Gold medal winner!

Year 10 student Qí-Chi, won a Gold medal last Friday in the intermediate triple Jump event with a PB of 12.21m at the 92nd edition, 2023 English Schools Track and Field Championships, held in Birmingham. The championships are often regarded as the “Olympics” of junior athletics. This medal awards Qí-Chi with an England school’s vest, she will be heading to Scotland in two weeks time representing the England Team. The PB of 12.21m also means that Qí-Chi has qualified for the European U18 Championships taking place in Slovakia next year.

The newly refurbished Alexander Stadium which hosted the commonwealth games last year, was a hive of excitement with over 2000 athletes representing counties from all over England competing at Junior, Intermediate and Senior levels.

The triple jump was one of the first events with a pool of 16 jumpers with Qí-Chi being one of the youngest. Qí-Chi entered the competition ranked #1 in the UK, a rank which she has maintained all year. Despite less than favourable conditions she put together a dominant series of jumps, her first attempt of 11.94m was enough to take the lead which was never challenged.

Knowing that she had already secured a gold medal, Qí-Chi went on to secure a new PB of 12.21m, amazingly a full 70cm ahead of the 2nd place competitor. This distance places her 14th on the UK all-time rankings for U17 girls. This is still Qí-Chi’s first year competing within this age group and she still has the rest of this season and another full year next year. Well done Qí-Chi!