LOWER Darwen completed an impressive clean sweep of sportshall athletics titles after younger pupils followed in the footsteps of their older school-mates.

Having already triumphed in the Year 5/6 borough finals at the Year 3/4 it was the turn of Year 1/2 to show off their sportshall skills – and they didn’t disappoint!

Blackburn Central High School hosted the last event in the Blackburn and Darwen Sportshall Athletics season. A total of six primary schools take part in a variety of athletic activities which were lead by young leaders from from the host school.

Over the course of four weeks, 11 festivals have taken place across the Borough for all ages. St Anthony’s, The Redeemer, Turton and Edgworth, Salesbury, St James’ Lower Darwen and Lower Darwen attended the event. Teams consisted of four boys and four girls who completed in a variety of activities adapted from the format designed for older children.

And it was smiles all round as pupils had a great time completing in events such as the Vortex throw, the five stride jump and the balancer! They then competed in a series of fun relay races.

After after starring in the two older age groups, Lower Darwen made it a hat-trick of sportshall athletics titles by added the Key Stage One crown as well.

Lower Darwen finished on 104 points with St Anthony’s in second place on 86 points while the Redeemer were third on 74 points.

“It was great to see so many children enjoying the events and so many smiles on faces,” said Andrew Mercer, school games organiser.

“This was probably the first time most pupils had represented their schools at a sporting event, I hope they enjoyed it enough to make them want to get involved in many more events in the future.”

Over the last month more than 800 children aged between six and 11-years-old have taken part in Sportshall Athletics festivals. These events have been officiated by over 100 Young Leaders from the boroughs secondary schools. This is a massive increase from previous years and the increase in numbers has been made possible by Primary schools pooling their Sports Premium funding.

“I would like to thank all of the schools who have hosted events, schools and pupils who have attended and the teachers who have managed and coached all of the teams involved, “added Mercer “I hope to see many of those involved at Sportshall athletics events next year.”