Broughton Primary School wins Preston Primary athletics final

Primary indoor athletics.,,,,on yer marks

Hosted by the University of Central Lancashire, the event saw more than 550 year five and six pupils from more than 30 Preston primary schools converge at the Sir Tom Finney Sports centre to compete in various track and field events, before Broughton CE Primary was crowned the overall winner.

The competition is a key fixture in the Preston primary school sports calendar and staff and students from UCLan’s School of Sport and Wellbeing teamed up with volunteers from Preston Harriers and Ashton Community Science College Sports Leaders to deliver the athletics programme for the third year running. Each of the schools took part in events such as hurdles, javelin, long jump and relay racing, with children from Preston Harriers providing demonstrations of some of the sports.

Among the schools taking part in the event were St Andrew’s CE Primary School in Ashton.

Primnary Schools indoor athletics.... javelin

Headteacher Scott Martland said: “This is a great opportunity for us to be involved in an event that brings children together from right across the Preston area, mixing different cultural backgrounds in an way that will hopefully inspire many of the pupils to do more sport at school.”

UCLan lecturer in sport and wellbeing Chris Gunn, who worked closely with school games organiser, Harriet Ascroft, to coordinate the event said: “This is the third year the university has hosted the event and the number of schools being represented is growing each year.”

He added that the university staff and students work closely with a number of local schools to promote sport, health and fitness and said: “ This is a great way of highlighting that message in a fun way to the many hundreds of pupils who have attended the event.

“Inclusivity and enjoyment are key and we hope that many pupils will be inspired by the event to make sport and physical activity a really important part of their lives.”

Harvey Forbes, 10 from St Andrew’s said: "I love the competitive edge that comes with the games and the fact that it encourages you to try your hardest.”