Sheffield Schools Cycle Speedway Championships

Friday 8 May 2009

Sheffield Cycle Speedway held the first ever schools cycle speedway championship on Friday with five schools taking part in the inaugural event. Each school fielded a team made up of complete novice riders, who for the majority had only experienced the sport from 'come and try it' sessions held on grass at their respective schools.

Over the past two years the club has been involved with one or two schools, providing after-school clubs and holiday competitions. This year they obtained a grant to provide some 90 sessions into 8 different schools and the schools championship was the perfect vehicle to bring together the coaching sessions and introduce the kids to the competitive side of the sport. Club coach Rob Mawhood, the driving force behind the competition, is hoping to use the event to get into more schools and even the possibility that the sport may appear on the school curriculum in the near future.

In the team event five teams were able to take part with Stocksbridge, the only team to have experienced the track previously, taking an early lead. Soon the other teams seemed to adjust to the track conditions and a real battle developed for second place between Park Academy, Bradfield and All Saints. Stocksbridge's consistency enabled them to take the title, with Park Academy second and Bradfield 3rd. Wisewood school, who hadn't even had the luxury of a taster session at their school because of the weather, got better as the day progressed and were full of smiles at he end.

In the individual event, every rider had a series of qualifying races, with the top four points scorers competing in a one off final to find the Sheffield Schools Champion for 2009. Amazingly the four riders to reach the final were from different schools, which illustrated the progress made by riders throughout the day. At some point during the race all four riders led with the lead changing hands on at least 6 occasions before Bradley Seymour from All Saints School took the lead with one lap to go to become Sheffield Schools Champion for 2009.

Sheffield Schools Team Championship

 

Stocksbridge 50, Park Academy 44, Bradfield 42, All Saints 39, Wisewood 30

 

Sheffield Schools Individual Championship

1st Bradley Seymour (All Saints), 2nd Bruce Dickenson (Stocksbridge), 3rd Zac Mohammed (Park Academy), 4th Kyle Johnson (Bradfield)