we wish her all the success in her future.

Chloe is a multi-talented individual, and more specifically is very dedicated and passionate about tennis, at which she has represented Kent on multiple occasions.

Towards the end of last year, Chloe had a very successful Grade 4 tournament playing for the Under-16s, putting her in a good stead to perform and compete well this year. At the start of May, as part of a team effort, Chloe competed against several other counties, beating Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of White. Unfortunately, they lost to a strong Middlesex team with three of the single matches going to championship tiebreaks.

Chloe’s remarkable performance has quite literally led her tennis journey to progress further, as she competed in her first Under-18s International Tennis Federation tournament.

Chloe

Daisy in Year 9 represented Knole Academy in the ‘London Schools Athletics Association Combined Events Meet’ at Lee Valley Athletic Centre on Wednesday 26 May 2021, which incorporated the Kent and Middlesex Schools Combined Events Championships. H It was always going to be a competitive day with 43 entries in the Junior Girls event and that proved to be the case.

Another great result for a first experience as Chloe won her first round qualifying match, but sadly lost her second to an older, more experienced girl. Nevertheless, there is no stopping Chloe as the following weekend she travelled back to Wales and played in her first Under-14s Tennis Europe competition. Again, Chloe aced the first round qualifying match, but unfortunately lost the following match on a championship tiebreak.

We are very lucky to have such a gifted individual at Knole, and there is no doubt that Chloe’s great courage and determination will continue to have such a positive impact on her sporting performance in the future.

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In the first event, 75m hurdles, Daisy was just beaten into second place in a time of 11.80 seconds. A good start to her competition. She then moved onto one of her favourite events, the long jump. Daisy produced three excellent jumps, the best being 5.27m, the top jump of the day.

Following a well deserved lunch break, Daisy moved on to the high jump where she produced an outstanding series of jumps. Opening her account at 1.45m, after all the other competitors in her pool had failed their seven jumps, she cleared first time. This was followed by first time clearances at 1.50m and 1.55m. She then attempted 1.60m, a new PB which she cleared at her second attempt. She then had two very close failures at 1.65m which is an ESAA National Standard. The points awarded put Daisy in the overall lead for the first time.

Daisy’s next event was the Shot and in the first round produced a solid throw of 9.48m. This was followed by two no throws which meant she started the final event, the 800m in a strong position but knowing that her nearest rival from Middlesex was a much faster runner over the distance. Despite being well beaten in the final event, Daisy put in a fighting performance to produce a new PB to win the overall competition with a total score of 3,183 an ESAA National Standard.

Daisy’s performance broke the Blackheath & Bromley Harriers AC 21 year old club record by a massive 293 points and places her 48th on the Under 15 All Time list. By comparison Jessica Ennis-Hill scored 3,109 points at the same age as Daisy.

In the last month Daisy has achieved three ESAA National standards in the Long jump (5.43m), 75m hurdles (11.39 sec) and Pentathlon (3,183 points).

We are incredibly proud of Daisy’s achievements and look forward to reporting on her future successes, we are very confident she will become an athlete to watch.