FRANKIE STEWART was the star of yesterday’s AFM Super Six Athletics Challenge finals at Beau Sejour. The 13-year-old Ladies College student won all four of the Year 8 events.
There were no surprises when the cross-country specialist triumphed in the bleep test, but she also took the sprint, throwing and jumping contests.
‘I thought I was only going to win the bleep test because that’s the only one I’ve been training for,’ said Stewart, who also featured in the island’s under-15 hockey team which defeated Jersey last Saturday.
Started last year and the brainchild of the GIAAC development officer Lee Merrien, who could not be at the finals as he is currently training in South Africa, the Super Sixes saw the island’s schools compete in an innovative indoor athletics competition.
It was designed to test the four pillars of athletics - speed, strength, power and endurance - and there were big prizes on offer.
The finals saw the top six athletes in each discipline battle it out for the honours.
The first discipline was a 30m turnaround sprint where an athlete runs and springs off a board to head back towards the finishing line with a pair of trainers up for grabs for the victors.
Stewart took the Year 8 girls’ class with a time of 5.05sec. whereas the boys was won by St Sampson’s Liam Santos, who set a new record of 4.71sec.
‘It was brilliant, I’ve never got a record before,’ said the 12-year-old.
‘I’ve got no special technique - I just go with the flow. If I can’t do well first time, I try harder next time.’
St Sampson’s were successful in the Year 9 boys’ sprint as well - the gold went to 14-year-old Will Garnett, while the girls’ went to Ciara Fossey, 13, of the Grammar School.
Next up in the overhead throwing of a medicine ball and an iPod shuffle as the prize, the diminutive Stewart proved that size does not matter as she threw 7.60m.
This was the same distance as her Ladies College teammate Sian Brodrick’s best effort, but Stewart won on count back.
It proved to be a tough day for Brodrick, who had also finished runner-up to Stewart in the sprint.
In the Year 8 boys, St Peter Port’s Luke Robilliard was the winner and fellow St Peter Port student Luke Vaudin took the Year 9 accolade.
Budding tennis player Georgina Denton of Grammar won the Year 9 girls’ event.
In the following standing long jump competition, Stewart this time won a sport-hooded top when she reached 2.09m.
Grammar’s Ryan Tostevin won the Year 8 event and Fossey was at the top of the podium again when she leapt 5.05m.
The Year 9 boys’ category belonged to Sam Stonebridge with 2.38.
The 14-year-old Les Beaucamps student came second in the discipline last year.
‘I’m pleased to win. I just launched myself,’ he said.
And lastly, to test endurance, there was the bleep test in which the competitor has to run back and forth to beat a bleep that steadily gets quicker.
Stewart claimed another iPod Shuffle as she reached level 12.2. Grammar David Campbell won the Year 8 boys.
Year 9 girls went to Ladies College Nicole Petit while all eyes were fixed on the Year 9 boys, as two of Guernsey’s finest young long-distance runners, Marcus Heaume and Sam Hall, matched up against each other.
Last year saw a real humdinger between the pair that was edged by Heaume.
The St Sampson’s pupil took the honours again this year, but it was not the challenge it was 12 months ago as Hall, who has been struggling with knee problems of late, dropped out at the start of level 14 to finish fourth.
Alex Falla and Michael Steele-Moore came in joint second as Heaume eventually baled out at an impressive level 15.8.
The Grammar School took the best girls’ team accolade while Heaume’s performance helped see St Sampson’s win the boys’ prize.
‘It’s excellent, I’m really impressed,’ said St Sampson’s head of PE, Debbie Ashford.
‘The boys were really enthusiastic and they all stayed and supported each other, which was good to see.’
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