A TALENTED high jumper made a major leap towards her Olympic dreams after securing a personal best at her school sports day.
Ellie Morris, a student at Bede Academy, in Blyth, took the honours in the high jump competition with a winning height of 1.6m, 20cm higher than the previous academy record. She also set a new record in the 100m hurdles and now holds these records in all years from 7-10.
The 15-year-old member of Blyth Running Club is just a couple of centimetres short of the qualifying height needed for the English Schools Competition.
Her school success at the ninth annual games, at Monkton Stadium, came on the heels of the Year 10 student winning the Northumberland County Championships.
She said: “My grandad used to run and introduced me to the club. I tried high jump and have been competing for the past three years. I would love to go to the Olympics and my coach seems to think this is achievable.”
Fellow Blyth Running Club member, Year 12 student Adam Swalwell, was also delighted with his performance coming first in the 100m and anchoring his team to victory in the relay. The 17-year-old recorded a personal best of 11.7 seconds.
Cuthbert house came out on top overall on a day that witnessed 12 new academy records, half set in the sixth form reflecting the strength of the year group.
Taylor Glover took the 800m in a new record time of 2m 04s while Holly Knox set new record figures in the Year 9 javelin, winning for the second year running.
Victor/Victrix ludorum winners, awarded to the best all round performances in each category, were:
Year 7: Ethan Irving, Charlotte Penman
Year 8: Oliver Lorraine, Ellie O’Brien
Year 9: Ethan Alia, Abbie Ross
Year 10: Andrew Thornton, Ellie Morris
Year 12: Alex Jones, Kennedie Elliot