After another successful sporting year for The Minster Juniors, the Croydon Schools Athletics Championships produced the icing on the cake for the school.

The exciting annual three day competition, held at Croydon Arena, took place from the 24th - 26th June 2019. Three scorching days produced many blistering performances across a variety of events.

The Minster Junior School's boys' and girls' relay teams entered the finals after both teams qualified with the fastest times during the heats and semi-finals.

Final leg of the boys' team Ryan Woode said, "We felt pressure going into the final as the favourites because two years ago our school broke the record in the heats and semi-final and then ended up losing in the final!"

In 2017, the Minster's relay team broke a 34 year-old record twice, before coming second in the final. Luckily this didn't happen again as this year's team stormed to victory. This is the first time since 2003 that the Minster Juniors have won the boys' relay.

The girls' team also produced a fantastic display by winning the finals by 10 clear metres. The Minster last won this race in 2014. In addition, the Minster was the overall point winners for the girls across all events.

An ecstatic Gareth Davies (Sports Leader at the Minster Junior School) said, "This has been our best ever sporting year as a school. We had already been crowned champions of Croydon in tag-rugby, high-5 netball, sportshall athletics, girls' football and quadkids athletics, representing Croydon at the London Youth Games in three different sports this year. Our children give up a lot of their time to practise and improve. I am very proud of them all."

Headteacher Wendy Jacobs added, "We have flourished over the years at sport and this was another fine example of how hard our children work in order to succeed. We celebrate and encourage all talents in our school. We are immensely proud of our young athletes."

Children's names from left to right in relation to the photos:

Zitelu Esiefiho, Dunsin Jaiyesimi, Tito Adeloa, Ryan Woode, Willis Koomson, Lauren Hunton, Sarai Abamba, Jaya Banahene, Sy'ria Thompspn-Campbell and Nenye Nneji