Indoor Athletics Final

I got home at about 7pm this evening after attending the East Norfolk Schools Indoor Athletics Final. It has been a long day and I am glad to be home but am very proud of the children who represented Hillside this afternoon. It was a very tough final with Moorlands, Edward Worlledge, Ormesby and Cliff Park in attendance at Lynn Grove. We arrived here after winning our semi-final in November with Moorlands from our competition finishing as best runners-up across the four semi-final competitions.
When I woke up this morning I must admit I was confident that we could win or come close to winning and to be honest was getting excited that we may get the opportunity to represent East Norfolk in the Winter Games tournament in March in Norwich. However, it was not to be our night tonight and we came up against some excellent opposition.
A few illnesses and injuries weakened us a little but the athletes who went more than made up for this and worked their hardest, often being put in for races at the shortest notice.
Hannah couldn't be with us tonight due to illness so Jodie did a great job filling in for her in the dreaded Paarlauf race which is made up of 6 laps raced in pairs. Hannah Woolley came in to make her debut and was obstructed in her first race but finished with pride. Unfortunately, she didn't get the place she deserved. Toby took Taylor's place in the boys Paarlauf and ran a great race with Josh on very short notice. Georgia jumped in to the obstacle race after 'rolly-polly-gate' filling in for Emily who was insistent that she couldn't do a rolly-polly, even though she did one in the semi-final! Max ran well following his illness, you wouldn't have known that he had been off school for a week.
I could go on to mention everybody but I would like to say I am incredibly proud of all the athletes and thankful to all the parents for their support they give in all the sporting events we undertake.

There is no need to be disappointed with fifth place tonight as it is fifth place out of around 20 schools in East Norfolk. Ormesby deserved their win today but we will be back next year and ready to go again. Despite some dodgy refereeing and measuring and some less than desirable coaching by other parties, the children didn't complain once, even though I did, and they were as gracious in defeat tonight as they were in victory when we won the semi-final as few months ago. Well done Hillside, we are all proud of you.